Proof over Promise Insights on Real World AI Adoption from 2025 MINDS Organizations 2026

Key insights from MINDS organizations2 AI creates value when it becomes a core asset, augments people, uses strong data and builds trust. As organizations move beyond isolated AI experiments towards enterprise-wide transformation, distinct patterns emerge in how they integrate AI into their strategies, operations and workforce. Drawing from the examples of the MINDS organizations, several common shifts illustrate how AI is evolving from a technical capability to a source of long-term value creation. The most advanced MINDS organizations are shifting from viewing AI as a tactical tool to a strategic capability embedded across the entire organization that shapes purpose and long-term impact. They are not asking, “Where can AI fit?” but rather, “How can AI help us reimagine novel business models to enable new forms of competitive advantage?”. In practice, this starts with leaders rethinking core processes to maximize the value from AI. AI objectives are now being embedded into team goals, and progress is being reviewed regularly to encourage active participation and balance top-down business outcomes and bottom-up innovation.Success with AI comes from balancing short- term gains with long-horizon AI investments Sustaining AI strategies requires balancing investments in proven, short-term ROI initiatives with longer-term, higher -risk bets that take time to mature but can reshape how organizations operate and compete. About 75% of applicants to the MINDS programme reinvest returns from current AI projects to expand adoption into new functions and fund strategic goals, while maintaining dedicated budgets for initiatives where ROI is still emerging. By linking AI initiatives to long-term goals, organizations are moving beyond pilots and incremental gains, adapting AI to scale by creating new ways to innovate and amplify the impact of individual solutions across the organization (see Spotlight 1).2.1 Insight 1: Harnessing AI as a core part of how organizations work Organizations are asking: “How can AI help us reimagine novel business models to enable new forms of competitive advantage?”. 12 Proof over Promise: Insights on Real-World AI Adoption from 2025 MINDS Organizations