“Insurance comes out as one of the stronger sectors in the survey, with solid groundwork in place for using AI. It has clear direction and strong controls around security and risk, however, it is not yet using AI as widely as the top performers. The biggest gap is working with partners outside insurance and reshaping how work gets done across the value chain.Leaders are also seeing bigger cuts in energy use and waste than insurance has achieved so far” PwC’s new AI performance study: Want ROI from AI? Go for growth
A small group of companies is pulling sharply ahead in the race to generate real financial returns from artificial intelligence, according to PwC’s new AI performance study: Want ROI from AI? Go for growth.
The global study interviewed 1,217 senior executives, primarily at large, publicly listed companies across 25 sectors, asking them about the revenue and efficiency gains they are seeing from AI today, alongside questions about how they deploy the technology.
It finds that nearly three‑quarters (74%) of AI’s economic value is captured by just one‑fifth (20%) of organisations, revealing a stark and widening divide between a small group of AI leaders and the majority of businesses still stuck in pilot mode.
The research shows that these top‑performing companies are not simply deploying more AI tools. Instead, they are using AI as a catalyst for growth and business reinvention, particularly by pursuing new revenue opportunities created as industries converge, while building strong foundations around data, governance and trust.
Financial services sector findings
Financial Services is performing better than the average sector on overall AI fitness—thanks to stronger foundations—but it still has ground to make up versus the top AI leaders, especially in how widely AI is being put to work.
Insurance comes out as one of the stronger sectors in the survey, with solid groundwork in place for using AI. It has clear direction and strong controls around security and risk, however, it is not yet using AI as widely as the top performers. The biggest gap is working with partners outside insurance and reshaping how work gets done across the value chain. Leaders are also seeing bigger cuts in energy use and waste than insurance has achieved so far.
Banking and capital markets is also punching above its weight versus most sectors on overall AI readiness, but it’s still playing catch-up with the true AI leaders—especially on turning AI use into real-world impact. Asset and wealth management is sitting in the middle of the pack when it comes to AI readiness.
While its foundations and governance are solid, it’s falling behind other sectors—and the top AI innovators—because it hasn’t yet tapped into AI’s full potential, especially around sector convergence.
Joe Atkinson(in pic), Global Chief AI Officer, PwC, said,“AI is fast becoming a defining source of competitive advantage—but the payoff isn’t automatic. The organisations pulling ahead are the ones using AI to reinvent how they create value, while putting strong governance and trust at the heart of every deployment.”
Arthur Wightman(in pic),Territory Leader, PwC Bermuda,“Growth, not just productivity, separates AI leaders Organisations with the strongest AI performance treat the technology as a reinvention engine, using it to reshape business models and expand beyond traditional industry boundaries. Companies leading on AI report.”
Growth, not just productivity, separates AI leaders
Organisations with the strongest AI performance treat the technology as a reinvention engine, using it to reshape business models and expand beyond traditional industry boundaries. Companies leading on AI report:
-2.6 times as likely as peers to report AI improves their ability to reinvent their business model;
-Two to three times as likely as others to say they use AI to identify and pursue growth opportunities arising from industry convergence, such as collaborating with partners outside their core sector.
PwC’s analysis shows that capturing growth opportunities from industry convergence is the single strongest factor influencing AI driven financial performance, ahead of efficiency gains alone.
Trust and automation combine to delivering outcomes
The research also highlights significant differences in how leading companies deploy AI inside the enterprise. Companies with the best AI-driven financial outcomes are nearly twice as likely as other companies to say they’re using AI in advanced ways: executing multiple tasks within guardrails (1.8x) or operating in autonomous, self-optimising ways (1.9x).
AI leaders are increasing the number of decisions made without human intervention at almost three times (2.8x) the rate of peers.
This automation is enabled by a focus on ‘trust at scale’. AI leaders are more likely than other companies to have mechanisms such as a Responsible AI framework (1.7x as likely as other companies) and a cross-functional AI governance board (1.5x). As a result of their efforts, their employees are twice as likely to trust AI outputs.
A widening gap
Without a shift in approach, the performance gap between AI leaders and laggards is likely to widen further as leading companies continue to learn faster, scale proven use cases and automate decisions safely at scale.