The year in one chart: AI use rose to 88 percent, enterprise impact did not

In short: by the end of 2025 almost nine in ten organizations used AI somewhere, but only about four in ten could point to any effect on enterprise profit, and only about 6 percent reported a large one. The organizations in that 6 percent are not using different models. They redesign workflows, set transformative goals, and have senior leaders own the result.¹

McKinsey’s global survey on the state of AI, published in November 2025, is the best single snapshot of where organizations ended the year. Regular use of AI in at least one business function reached 88 percent of respondents’ organizations, up from 78 percent a year earlier, and 62 percent were at least experimenting with AI agents.¹