A McKinsey survey of nearly 2,000 business leaders published late last year landed on a number that should stop any executive in their tracks: 88% of organizations are now using AI in at least one business function. That's up from 78% just a year prior.
Here's the uncomfortable part: most of them aren't seeing it in their bottom line yet.
Only 39% of respondents reported any measurable EBIT impact from AI. The gap between organizations that are experimenting with AI and those that are actually profiting from it comes down to one thing — how deeply the tools are integrated into the way work actually gets done.
The difference between dabbling and winning
McKinsey's data is clear on what separates high performers from everyone else: they don't just add AI tools on top of existing workflows. They redesign the workflows around the tools. High-performing organizations are three times more likely to say AI is being used to bring about transformative change — not just incremental efficiency gains.
For small and mid-sized businesses, that's actually an advantage. You don't have the bureaucratic inertia of a 10,000-person enterprise. You can move fast.
Where SMBs are seeing real results right now
The use cases aren't exotic. They're practical, repeatable, and applicable to almost any professional services firm, manufacturer, or healthcare organization operating in Southern California today:
Sales teams are using AI to research prospects, draft outreach, summarize call notes, and build proposals in a fraction of the time. One well-prompted AI assistant can do the prep work of a junior sales coordinator.
Marketing and communications — drafting, editing, repurposing, and scheduling content that used to require an agency or a full-time hire. AI handles the volume; your team handles the voice and strategy.
Executive productivity — meeting prep, follow-up summaries, briefing documents, competitive research, board presentation drafts. The executives getting the most out of AI treat it like a chief of staff that never sleeps.
Operations and compliance teams — document creation, policy drafting, spreadsheet analysis, and audit preparation. Tools like Microsoft Copilot, which is already included in most Microsoft 365 business subscriptions, handle the repetitive document work so your team focuses on judgment calls.
The tool isn't the hard part
The tools are accessible, increasingly affordable, and in many cases already sitting inside subscriptions you're paying for. Microsoft Copilot is bundled into Microsoft 365 Business Premium. Claude is available for individuals and teams. The barrier isn't access — it's knowing which tool fits which workflow and actually training your team to use it that way.
That last step is where most organizations stall. They run a demo, get excited, and then watch adoption quietly die over the next 30 days because nobody changed how work actually happens.
The organizations winning with AI right now aren't the ones with the biggest technology budgets. They're the ones with the clearest picture of where time is being wasted — and the willingness to do something about it.
Wondering where AI could actually move the needle in your organization?That's a conversation we're built for.
Source: McKinsey & Company, "The State of AI in 2025: Agents, Innovation, and Transformation"