RESEARCH REPORT
Going for growth
Navigating the great value migration in the age of AI
5-MINUTE READ
September 4, 2024
In brief
- Despite early positive signals surrounding AI's potential, many companies remain in search of the full commercial impact and AI growth opportunity.
- Growth is no longer solely a function of strengthening core business capabilities...instead AI is radically changing where value is found and pursued.
- Companies that pursue AI-enabled growth strategies along three growth horizons stand to significantly outperform their peers.
The growth potential for companies delivering AI-based solutions and services to corporate buyers is clear. The return for the great majority of other Global 2000 companies is less so. But the success to date of top-performing AI adopters serves as an indicator of the potential growth opportunities available from AI and gen AI for everyone else.
For example, Accenture analysis reveals that, since 2022, companies with the greatest AI maturity have been growing 3 percentage points more (or 4.7x) year over year than companies with the least maturity.
Business leaders and investors are confident that AI is here to stay. They aren't investing in it as an antidote to market disruption; rather they proactively embrace AI as a strategy to gain insights and activate entirely new growth models. And while cost optimization and efficiency have been AI’s early business headliners, AI is proving its potential to elevate competitiveness, expand markets, and deliver exponential growth for companies. These opportunities enhance core business activities and customer experiences, enable reaching new customers in new ways, and facilitate the development of new offerings and revenue models.
Companies that effectively adopt and apply AI will find and capture new growth opportunities across three horizons, providing a pathway to tangible value for companies.
15%
Companies that successfully pursue AI-fueled reinvention have delivered top-line performance 15% more than their peers—a figure that’s expected to more than double by 2026.
3x
Companies with differentiated AI strategies operationalized for value experienced a 3x increase in total shareholder return over a 5-year period.
67%
It's estimated that growth and expansion will be the dominant goal of AI at 67% of companies by 20291.
Three horizons for AI-fueled growth
With AI at their disposal, savvy business leaders can embrace agile, end-to-end and highly connected strategies and approaches that address persistent market volatility while unlocking sustainable growth. Companies that make strategic investments in AI are able to pursue exponential growth opportunities along three crucial horizons:
- by amplifying and accelerating core business capabilities and assets;
- by expanding reach into adjacent growth areas;
- and by activating new and entrepreneurial revenue models.
All of these opportunity areas are enabled by a strong digital core.
This growth horizon involves using AI to amplify and accelerate the core business. Companies doing this are growing their top-line revenues by reaching underserved market segments and better anticipating the needs of existing buyers.
This growth horizon uses AI to expand into new markets or pursue industry-adjacent value. AI helps companies reposition and extend their existing IP, assets and services in more market-relevant ways or develop new, connected, service-rich solutions.
Horizon three encompasses the greatest growth opportunities for companies that employ AI to activate new revenue models at speed that, in effect, reshape industry value chains and deliver disproportionate growth over time.
Internal and external pressures are forcing business leaders to rethink their legacy revenue models and approaches to strategic business planning. AI and Gen AI, employed in the right ways, offer a promising path forward. Leaders can anticipate market movements and quickly connect with stakeholders in new ways. They can identify emerging growth opportunities, value pools and even risks with greater certainty. And they can quickly activate new programs to drive sustained growth.
To take advantage of AI-enabled growth potential across all horizons, there are four focus areas and associated actions:
- Generate hyper-personalized products, services and experiences to expand the core
- Generate rapid market assessments to find adjacencies and extend reach
- Leverage generative design to develop new products and services
- Introduce dynamic planning to create a perpetual growth engine
Sustainable growth is there for the taking
Savvy business leaders are driving commercial impact now and finding new growth with AI. They embrace AI to find new value, monetize existing assets, bolster customer experiences, and increase their share of consumer spending. In short, they are using AI as a growth engine and source of competitive advantage. Other business leaders should follow their lead.
What’s trending in corporate strategy & growth
[1] Arielle Feger, “CEOs expect efficiency, cost savings from generative AI by 2025,” eMarketer, July 5, 2024.