How will the tech give me (or my team) time back in the day?
The adoption of artificial intelligence has reached the point where organizations must align AI with their business objectives rather than adapting business goals to fit AI capabilities, according to new report from EPAM.
“This new research clearly shows that we're now entering a new phase, where success depends on identifying high-value use cases and prioritizing them strategically to achieve broad organizational impact,” said Elaina Shekhter, chief marketing and strategy officer for the digital services company. “Enterprises that can effectively align their talent, data and technology around these priority use cases will be the ones that actually deploy AI to scale and capture business value from their AI investments in 2025 and beyond."
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From Hype to Impact. How Enterprises Can Unlock Real Business Value with AI identified several trends:
- Acceleration of AI investments. Companies plan to increase their AI spending by 14% year-over-year in 2025, signaling a continued commitment to AI-driven growth.
- Scaling AI remains a challenge. Although 30% of technology-advanced companies have successfully implemented AI at scale, many organizations struggle to bridge the gap between experimentation and enterprise-wide deployment.
- AI's direct impact on business. Disruptors attribute 53% of their expected 2025 profits to AI investments, which demonstrates a tangible financial impact for the market leaders.
- Governance and security trail AI growth. Businesses anticipate a minimum of 18 months to implement effective AI governance models, highlighting the complexity of aligning AI with the rapidly evolving regulatory landscape.
- AI talent remains a priority. Forty-three percent of all companies surveyed plan to hire for AI-related roles throughout 2025, with machine-learning engineers and AI researchers being the most in-demand positions.
Effective AI implementation requires strong executive leadership that clearly articulates priorities and focus areas. The data reveal that 65% of disruptors understand the necessary skills for AI adoption. Although 31% of executives see outdated technology as a barrier, the real challenge is the lack of alignment between business and technical teams. After a clear organizational purpose is established and communicated, engineering teams can map out a modernization strategy.
Security remains a universal priority for senior executives and engineering teams, particularly regarding data protection, data quality and cloud security, with 35% of businesses saying their top challenge to achieving modernization is their lack of sophisticated security programs. Although three-fourths of advanced companies claim to have established clear AI strategies, only 4% of disruptors say they have developed comprehensive governance frameworks.
"Improved productivity and operational efficiency are universal goals, but true transformation lies in bridging the gap between tech teams and the business," said Dmitry Tovpeko, vice president of engineering for EPAM. "As AI reshapes the enterprise, developers are evolving from task-oriented users to strategic experts, responsibly harnessing AI for end-to-end scenarios. Success hinges not on tech stacks or cloud infrastructure but on aligning tech teams with business objectives to solve real-world customer problems."
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Alan Goforth
Alan Goforth is a freelance writer in suburban Kansas City. In addition to freelancing for several publications, he has written a dozen books about sports and other topics.
