Artificial intelligence (AI) is still in its early, early stages with enterprises. But those who jumped the line and embraced the technology are seeing significant results in cost reductions, improved revenue, customer satisfaction and time savings.
There is a clear division between organizations that have strategically embraced AI and those that remain in early stages of adoption, according to “The state of AI in the enterprise” survey released early Wednesday by Box. In a poll of 1,300 global IT leaders, early adopters — defined as those who have prioritized AI through larger budgets and more advanced uses, including process automation from AI agent systems — said they are already seeing double-digit productivity growth numbers that dwarf their more-cautious peers.
Leading-edge AI users claim they are gleaning 37% productivity improvements on average.
AI agents, in particular, are forging the results, from basic to complex use. For now, most organizations are still getting comfortable with basic agentic AI as employees adapt to AI-driven workflows, and companies train them to get up to speed. In fact, 87% of organizations are using AI agents, including 41% for fully autonomous operations. At the same time, a majority of companies (58%) are addressing the AI skills gap by upskilling their current workforce.
“What’s clear is that as companies increasingly go AI-first, they are beginning to rethink how they can take advantage of their enterprise content, from their contracts and invoices to their research data and marketing assets,” Box CEO Aaron Levie said during a quarterly earnings call Tuesday. “For years, the value of this content has been limited to only what humans can do with this information. Which means most companies have never been able to truly tap into the full value of this information. But in a world of AI and AI Agents, this finally becomes possible.”
AI is nothing short of a necessity and inevitable, participants in the survey acknowledged.
A vast majority of them (70%) believe AI gives them a competitive edge, including AI-native startups using innovative technology to reduce barriers to entry.
Respondents, on average, said they use 2.3 AI model providers. Companies with low ROI from AI averaged two model providers, while those who employed nearly three models reported more than 25% ROI, according to the Box survey.
Still, data security and compliance remain top concerns for companies selecting an AI platform for content or unstructured data. Nearly three in four (74%) cite data and privacy as top worries when implementing AI.
Indeed, while 73% of organizations list data security and compliance as top considerations for evaluating AI platforms, only 24% of them have well-established governance frameworks, the survey found.
