Source page: McKinsey & Company
Commentary
AI at work but not at scale
Artificial Intelligence | Innovation
December 10, 2025 – The use of AI is becoming widespread across sectors and organizations, largely driven by the rapid adoption of gen AI. The share of survey respondents reporting that their organizations use AI reached 88 percent this year, an increase of ten percentage points from 2024, McKinsey’s Alex Singla, Alexander Sukharevsky, Bryce Hall, Lareina Yee, Michael Chui, and coauthors note. However, most companies are still in the early phases of their AI journey: Only 7 percent of respondents indicated that AI had been fully scaled across their organizations. Broadening its use may require businesses to redesign workflows around AI capabilities and to establish platforms that will allow them to operate at scale.
To read the survey, see “The state of AI in 2025: Agents, innovation, and transformation,” November 5, 2025.
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Visual form
Two-series line chart.
Layout / body structure
The chart is a single time-series chart with two lines sharing the same axis. It reads left to right from 2017 through 2025, with the longer dark-blue line showing overall AI use and the shorter light-blue line entering later to show use of gen AI.
What is being compared
It compares the share of organizations using AI in at least one business function over time and compares that broader AI adoption path with the more recent adoption path for gen AI. The chart is therefore comparing both time change and the relative distance between general AI use and gen AI use.
Measurement system
The unit is percentage of respondents. The y-axis runs from 0 to 100, and the key values are printed directly next to the markers, which makes the year-by-year adoption changes visible without needing a legend-heavy explanation.
Visible structure inside the graphic
The chart uses a dark blue line for overall AI use and a lighter blue line for gen AI, with point markers and direct numeric labels at the visible years. The gen-AI line begins later in the series, so the chart visually separates the mature adoption track from the newer adoption curve and then shows the two converging upward in the most recent years.
Main takeaway from the visual
The chart shows adoption still rising, but the scaling story is uneven. Overall AI use continues to climb to a new high, and gen AI rises quickly after its appearance, yet the gap between experimentation and full-scale use remains implied by the fact that even at the end of the chart, broad usage is high but not universal.
Key standout values or extremes
Overall AI use rises from 55 percent in 2023 to 72 percent in 2024, 78 percent in 2024’s later point, and 88 percent in 2025. Gen AI moves from 33 percent in 2023 to 65 percent in 2024, 71 percent later in 2024, and 79 percent in 2025, making it the steepest recent climb in the figure.
Controls / sequence, when applicable
This is a static chart image with no in-chart controls to operate.
Companion media, when applicable
There is no separate companion audio or video; the chart image is the full visual on this page.