--- title: "McKinsey Just Dropped Their 2025 AI Report — Here’s What It Really Means - In Parallel" description: "AI is everywhere — 88% of companies now use it in at least one business function.But here’s the catch: 67% are still stuck in pilot mode. McKinsey calls out a widening gap between AI activity and AI impact." url: https://www.in-parallel.com/insight/mckinsey-just-dropped-their-2025-ai-report-here-s-what-it-really-means --- Opinion # McKinsey Just Dropped Their 2025 AI Report — Here’s What It Really Means 90% of companies “use AI,” but only a handful are seeing real business results. The difference? Routines — not hype. McKinsey Just Dropped Their 2025 AI Report — Here’s What It Really Means Published November 10, 2025 Kristian Luoma Co-founder, CPO kristian@in-parallel.com [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/kluoma/) Contents ### **The AI Reality Check** McKinsey’s _State of AI 2025_ report is clear: AI is everywhere — **88% of organizations now use AI in at least one business function**, up from just 20% in 2017. But behind the headlines, there’s a quiet truth: **most of it isn’t working.** - **67%** of organizations are still stuck in “pilot mode.” - **62%** are experimenting with AI agents, but only **23%** have scaled them. - **64%** say AI drives innovation, yet only **39%** see measurable profit impact. - **51%** have already seen AI backfire, often due to bad data or unclear processes. AI adoption is mainstream — but transformation isn’t. Most companies are still in what McKinsey calls _“corporate AI theater.”_ For the full McKinsey report, please see: [https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/our-insights/the-state-of-ai](https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/our-insights/the-state-of-ai) ### **What the Leaders Do Differently** McKinsey identifies a small group of outperformers — roughly **6% of organizations** — that are pulling ahead. They’re not winning because of better models. They’re winning because of **better systems.** 1. **They rebuild workflows, not just automate them.** They don’t tack AI onto old processes. They redesign how work gets done from the ground up. 2. **They think in growth loops, not tasks.** The goal isn’t just efficiency — it’s compounding learning and better decisions. 3. **They fund AI like strategy, not side projects.** No endless pilots. They commit, iterate, and operationalize. 4. **Their leaders are hands-on.** When executives personally use AI in their own routines, they’re 3× more likely to scale it successfully. ### **Why Routines Are the Missing Link** At **In Parallel**, we believe the real bridge between AI and impact isn’t technology — it’s **routines**. Work shouldn’t depend on memory or willpower. Most managers spend their days trying to remember what was said, who’s doing what, and whether anything actually happened after the meeting. Context lives across Slack threads, docs, and calendars — and by midweek, everyone’s already rebuilding the same picture of reality. That’s not a lack of discipline. It’s that **management itself hasn’t evolved.** AI routines change that. They **connect AI to your existing ways of working** — your meetings, projects, and tools — and quietly create the connective tissue your organization is missing. Before a meeting, AI routines surface the key updates and context you need. During, they capture decisions and next steps automatically. After, they follow up, update plans, and keep everyone aligned — without another status meeting. Every routine compounds what your team learns. It builds shared memory. It reduces mental load. It transforms coordination from chaos into clarity. That’s how AI stops being a side experiment — and starts becoming a **system that runs your business.** ### **From AI Theater to AI Rhythm** The McKinsey data shows that even as AI agents become mainstream, few companies have rewired how work actually flows. Routines are how you get there. They turn meetings into momentum. They let leaders lead instead of chase updates. They make AI something your team _feels_ — not just something the CIO reports. It’s not about a transcriber that remembers what was said. It’s about a management system that remembers what matters — the decisions, dependencies, and progress that drive your strategy forward. ### **The Takeaway** AI adoption is easy. AI transformation is hard. Routines make it doable. They give teams rhythm, not just automation. They connect AI to reality — the messy, human, collaborative work that actually makes companies move. If you’re ready to move from pilots to performance, start with a routine. 👉 **Let’s design your first AI routine.