AI is already delivering tangible outcomes across EMEA, with 66% of enterprises in the region reporting significant productivity gains from AI. The potential for further transformation is vast, yet many organizations are struggling to scale their AI efforts and fully realize their return on investment.
Consumers in the EMEA region are increasingly dependent on AI to solve real-world problems and influence their decisions. Companies who lag behind risk losing relevance in a competitive and rapidly changing marketplace. The time for hesitation is over, so how do businesses pivot towards AI adoption with focus and urgency?
Productivity gains from AI
EMEA is already seeing concrete productivity improvements from AI across industries. Businesses are leveraging AI to streamline operations, automate repetitive tasks and enhance decision-making capabilities. IBM’s recent survey, The Race for RIO, revealed distinct areas of success with software development and IT, customer service and procurement leading the pack with 32% of respondents reporting the greatest productivity boosts within these areas of the business.
In terms of size of business and sector, the report also found discrepancies between where the most tangible returns are being seen. Large enterprises are leading the way, with 72% reporting productivity improvements, compared to just 55% of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The research also indicates that public sector are in the earlier stages of realizing AI’s full potential – just over half (55%) reported significant productivity improvements to date whereas larger private sector firms steam ahead.
Accelerating consumer expectations
At the same time, consumer expectations are rapidly changing, impacting the way businesses evolve.
This said, many organizations simply cannot keep up. We are seeing experimentation of AI in pockets but struggle to scale the systems that move the needle. Often, they spread investment too thinly, chasing broad deployment instead of focusing on high-value, high-impact problems. The result is fragmented outcomes, frustrated teams and limited ROI.
Organizations are most successful when they adopt a focused, problem-solving mindset and invest in high-value areas. For instance, integrating agentic AI can allow employees to focus on higher-order work like creative problem-solving and strategy development. Leaders already adopting this approach reported significant time savings (45%) and increased revenue (37%) within just one year of implementation.
Natasha Davydova, CIO at AXA, highlighted key advancements in the insurance industry during the panel discussion, stating: “Certain areas within the sector have already demonstrated significant measurable ROI. For instance, claims processing automation has reduced administrative costs by up to 30%. Fraud detection has seen marked improvements in accuracy, often enabling solutions to pay for themselves within months. Additionally, underwriting has benefited from enhanced risk assessment accuracy, with improvements reaching up to 50%.”
Building trust
Underpinning this hesitation is a deeper concern, trust. In the UK, 63% of people prioritize transparency and control in AI-driven decisions. Businesses share the anxiety, with 68% citing ethical and security concerns as the biggest barriers to scaling. Despite this, only 21% of executives report having mature, systemic, or innovative governance in place. Organizations will need to shift towards an understanding that transparency and governance aren’t barriers to innovation but enablers of it.
With the 2026 UK Algorithmic Transparency Standard coming into play, public organizations will soon have to openly disclose the AI tools they use. Many have established internal “AI Boards” charged with overseeing high-risk use cases, ensuring responsible deployment and building systems that are explainable from the ground up, to prepare for this.
Steps for success
None of this will happen overnight. But the path forward is clear, use AI to unlock real productivity gains, tie into measurable business objectives, and build systems that employees and customers can genuinely trust. Organizations that take this approach will not only see faster ROI, but they’ll also establish the operational backbone needed to stay competitive as AI becomes a critical engine of business. Our next wave of digital leadership will come from those who move with focus now, not from those waiting for perfect conditions.
By Sebastian Weir, executive partner of AI, analytics & automation transformation leader at IBM