Top ten insights CEOs need to know about GenAI going into 2025

CEOs and C-level executives, including line-of-business leaders managing enterprises, no longer have time for AI hype—they need actionable plans that deliver measurable results.

Every CEO I know has a Gen AI tech trends deck ready for board meetings. They’re all impatient for results.

Gartner’s 2024 Generative AI Planning Survey, published yesterday, reflects how impatient CEOs and their teams are gaining traction with GenAI pilots and AI initiatives. The survey involved 822 business executives from North America, Europe, and Asia/Pacific across eight corporate functions.

Key insights from the GenAI planning survey include the following:

• 11.3% to 19.7% cost savings are expected from GenAI, with the lowest in finance and highest in marketing and HR, as predicted by CEOs and C-level leaders.

• 87% of CEOs/C-suite are driving GenAI adoption in areas like sales and finance, pushing top-down initiatives for implementation.

• Legal departments: 26% rolling out GenAI for contract review in 6 months; already widely used for legal research and analysis.

• 19.7% cost savings in marketing driven by GenAI, making it the most impacted department for efficiency gains.

• 28% of leaders cite technical challenges as the top barrier to GenAI implementation, followed by talent acquisition (26%) and costs (24%).

• 69% of GenAI-advanced companies focus on upskilling staff, while 64% are creating new AI-specific roles to meet talent needs.

Cutting through the hype: What CEOs need to know about GenAI going into next year

Rhetoric into results is the new mantra of the C-suite going into 2025.

That’s especially the case with GenAI.

Board members are worried they’re about to get lapped or, worse, see their companies become gradually irrelevant by competitors who are more focused on making GenAI pay than they are. The greater the acuity and insight of how to turn GenAI into a competitive strength, the greater the speed at which an enterprise executes and gets solid results. Speed isn’t optional anymore, it’s table stakes to compete.

Just as every business needs to keep challenging itself to find new paths to reinvent itself to make AI a competitive strength, the same holds for working professionals. There has never been a better time to double down on new skills and master AI tools, technologies, and knowledge.

The following are ten insights every CEO needs to know about GenAI going into 2025:

• Over the next 12-18 months, GenAI will boost productivity by 22.6%, outpacing revenue growth at 15.8% and cost savings at 15.2%. While cost efficiency and revenue gains matter, the most immediate and substantial impact will be on operational efficiency. Gartner predicts that enterprises that prioritize GenAI integration will see significant increases in both workflow optimization and financial performance.

• 30% of leaders plan to reduce headcount by 3% to 5% in 2024 due to GenAI-driven automation, with an overall average savings of 4.6%. These reductions will primarily affect roles tied to repetitive or manual tasks as organizations seek to streamline operations. Another 18% anticipate more minor cuts of 1% to 3%, while 14% expect deeper reductions of 8% to 10%, signaling that GenAI’s impact will vary by function. Only 10% foresee no layoffs.

• 87% of sales teams are following CEO or C-suite directives to implement GenAI, demonstrating a top-down strategy that prioritizes AI for revenue growth and a more significant competitive advantage. Supply chain (79%) and finance (74%) also see intense executive pressure, indicating that leadership views AI as critical for optimizing operational efficiency and financial management.

• 84% of organizations prioritize embedding GenAI into existing applications as the top method for enabling their use cases, with 34% making it their first choice. Customizing existing models (74%) and training custom models (65%) follow, while only 59% opt for stand-alone tools. Enterprises are focusing on integrating GenAI within their current systems to drive efficiency and impact rather than relying on isolated or siloed solutions.

• HR leads GenAI budget allocation at 7.1%, followed closely by customer service (7.0%) and finance (6.9%). Across functions, business leaders plan to allocate 5.4% to 7.1% of their 2024 budgets to GenAI initiatives, including spending on technology licensing and employee deployment costs. Gartner observes that this shows a solid commitment to embedding GenAI across departments, with HR and customer service prioritizing it for operational efficiency and innovation.

• 54% of C-level executives prioritize privacy concerns as the top GenAI risk, followed closely by misuse (49%) and job displacement fears (48%). These top concerns highlight the critical need for strong governance and risk management frameworks and plans to ensure ethical, secure AI deployment. CEOs need to step up the pace on this now if they’re going to compete in this dimension of their business in 2025.

• According to 28% of leaders, technical implementation, talent acquisition (26%), and governance issues (25%) are the top three barriers to GenAI adoption. North America struggles more with measuring value (30%), while Europe faces higher cultural resistance (24%). These barriers highlight the need for focused strategies to overcome implementation and talent gaps across regions.

• 32% of service-centric industries struggle with measuring value from GenAI initiatives, significantly more than asset-centric industries. The top barriers for both include the cost of running AI, technical implementation (32% each), and getting the necessary talent (28%). To excel, enterprises need to address these common challenges and tailor strategies that overcome sector-specific obstacles, including data availability (28% for service-centric industries).

Source: Gartner’s 2024 Gartner Generative AI Planning Survey

• Customer service leads GenAI adoption with 40% using real-time speech and text translation, followed by marketing (38% with chatbots and digital humans), sales (34% with generative business intelligence), HR (29% for job descriptions and skills data), supply chain (30% for chatbots and code generation), finance (22% for coding assistance), legal/risk (17% for legal research), and procurement (18% for contract lifecycle management).

• 76% of mature AI organizations actively recruit additional headcount for existing roles to meet GenAI talent needs, significantly more than the 52% of less mature organizations. They also prioritize running AI literacy programs (67%) and upskilling staff with GenAI skills (67%) to ensure their workforce remains competitive. Mature organizations are also more likely to create new roles for GenAI (67%) and establish AI centers of excellence (45%), showing their commitment to both talent acquisition and long-term AI capability development.