** [Book a 20-minute conversation →](https://in-parallel.com/) ### Get insights like this in your inbox One email per week on execution intelligence, team coordination, and enterprise AI. No fluff. By subscribing you agree to our [Privacy Policy](https://www.in-parallel.com/privacy-policy). Unsubscribe anytime. [Back to all insights](https://www.in-parallel.com/insight) [Book a demo](https://www.in-parallel.com/demo) ## Related articles The Coordination Tax — Richard H. Carson on how change actually works Leadership Insights · Oct 20, 2026 ### You Either Manage Change or It Manages You: Richard H. Carson on how change actually works Richard H. Carson, PhD — 40 years inside county governments, regional planning agencies, nonprofits, and the state of Oregon — on why every organization has a risk manager but almost none has a change manager, and what that asymmetry costs. A rope suspension bridge over a dark river towards the fells, drawn in pen and watercolour AI in Business · Oct 9, 2026 ### AI-Assisted or AI-Native: The Bridge Is Shared Context At a CIO data event in Espoo, HumanX in Amsterdam and a post-merger integration forum, large companies explained how they brought AI in by mapping processes and fitting AI into the gaps. That keeps a structure built around human limits. Getting to AI-native means rebuilding information flows into shared context first. The Coordination Tax — Adam Christing on humor as leadership Leadership Insights · Oct 7, 2026 ### You Can't Fix Culture With a Mission Statement: Adam Christing on humor as leadership Adam Christing — professional master of ceremonies, founder of Clean Comedians, and author of The Laughter Factor — on why culture is a feeling rather than a statement, and why humor is the fastest way for a leader to shift it. The Coordination Tax — Jennifer Recla on the urgency mindset breaking your team Leadership Insights · Sep 22, 2026 ### Urgency Isn't Leadership. It's Addiction: Jennifer Recla on the mindset breaking your team Jennifer Recla — leadership coach who has worked with hundreds of leaders across nonprofits, mission-driven organizations, and large financial institutions — on the urgency mindset behind most organizational chaos, and why most leaders have no idea how much of it they're creating themselves. The Coordination Tax — Barry Wolfe on value-centric leadership Leadership Insights · Sep 15, 2026 ### HR Is the Last Line of Defense Against Chaos: Barry Wolfe on value-centric leadership Barry Wolfe — HR consultant, founder of Argos HR, and author of It's All in Your Head — on why HR is the last line of defense against organizational chaos, why every role needs 3–5 clear value outcomes, and why the foundation of a well-run company is one document under 300 words. Two colleagues sharing one open binder — context handed over at the resolution the other person needs Leadership Insights · Sep 9, 2026 ### Your Job Is Already Context Management On The Coordination Tax, Stanford's Robert E. Siegel put it as an equation: truth equals facts plus context. Facts are cheap now. Context is not. Read the manager's week against that equation and the 16.5 hours a week lost to coordination stop looking like overhead — they are context management, performed manually, by the most expensive person in the room. The Coordination Tax — Alberto Torres on surviving disruption Leadership Insights · Sep 8, 2026 ### You Can't Sword-Fight a Bullet: Alberto Torres on surviving disruption Alberto Torres — former Nokia executive, ex-McKinsey partner, and author of The Z Curve — on what actually happened at Nokia, why great peace-time leaders quietly fail in war-time, and what every company facing AI right now should learn from the companies that got disruption right. The Coordination Tax — Olivia Montgomery on why decisions belong lower in the org Leadership Insights · Sep 1, 2026 ### Your Leadership Doesn't Know What's Going On: Olivia Montgomery on why decisions belong lower in the org Olivia Montgomery — principal analyst at Data Frame and former Gartner researcher — on why every layer up the org chart knows less about what's really going on, and why the fix isn't more visibility for leadership but pushing decisions down two or three levels. The Coordination Tax — Craig Denison on the founder's hardest transition Leadership Insights · Aug 25, 2026 ### You Don't Get to Be the Rock Star Anymore: Craig Denison on the founder's hardest transition Craig Denison — head of growth at The Table Group (Patrick Lencioni's firm) and founder of Green Thumb Consulting — on the transition every founder hits when execution stops running through their brain, and why 99% of the time the founder is creating the dysfunction they are trying to fix. A manager mid-explanation, watch visible — the hour spent re-explaining context AI in Business · Aug 24, 2026 ### AI Saves a Day a Week. The Coordination Tax Collects It. BCG's fourth AI at Work survey found 42% of regular frontline AI users save at least a full workday every week, and that two-thirds get little or no guidance on what to do with it. The usual reading is that leaders forgot to give direction. The better reading is that the hours were already spoken for. AI compresses the work; it doesn't touch the work about the work.