Only 14% of Companies Are Winning with AI — Here’s What They’re Doing Differently
NEW YORK, May 29, 2025 — A new global report by Kyndryl, the world’s largest IT-infrastructure services provider, hangs a stark cloud over the AI opportunity. The report reveals that most organizations are still ill equipped to reap the full benefits of AI interventions.
The 2025 People Readiness Report, wherein it collected responses from over 1,000 senior business and technology leaders from 25 industries in eight regions, reveals that 71% say their workforces are not well prepared to make use of AI, while 51% believe that there is an insufficient supply of talent. Quite shockingly, 45% of CEOs believe their employees are resistant and even hostile toward AI uptake!
“Only a small group of businesses have been able to harness AI successfully for business growth,” said Michael Bradshaw, Global Practice Leader for Applications, Data and AI at Kyndryl. “This report shows that while data architecture and technology infrastructure are key pieces of the puzzle, organizations that do not prioritize their workforces will miss out.”
This harsh discrepancy in workforce readiness exists in a scenario where 95% of businesses have been investing in AI technologies. Yet it is only a small 14%, called “AI Pacesetters,” that have aligned the wave of AI deployment with workforce strategy to reap bona fide ROI and innovations.
The Pacesetters stand out further because they have cracked the code on three big barriers. The first barrier is change management; Pacesetters are significantly more likely to have implemented change management initiatives to utilize AI when integrating it into day-to-day workflows.
Second, concerns about employee resistance arose less frequently among them, highlighting employee trust in AI in the organizations. Third, Pacesetters have more mature methods and tools to assess the current skills in their workforce and address the gap strategically. In fact, 40% of Pacesetters said that they actually face no significant skills challenges.
“Preparing your workforce for the era of AI is easy to say, hard to do and an urgent imperative for business leaders,” said Maryjo Charbonnier, Chief Human Resources Officer at Kyndryl. “At Kyndryl, we run an entire ecosystem of culture and systems that readies our people and our business for continuous change. It’s about anticipating the business impacts of AI, understanding and integrating your skill data with your customer demand and having a multi-pronged approach for equipping employees to build the skills they need and learn to effectively use generative AI tools in their work.”
The study also reveals a leadership disconnect: CEOs are 2.5 times more likely than CIOs to say their infrastructure is not AI-ready, and tend to prefer hiring external talent over upskilling existing employees.
“The encouraging news is that businesses that can get alignment at the top are not only marching in the same direction, but are seeing benefits,” said Kim Basile, Chief Information Officer at Kyndryl. “This work isn’t easy, but aligning technology strategies with broader business goals is the top action leaders need to take to fully benefit from AI.”
With AI moving fast, the message is clear: companies that don’t prepare their people risk falling behind.
Latest Stories
This AI Will Handle 68% of Customer Support by 2028 — and It’s Smarter Than You Think
Thailand’s Manufacturing AI Crisis: New TDRI-SAP Whitepaper Warns of Missed Thailand 4.0 Go
AI to Empower 77,000 Workers? Infosys and E.ON’s Bold Digital Workplace Transformation Revealed
