88% use AI. 37% see profit. 6% are winning.

88% of organizations use AI. 37% see any profit impact from it. 6% get 5% or more of their profit from it.

The numbers

1. Organizations using AI88%

   of organizations use AI.

   Source: Stanford AI Index 2026

2. McKinsey, State of AI 202637%

   see any profit impact from AI.

   Basically unchanged from last year.

   Source: McKinsey State of AI 2026, via FM Magazine

3. Same survey6%

   get 5% or more of their profit from AI. The high performers.

   Also flat year over year.

   Source: McKinsey State of AI 2026, via MarketScale

4. Scaling AI agents in at least one function

   Big companies pull ahead

   Smaller organizations22%flat on last year

   Over $1B revenue40%up from 27%

   Source: McKinsey State of AI 2026, via MarketScale

5. Same survey80%

   say AI has improved their individual productivity.

   Feeling faster and earning more are different things.

   Source: McKinsey State of AI 2026, via MarketScale

Redesign the work, not the tool

1. Change the workflow, not just the tool. My reading: a tool on top of the old process rarely moves profit.
2. Pick a metric before the pilot. Hours saved, tickets closed, errors caught. Not ‘adoption’.
3. Scale one thing. One use case in production beats ten in demo.

Sources

1. Stanford HAI, The 2026 AI Index Report, Apr 2026
2. FM Magazine, summarising McKinsey’s The State of AI in 2026, 1 Sep 2026
3. MarketScale, summarising McKinsey’s The State of AI in 2026, 12 Sep 2026

Which group is your company in? Tell me on LinkedIn or Instagram.