Capgemini report finds top 10 ways enterprises are harnessing the value of GenAI
Eighty percent of enterprises have increased their investment in GenAI over the past year, with nearly one-quarter (24%) now integrating the technology into their operations, up from just 6% in the previous year.
Capgemini Research Institute’s recent report, Harnessing the value of generative AI: 2nd edition: Top use cases across sectors, highlights enterprises’ accelerating pace of GenAI adoption and growing importance across their operations and industries.
“Generative AI is not just a technological innovation; it’s a catalyst for transformative change across multiple sectors, driving productivity gains, operational efficiency, and strategic shifts in business models,” write the report’s authors. Enterprise leaders’ sentiment underscores the increasing recognition of GenAI as a critical technology for staying competitive in an increasingly turbulent economic environment.
According to the report, GenAI’s rapid adoption across IT and marketing indicates that companies are actively integrating it into their core operations to drive tangible, measurable benefits. Capgemini’s findings highlight the need for a strong data governance framework, strategic talent development, and vigilant cybersecurity to maximize GenAI’s potential as companies scale their initiatives.
How enterprises are maximizing GenAI’s value
Capgemini found ten key ways enterprises are positioning themselves to maximize GenAI’s potential. These strategies demonstrate how all companies can potentially invest in and integrate GenAI to boost growth, efficiency, and innovation across departments and industries.
Investment surge reflects growing confidence in GenAI. 89% of large businesses with annual revenues over $20 billion are leading this investment surge, highlighting GenAI’s significance for future growth. Additionally, 73% of companies with revenues between $1 billion and $5 billion have significantly increased their GenAI budgets, showing that this trend is not limited to the largest companies. This investment trend indicates that many companies believe GenAI can drive enterprise evolution and deliver substantial returns, with many expecting double-digit productivity and customer engagement growth.
GenAI maturity grows steadily across industries. GenAI implementations have continued to mature across industry sectors over the past year. Up from 6% in 2023, 18% of organizations will fully integrate GenAI into most or all functions in 2024. With 64% and 53% of companies enabling GenAI, high-tech and financial services lead. Retail grew 17%–40% and industrial manufacturing 14%–35%. With 53% and 47% of telecom and energy/utilities adopting GenAI, respectively, progress has been made.
GenAI’s integration across organizational functions is growing. In one year, GenAI IT adoption rose from 4% to 27% across organizational functions. GenAI is improving enterprise productivity and innovation through this broad integration across sales, marketing, operations, and R&D. Capgemini also found that GenAI is transforming operations and creating value across all business areas.
Productivity and customer engagement gains. Over the last year, organizations that have implemented GenAI have reported a 7.8% increase in productivity and a 6.7% increase in customer engagement. These tangible benefits demonstrate GenAI’s ability to provide real, measurable value to enterprises. Early adopters report significant improvements in key performance metrics, highlighting the strategic importance of incorporating GenAI into business operations.
Small Language Models (SLM) are gaining momentum. 24% of organizations have implemented SLMs, and 56% plan to do so within three years. These models are cheaper and less computationally intensive than larger AI models, so many companies are piloting and eventually moving them into production. SLMs excel in industry-specific applications, allowing businesses to harness AI’s potential without the infrastructure and resource demands of larger models. SLMs are becoming a good option for companies trying to compete in an AI-driven market as they seek efficient and scalable AI solutions.
GenAI is enabling enterprises to advance from chatbots to autonomous multi-agent systems. GenAI is helping 62% of organizations upgrade from chatbots to AI agents that autonomously manage complex goals. 48% of users use multi-agent systems, where AI agents operate independently in changing environments. As businesses automate and optimize complex processes with these systems, decision-making and operational efficiency improve across industries. AI has evolved from simple user interactions to complex, agentic use cases, as shown in the image.
GenAI agents are accelerating the shift to autonomous operations. GenAI agents are increasingly used in enterprise automation, with 82% of companies planning to implement them in 1–3 years. These agents are evolving from supportive tools to autonomous entities that can perform complex tasks without interaction. This shift is significant, with 71% of organizations expecting AI agents to automate workflows and 64% expecting customer service and productivity improvements. AI agents are not just efficient; they are a radical shift toward fully autonomous, AI-driven operations that will transform enterprise productivity and strategic decision-making.
GenAI is forcing major business strategy shifts. 54% of companies expect GenAI to improve their strategies, up from 39% in 2023. 40% of companies are revising their business models to stay competitive as GenAI becomes more important. As GenAI becomes more important, 74% of businesses believe they must use it to grow revenue and stay ahead of the competition.
Strengthening data foundations is crucial for GenAI’s success. More than 60% of companies realize GenAI’s potential depends on solid data foundations. Only 51% have documented data integration processes and 46% have AI data management policies. Even enterprises that have adopted GenAI still struggle to make the most of all their external data sources. Capgemini makes it clear that for GenAI initiatives to succeed, companies need scalable, secure data infrastructure.
Tighten AI controls or risk trust and compliance. Ethics in AI deployment is a priority for 57% of organizations, which recognize the need for control mechanisms that can flex and adapt as their business goals change. While 46% have clear AI governance frameworks, 73% agree that human oversight is necessary to validate AI-driven decisions. Without strong governance, bias, and accountability issues could counteract GenAI’s benefits, so organizations must act now.
Conclusion
With 80% of organizations increasing their investment and almost a quarter already including it in their operations, GenAI is fast changing how businesses run. This general acceptance emphasizes GenAI’s importance as a main engine of efficiency and creativity, providing real advantages in customer interaction and output.
Organizations are not only embracing GenAI as AI agents and Small Language Models (SLMs) acquire traction; they are also including GenAI in their basic strategies. Those who match GenAI with their business models, make investments in solid data foundations, and develop the knowledge required to maximize its possibilities will inherit the future. They will lead in the era of artificial intelligence by doing this, establishing new benchmarks for operational excellence and creativity.
