Executives today face no shortage of pressure.
Finance leaders are navigating capital constraints and economic uncertainty. Supply chain and operations leaders are balancing efficiency with resilience in an increasingly unpredictable environment. HR leaders are working to address critical skills gaps while preparing the workforce for new technologies.
Yet new research from Economist Enterprise sponsored by 麻豆原创鈥攂ased on a survey of 2,015 C-suite executives at midsize organizations, those with revenues of $50 million to $1 billion, across the Americas, EMEA, and Asia-Pacific鈥攆ound a common thread running through all three functions. For these organizations, AI adoption is consistently outpacing the people, processes, and capabilities needed to realize its full value.
Across finance, HR, and supply chain, the challenge is no longer whether to adopt AI. It’s how to ensure organizations are ready for it.
Across finance, HR, and supply chain, AI adoption is moving faster than the workforce, processes, and capabilities needed to support it.
Finance leaders see AI as an equalizer
For CFOs at midsize organizations, AI represents more than an efficiency opportunity.
Capital availability and financing costs rank among the most pressing concerns for 41% of finance leaders, a higher percentage than at larger organizations. Against that backdrop, AI is increasingly viewed as a way to help companies compete with organizations that have historically benefited from deeper resources.
Notably, reducing labor costs ranks last among CFOs’ AI objectives, cited by just 16% of respondents. Instead, finance leaders are focused on improving operational efficiency (41%), accelerating innovation (31%), and modernizing legacy systems (30%).
The challenge is execution. Sixty-six percent of CFOs say AI adoption is moving ahead of workforce transformation efforts. The findings suggest that finance leaders must play a broader role in transformation by connecting technology investments to the capabilities and skills required to generate value.
Sixty-six percent of CFOs say AI adoption is consistently running ahead of workforce transformation.
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Supply chain and operations continue to gain influence
The research also highlights the growing strategic role of operations leaders.
Nearly half of C-suite executives rank supply chain, procurement, and operations among their organization’s three most influential functions, placing them on par with finance and behind only sales and technology.
That influence comes with growing responsibilities. Forty-three percent of operations leaders cite supply chain disruption as a top concern, while 38% point to operational resilience. Two in five identify balancing efficiency and resilience as their defining challenge, a figure that rises to 48% in manufacturing organizations.
AI presents significant potential, but results remain mixed. Only 47% of operations leaders at midsize companies report measurable value from AI investments, compared with 62% at organizations with revenues exceeding US$1 billion.
Just four percent say AI and workforce transformation are advancing as fully integrated initiatives, while 59% say AI adoption is moving ahead of workforce change.
The data suggests that organizations will create value not simply through AI investment, but through redesigning workflows, skills, and operating models around new technologies.
Only four percent of operations leaders say AI and workforce transformation are advancing as fully integrated initiatives.
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HR is taking on more responsibility than ever
No function is experiencing more rapid change than HR.
Nearly 74% of CHROs say their function is significantly more involved in workforce transformation than it was three years ago, the highest rate of change among C-suite functions.
The arrival of AI has intensified the challenge. More than half (54%) of CHROs identify workforce skills as the area least prepared for AI transformation. CHROs are also more than four times as likely as their executive peers to identify skills shortages as requiring immediate attention.
At the same time, many organizations are shifting budgets toward technology investments, creating additional pressure on HR teams to demonstrate their strategic value.
The opportunity for HR is significant. According to , 70% of the effort required for AI transformation involves people and processes rather than technology itself. As organizations scale AI initiatives, workforce readiness may prove just as important as technological readiness.
Fifty-four percent of CHROs identify workforce skills as the area least prepared for AI transformation.
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The AI readiness gap is also an opportunity
Taken together, the three reports point to a common conclusion: organizations are moving quickly on AI, but often in fragmented ways.
Finance is deploying AI while workforce transformation struggles to keep pace. Operations is embedding AI into business processes while skills gaps persist. HR is working to prepare employees for a future arriving faster than many organizations expected.
For growing companies, this gap represents both a risk and an opportunity. Midsize organizations often have flatter structures and greater agility than larger enterprises, enabling them to align technology, people, and processes more quickly.
The research suggests that success will depend less on how much organizations invest in AI and more on how effectively they connect AI initiatives with workforce transformation and business process change. Organizations that integrate those efforts stand the best chance of turning AI investments into measurable business value.
The organizations generating the most value from AI aren’t necessarily investing more. They’re integrating technology, people, and processes more effectively.
