The companies that are truly innovating with AI aren’t winning just because of the tech they use—those tools are broadly available. Their advantage comes from how, and how fast, they apply technology to solving real business problems at scale. That requires new organizational capabilities that take time to build.
In the end, those capabilities become the true long-lasting competitive advantage that enables these companies to sustain a higher rate of innovation with technology.
Game-changing impact with AI is already a reality
Our most recent State of AI report reveals that 94 percent of businesses have yet to create meaningful value.1 The math is unforgiving, and it underscores the skepticism that many boards and top teams have in making the level of investment necessary for successful business transformation with AI.
A small number of companies, however, have shown radically different outcomes. For each of the companies we studied, we reviewed the transformation road map and financial outcomes. We also interviewed select executives to gather additional details and insights. This analysis helped us answer important questions we are frequently asked about the economics of successful business transformation with tech and AI (exhibit).
Exhibit
These leading companies shared the following notable traits:
The ability of an organization to harness technology for business value is the competitive advantage, not the technology itself. We identified six core capabilities that successful companies build.
These six capabilities do not operate independently; they reinforce each other. They also take time to build. Our four exemplar companies have been at this for more than five years, and they are still at it. No company becomes an overnight AI success. But once a company has developed these capabilities, it has a real competitive moat.
A C-suite team that gets AI
A C-suite that understands AI is the most significant driver of success.
Successful top management teams understand that to create value with technology, they must focus their AI efforts where it matters, and they must use AI in a competitively differentiated way. Doing so requires strategic creativity to see what others do not. That’s hard.
At DBS Bank, the top team spent significant time in Silicon Valley and with digital natives to understand what truly differentiated high-performing tech firms—not tools, but capabilities: modern engineering practices, platform-based architectures, data at scale, agile ways of working, and a culture of continuous experimentation. This wasn’t a superficial benchmarking exercise; it led to a fundamental reframing of DBS’s technology operating model. The result was a multiyear commitment to build these capabilities systematically so that technology could consistently drive speed, innovation, and customer value.
This work cannot be assigned to a single executive or delegated further down the organization. This is the hard work that the top team must undertake, together.
Leaders on the front lines of change who have tech and AI muscles
Because AI is so deeply embedded in a company’s operations and workflows, harvesting value from AI requires leaders who combine deep domain expertise, an understanding of technology and data, and an ability to orchestrate end-to-end change.
When Freeport decided to go all-in on its leaching optimization system, it tapped a leader with both experience in operationalizing AI-based solutions and credibility in processing operations. It relocated him to be the general manager of its leaching operation. As effectively the domain owner, he led the development of the AI system, integrated the different technology solutions into business operations, and was ultimately accountable for the business outcomes.
This is a consistent finding in our success stories: There is always a senior business leader3 who leads and integrates business, technology, and the change management aspects to achieve breakthrough outcomes. Of all the AI upskilling programs a company might launch, none will be more strategic and impactful than developing tech-capable business leaders.4 This is where companies that are leading with AI today are devoting serious effort
An operating model built for speed
Rewired organizations embed tech delivery capabilities in the business to drive more effective and faster innovation cycles. They build platform capabilities to maximize reuse and support faster business innovation. DBS Bank organizes work around end-to-end customer journeys such as opening an account, buying a home, or securing small business financing. Cross-functional teams are aligned to these journeys and are accountable for delivering seamless customer outcomes across channels and products. Rather than working within functional silos, these teams orchestrate capabilities from the underlying platforms (more on platforms below) to solve specific customer needs. The benefit is sharper customer focus with faster cycle time, better conversion, and increased customer satisfaction.
The bank is also structured around a set of enterprise platforms such as payments, customer data, onboarding, and credit. Each platform brings together business, technology, and operations and is funded as a long-term asset rather than a series of projects. These platforms build reusable capabilities—APIs, data assets, and services—that can be leveraged across multiple parts of the bank. The benefit is scale and speed.
This is what we call a distributed operating model because teams close to the business can build, test, and improve solutions iteratively. Every success story we have documented has a version of this operating model, yet only 10 percent of companies have adopted one.5 Why? Rearchitecting a company around such a model requires vision and resolve.
‘Technology as a platform’ to power the enterprise
When LATAM Airlines was embarking on its transformation journey, it made a deliberate decision to build customer-facing capabilities separately from its legacy core and in the cloud. This was not simply a technology choice; it was a strategic architectural commitment. The new digital organization was designed to be API-first and modular from the outset, with reusable components and open integration layers.
Because solutions were built API-first and modularly, they could be reused across channels and geographies. An order-change capability developed for the web could be deployed to the app, contact center, or WhatsApp without rebuilding core logic. When scaling to new markets with different payment systems and regulatory constraints, LATAM used abstraction layers to integrate or swap external systems without destabilizing the platform. What could have become a patchwork of local customizations remained coherent.
Well-architected technology platforms accelerate everything: product launches, automation, data reuse, AI deployment, resilience, and more. Weak platforms slow everything down and tax the business with hidden costs through complexity, fragility, long cycle times, and dependence on a few heroic individuals who “know how the system works.”
The shift from siloed systems to platforms is one of the most important strategic capabilities that rewired companies have built. If you aspire to be a CEO—or remain an effective one—you must treat your technology platforms with the same rigor and ownership as your business strategy or succession plan.
