New IMD playbook 2025
AI strategies that are working
IMD’s 2025 AI Maturity Index highlights how leaders of the most successful companies are scaling AI technologies across 10 industries for competitive advantage
AI maturity is no longer defined by experimentation. In 2025, the organizations pulling ahead are those that treat AI not as a siloed initiative but as a catalyst for reinvention.
IMD research across 300 global companies reveals that the leaders align five forces: committed leadership, responsible governance, cross-functional talent, deep ecosystem ties, and outcome-focused scaling. These firms are embedding AI into decision-making, operations, customer engagement, and innovation to help them compete and grow.
The challenge for the rest is clear: move beyond pilots and perimeter use cases. That means rethinking your operating model, aligning C-suite ownership, industrializing responsible AI practices, and building workforce fluency at scale. In 2025 and beyond, the winners won’t be those who talk about AI, but those who trust it, govern it, scale it, and unlock its full potential. The future belongs to the AI mature.
Download the playbook to discover what it takes to be AI-mature in 2025.
Managers should look beyond efficiency metrics and explore how AI can redefine value creation through personalization, faster innovation cycles, and entirely new business models.
A deep dive into AI maturity across 10 industry sectors
- Automotive - The sector continues its transformation from mechanical manufacturing to intelligent mobility.
- Insurance - Leaders are moving from reactive underwriting to proactive, AI-powered risk modeling.
- Consumer Goods and Retail - Leaders are embedding AI into their supply chains, store operations, and customer experiences.
- Energy and Utilities - AI maturity is increasingly tied to sustainability, grid intelligence, and predictive maintenance.
- Financial Services - The most represented industry in the 2025 AI Maturity Index top 100, leaders are using GenAI to enhance investment modeling, customer service, and risk detection.
- Healthcare - Top performers are embedding AI into diagnostics, remote patient monitoring, and clinical decision support.
- Manufacturing - AI is rapidly advancing from predictive maintenance to intelligent automation and AI-native product development.
- Pharmaceuticals - Leading companies are using GenAI to compress R&D timelines and personalize medicine.
- Telecommunications - Companies are using AI to modernize infrastructure, personalize services, and manage massive data volumes in real time.
- Technology - This sector dominates the AI Maturity Index, with firms not only deploying AI but setting the pace for its global advancement, building foundational infrastructure and releasing developer tools, APIs, and platforms that power AI transformation across sectors.
Viewpoints from the authors
Tomoko Yokoi
IMD researcher and senior businesss executive
If 2024 was the year companies experimented with GenAI, 2025 is the year organizations are racing to scale.
Michael Wade
TONOMUS Professor of Strategy and Digital, IMD
Most business leaders accept that AI is going to revolutionize many aspects of working life, but many are nervous about how to harness it to maximum advantage – and even more concerned about being left behind.
Jialu Shan
Research fellow, IMD
AI maturity is no longer defined by experimentation. In 2025, the organizations pulling ahead are those that treat AI not as a siloed initiative but as a catalyst for reinvention.
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