Four Stages of Enterprise AI Maturity and Financial Impacts – So Far

Dr. Peter Weill Chairman at MIT CISR & ADAPT Senior Advisor, explores the volatile and rapidly evolving AI landscape, emphasising how agentic technologies are reshaping business models and challenging traditional software paradigms. He describes the current moment as the “knee of the exponential curve”, a period of accelerating innovation requiring organisations to become more adaptable. Peter introduces MIT’s four-stage AI maturity model, highlighting that only companies operating at scale (Stage 3) or enterprise transformation (Stage 4) currently see above-industry-average financial performance. Reinforcing this, ADAPT’s research found that 63% of enterprises remain stuck in the experimentation phase, while just 15% have achieved scaled AI integration, supporting Peter’s view that moving from pilots to scaling is where meaningful ROI is realised.

Peter highlights the transformative impact of AI through real-world examples, from Ally Financial’s Leo platform and Atlantic Health’s gen AI adoption to DBS Bank’s 1,000 innovation experiments, which cut small business…