Scaling AI value without losing control: Lessons from Frontier Firms

Results are widespread. Value at scale is not, and that gap is what this year’s research from IDC, commissioned by Microsoft, set out to explain.

In our fourth year commissioning IDC, more than 5,200 senior IT and business leaders across 28 industries shared what it takes to maximize value as AI scales. The clearest lessons come from Frontier Firms, the group last year’s research introduced: the top 10% of organizations on IDC’s AI maturity scale.

What the research found 

• Frontier Firms lead on return. They report an average 4x return on AI versus 2.7x for slow adopters (the bottom 30% on IDC’s scale), and 39% see returns of 5x or more versus 4% of slow adopters.
• Measurement is the next test. Only 61% of organizations are highly confident they can measure AI’s business value and ROI, versus 93% of Frontier Firms.
• Governance is in place, but confidence lags. 65% of organizations have an established process to govern agents, yet only 60% have high confidence in addressing AI security and governance risks.
• Workforce readiness is uneven. 67% say their workforce reports high trust in AI, yet only 20% have a comprehensive, organization-wide skilling strategy.

“Organizations that scale AI value aren’t simply spending more. They manage AI investments, models, agents, governance and skills as one discipline, and that is what turns early results into value they can repeat across the business,” says Kathy Lange, Research Director, AI, Data and Automation Software, IDC.

AI value now reaches well beyond cost savings

Organizations now use AI in 6.5 business areas on average, led by IT infrastructure, cybersecurity and customer service, with the fastest growth in industry-specific uses.

Employee experience, revenue growth, customer experience, innovation and risk reduction now rank nearly even as the places AI strengthens the business. Cost is an important consideration, but it is evaluated alongside accuracy, security, compliance and scalability.

Where scale stalls

66% of leaders say AI has delivered substantial or transformative results, but only 48% are scaling that value across multiple business units. Agents follow the same pattern: 36% of organizations are still piloting them.

The widest gap is people: workforce confidence is running well ahead of the plans to support it. The organizations pulling ahead are closing these gaps by design.

Inside the Frontier Firm

IDC’s maturity scale weighs spending discipline, breadth of use, agent adoption, skills, confidence in managing AI risk and outcomes. On agents specifically, Frontier Firms report a 3.8x return versus 3.0x for slow adopters. These returns are leader-reported, and the research shows association rather than cause.

What they do differently comes down to five behaviors:

• They invest ahead of plan. 90% of Frontier Firms exceeded their planned AI spend.
• They deploy AI broadly, across most of the business, not just a few teams.
• They put agents to work. 96% are rolling out agents at scale, and 53% orchestrate them across workflows.
• They govern so they can scale. 87% have a process to govern and oversee agents, versus 51% of slow adopters.
• They build skills everywhere. 80% have an organization-wide AI skilling strategy, versus 3% of slow adopters.

At Bristol Myers Squibb, the RABIT agent “connects the dots across meetings, helping teams make better decisions while reducing administrative follow-up work,” says Lakshman Yerramalla, Director of Portfolio Governance and Delivery for Global Manufacturing Operations. Project managers who use it save up to an estimated 20% of their time.

Four disciplines for scaling AI value

The lesson from Frontier Firms is one I believe every leader can act on: scaling AI value means managing models, agents, governance and measurement as one accountable system. Value and control aren’t a trade-off.

I see the same pattern with customers: the organizations scaling fastest treat AI as a change in how the business runs, not a technology rollout. “The skilling that a lot of companies miss is the business skilling,” says Eric Tabor, Chief Digital Officer, KOHLER. “We also focus on how to dissect processes and convert them into AI workflows.”

Unlock model choice

Trust and security, leading-edge technology and model performance tie as the top criteria for choosing an AI platform (44% each). Match the right model to each job, balancing cost with protection of intellectual property and data.

Redesign workflows around agents

Agents create the most value when work is redesigned around them. The bigger opportunity is what they free people to do more of: leaders point to creativity, innovation and business reinvention (41%), customer-facing work and relationships (39%) and analytical work and data interpretation (39%). Connect agents across processes, with human oversight where it matters.

Govern decisions and actions

Trust is building faster than confidence. Most leaders report high trust in their AI systems, yet fewer are highly confident addressing security and governance risks. As agents take on more of the work, trust has to be earned continuously, and governance has to reach beyond models to keep people in control of what agents decide and do.

Conagra Brands made governance its starting point. “Laying the foundation of proper governance, observability and responsible AI was our first step to engaging our employees with AI,” says Tracy Schaefer, Chief Information Officer, Conagra Brands. “We built a SteerCo to review risk factors, access and identity management.”

Measure and optimize value

Connect investment and performance data to business outcomes, compare how processes perform before and after AI and direct spending where it delivers the most value. With 71% of organizations expecting AI budgets to rise 10% or more in the next 12 months, this discipline will separate leaders from the rest.

Underneath all four disciplines are people. None of it scales without an organization-wide plan to build AI skills. That’s where Frontier Firms are furthest ahead, and it’s where I’d urge every leader to start.

Black & Veatch reached 98% adoption of Microsoft 365 Copilot through deliberate change management, including early-adopter cohorts that surfaced real business use cases. “Our goal is to be a Frontier Firm. The intention is not to stop at pure adoption,” says Mike Adams, Chief Digital Technology Officer, Black & Veatch.

Go deeper at Microsoft Ignite

IDC Executive Analyst Shari Lava will lead three sessions at Microsoft Ignite on Nov. 18, including The AI ROI Divide: Why Some Organizations Scale and Others Stall.

What this means for business

The gap that matters now isn’t between companies that use AI and those that don’t. It’s between those getting results in pockets and those turning AI into repeatable value across the business. There are three key ways leaders can step into this kind of transformation.

First, treat AI as business transformation, not a technology rollout. Frontier Firms connect AI to the outcomes that matter most, from growth to customer experience, and manage it as one accountable system. That is the heart of Frontier Transformation, and it’s the work we’re doing alongside our customers every day.

Second, start with your own function. In marketing, we’re applying these same disciplines to our own work: redesigning workflows around agents, setting clear guardrails and measuring what AI actually delivers. Every function can become its own proof point for the rest of the business.

Third, invest in people as much as in technology. Skills are the widest gap in this year’s research, and it’s the one I care about most. The organizations that pull ahead will be the ones where everyone, at every level, has the support to learn, experiment and grow with AI.

The next phase of AI won’t be defined by who uses it. It will be defined by who can scale its value and stay in control. This research gives every leader a benchmark for where they stand today and a clear view of what to do next.

Get the full picture

Download the global infographic, The Real Business Value of AI, to see a summary of findings and benchmark your organization against Frontier Firms before your next AI investment review. Regional infographics are also available for Europe, Asia Pacific and the Americas. The full InfoBrief will follow.

Alysa Taylor is the Chief Marketing Officer for Commercial Cloud and AI at Microsoft, leading teams that enable digital and AI transformation for organizations of all sizes across the globe.

NOTE

IDC Infographic, sponsored by Microsoft, The Real Business Value of AI, IDC #US54985026-IG, November 2026

IDC Resource Map Document, Sponsored by Microsoft, Business Opportunity of AI Study, IDC Survey, July 2026, N=5204, Doc. #US54951426, November 2026

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