Artificial intelligence has a unique way of inspiring awe, dread, and FOMO in equal measure—often in the same meeting.
That mix of emotions is playing out across corporate America as executives race to develop their AI strategies. Many are testing where AI can move the business. Companies are eyeing automation and productivity gains. C-suites are fretting about how fast they need to move, and how much they need to invest, to make sure a competitor doesn’t get there first, wherever there is.
Amid all the activity, however, most executives are missing a crucial distinction: the difference between simply using AI and becoming an AI-native company. Nearly 90 percent of companies have invested in AI, yet only 6 percent are seeing material impact, according to Steve Reis, global leader of McKinsey & Company’s Growth Practice. That gap suggests an uncomfortable possibility for most businesses: The problem may not be the technology, but what companies are doing with it.
“The technology itself is unbelievable,” Reis tells Nicholas Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic, in Off Site. “The challenge is, how do you apply it to a business problem to see value hit the P&L?”
Too often, Reis argues, the problem begins when companies become enamored with AI—buying access to every frontier model and distributing tools and token budgets to stay ahead of competitors. But that’s like buying every employee a membership to the best gym in town and expecting them to get fit. Without changing routines, incentives, and behavior, Reis says, the membership alone accomplishes little.
The companies succeeding with AI reverse the equation to unlock growth. They start with an outcome and work backward, asking where AI could fundamentally improve the way the business operates. For Reis, the lesson is that becoming an AI-native company isn’t primarily about accumulating more AI. It’s about rewiring how the company works, then using the technology as a growth lever where it makes the most sense for that company.
In his conversation with Thompson, Reis explores what other companies can learn from the 6 percent that have begun turning AI’s remarkable capabilities into something more tangible: results.
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