McKinsey's AI Report(s)

Author

Geoff Hopkins
April 08, 2025

This edition, we're diving into two eye-opening McKinsey reports that redefine how AI should be treated in modern orgs. Spoiler: it’s not just a tool—it’s a leadership lever. From workflow redesign to millennial-led adoption, here’s what matters and what to act on now. Additionally, there is a link to a process that can help score your AI and automation idea. Check it out!

🧠 AI: No Longer a Side Hustle

Two powerhouse reports—The State of AI and Superagency in the Workplace—just dropped one unmistakable truth:
AI isn’t a tech experiment anymore. It’s a leadership priority, a process redesign mandate, and a competitive differentiator.

What stood out?

🔹 When the CEO owns AI, ROI follows.
AI governance at the top leads to the biggest returns. Delegating to IT or Innovation teams? That’s not cutting it.

🔹 You can’t duct-tape AI to legacy workflows.
Real gains come when AI is embedded at the core of how work gets done—not bolted on after the fact. McKinsey’s data backs what we’ve seen in infra and M&A work: redesign beats retrofit.

🔹 Your team’s already ahead of you.
Employees are 3x more likely to use generative AI regularly than leadership believes. That’s a gap—and a massive opportunity for enablement and structured rollout.

🔹 Risk plans are evolving, but ethics are lagging.
Cyber and privacy risks are being addressed, but ethical governance? Still early days. This is the next frontier of maturity.

🔹 Millennials are your stealth AI champions.
Ages 35–44 are the most AI-fluent and eager to scale impact. Equip them—they’re already doing the work.

The message is clear: AI maturity isn’t just about tools. It’s about embedding AI in leadership, processes, and culture.

📚 Worth reading with a highlighter:

Want help turning these insights into action for your org? Let’s talk AI roadmaps,
governance models, and workflow re-architecture.

🧠 New Tool: Is That AI Bot Worth Building?

Before sinking hours into automation, run your idea through this AI-Assisted ROI Evaluator. Just describe your idea for a bot in plain English — it scores your concept using a high-ROI framework and tells you if it’s a No-Go, Prototype, or Build It.

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