CIO: Is declining AI maturity a sign of progress?

Dave Wright, Rachael Sandel, Brian Solis

through CIO Online, Dave Wright and Brian Solis

At first look, the central discovering within the newly launched ServiceNow and Oxford Economics’ 2025 Enterprise AI Maturity Index examine appears shocking: on a 100-point scale, the common AI maturity rating dropped 9 factors from final yr. With a lot consideration, focus and funding in AI, how is it potential that companies have fallen behind?

The explanations are relatable however telling. The pace of AI is overwhelming and shifting quicker than most organizations can sustain. In 2022, OpenAI launched the world to generative AI. By 2024-2025, AI brokers took over the highlight. Now, agentic AI is the brand new rage. On the identical time, AI complexity mixed with the uncertainty round unproven pilots and the inherent limitations of primary use instances is holding again firms all over the world, and throughout each trade. Naturally, they’re extra reserved and transfer cautiously.

There are additionally these leaders who see uncertainty as a catalyst for locating solutions and a possibility for curiosity, exploration and creativeness. This group is motivated to hurry up, to problem their assumptions and discover bolder, extra bold pilots that transfer the needle. In doing so, they broaden their views and force-function the flexibility to uncover extra impactful AI use instances and outcomes. ServiceNow calls these progressive leaders AI Pacesetters.

AAt first look, the central discovering within the newly launched ServiceNow and Oxford Economics’ 2025 Enterprise AI Maturity Index examine appears shocking: on a 100-point scale, the common AI maturity rating dropped 9 factors from final yr. With a lot consideration, focus and funding in AI, how is it potential that companies have fallen behind?

The explanations are relatable however telling. The pace of AI is overwhelming and shifting quicker than most organizations can sustain. In 2022, OpenAI launched the world to generative AI. By 2024-2025, AI brokers took over the highlight. Now, agentic AI is the brand new rage. On the identical time, AI complexity mixed with the uncertainty round unproven pilots and the inherent limitations of primary use instances is holding again firms all over the world, and throughout each trade. Naturally, they’re extra reserved and transfer cautiously.

There are additionally these leaders who see uncertainty as a catalyst for locating solutions and a possibility for curiosity, exploration and creativeness. This group is motivated to hurry up, to problem their assumptions and discover bolder, extra bold pilots that transfer the needle. In doing so, they broaden their views and force-function the flexibility to uncover extra impactful AI use instances and outcomes. ServiceNow calls these progressive leaders AI Pacesetters.

What does it imply to be low or excessive in AI maturity?

The examine measured organizations throughout 5 pillars of maturity:

• AI technique and management
• Workflow integration
• Expertise and workforce
• AI governance
• Realizing worth in AI funding

Early enterprise maturity begins when firms start to grasp AI and discover how it may be used of their firm, whereas full maturity entails transformation, when an organization’s AI imaginative and prescient is concentrated on innovation and transformational funding.

The decline in AI maturity discovered within the 2025 Enterprise AI Maturity Index illustrates that, throughout the board, firms are struggling to maintain up with the tempo of change. In additional learning the information and talking with firms, we additionally know that they’re constrained by the restricted use instances and examples of firms bucking the pattern and breaking floor. In consequence, the overwhelming majority of companies are within the early phases of AI maturity.

The decline in maturity additionally speaks to a actuality verify throughout firms. The relentless focus and hype round AI pressured everybody to behave on the know-how and behave as in the event that they knew precisely what they needed to do with it. However as AI retains advancing and agentic AI has opened up ever extra prospects, executives are realizing they aren’t absolutely certain what they wish to do with AI.

This all comes with an enormous upside: It’s nonetheless early and it isn’t too late to make progress.

Studying from an AI Pacesetter

So, if we all know AI has the potential to rework lives, work, companies and markets, however we additionally acknowledge how a lot must be completed to understand the alternatives, then what are executives to do? Some firms are extra superior of their AI maturity, providing a sensible roadmap. These AI Pacesetters scored nine points higher in maturity and have been way more prone to report improved experiences, effectivity and quicker innovation from their AI options.

To be taught what pacesetters are doing in a different way, we frolicked with Rachael Sandel, the group chief info officer at Orica. Sandel and her workforce just lately gained a ServiceNow 2025 Pacesetter Award for his or her efforts in main AI developments. In our dialog, she recognized seven steps that have been essential to Orica’s AI method:

Embed and align your AI technique along with your current know-how and innovation methods slightly than ranging from scratch. As an alternative of a standalone AI technique, align your AI technique to your know-how roadmap and deal with incorporating AI into the assorted know-how streams and features. This alignment helps the supply of collective targets, together with security, productiveness and sustainability.

Modernize your know-how platforms to create a strong basis for benefiting from AI.

Kind separate AI teams with distinct members so you possibly can guarantee key AI duties are dealt with whereas concentrating your group’s AI expertise, data, decision-making and oversight. These teams ought to embody:

• A devoted AI Middle of Excellence with cross-business illustration that leads AI thought management, evaluating and prioritizing concepts.
• An AI Council of senior leaders who’re targeted holistically and excessive degree on danger, insurance policies, initiatives and decision-making.

Prioritize governance by establishing rules and pointers in alignment along with your core values; implementing a governance framework with a gaggle commonplace and danger administration method; and establishing three separate traces of governance by way of the AI Middle of Excellence, AI Council and inside audits.

Promote expertise in AI by hiring curious and adaptable people whereas offering coaching and upskilling alternatives; consolidating expertise into the AI Middle of Excellence; and mixing expertise change with administration change to assist adapt to know-how adjustments. Individuals should be taught to work with this know-how in a different way, in addition to regulate to totally different processes and working fashions.

Think about and plan for the way forward for work with AI brokers by extending pilot tasks and integrating AI brokers into enterprise techniques to spice up productiveness and reveal worth right this moment. On the identical time, prioritize imagining and planning for a future the place there’s widespread adoption of AI options to rework enterprise processes and AI brokers carry out duties alongside people, orchestrating throughout platforms and knowledge sources and collaborating with different brokers, remodeling how we work.

The steps Sandel describes deal with making a strong basis when it comes to know-how, folks, governance and management. Following these steps might help a corporation absolutely harness AI’s potential whereas navigating the dangers and complexities ensuing from a know-how revolution accelerating at an unprecedented tempo.

From an AI technique to a metamorphosis technique

As we speak, most companies are targeted on acquainted methods, with AI added to the remit. How are we going to implement AI in our work? How can I exploit AI to automate repetitive duties, summarize actions and highlight extra related outcomes? How can I exploit it to deflect calls, optimize my provide chain, enhance vendor or worker onboarding, and many others.? However the questions that Sandel and the Orica workforce are asking look past the established order and as a substitute search to resolve actual issues, drive transformation and obtain enterprise influence. AI needs to be a software to attain an organizational imaginative and prescient slightly than deploying AI for its personal sake. And that begins with having and articulating a ‘visionary’ imaginative and prescient.

After we think about this greater technique, we needs to be open to questioning the whole lot and recognizing that the total potential of AI won’t occur with out true transformation. And that transformation begins from inside. There’s a vital, measurable distinction between “having a imaginative and prescient” and “being visionary.” The latter entails questioning why one thing needs to be completed, not simply how we do it. The place we are going to find yourself on this AI maturity journey is determined by going past the constructs of right this moment with AI to enhance work and unlock new ranges of innovation.