Slow, hard AI

Julie Sweet, CEO of consulting giant Accenture, has a rare line of sight into the AI ambitions and worries of the world's biggest companies. Her unvarnished view, backed by new data and CEO conversations: AI use at most big companies is slower and harder than hoped. CEOs are beyond obsessed with AI, she said. But implementing it to immediately save money or boost productivity is frustratingly difficult. Sweet argues it'll take a few years to move beyond the slow, hard phase for most companies. A big reason: Only by changing the mindset of leaders—and the complex processes inside companies—can you truly unlock explosive growth. Sweet's hands-on experience matches recent studies by MIT, McKinsey and others, showing that successful AI use for large organizations remains elusive—the "productivity paradox." The viral MIT paper found 95 percent of the 52 organizations studied "are getting zero return" on their investment in generative AI.