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Artificial Intelligence
The leading companies in artificial intelligence may surprise you
Michael Wade and Tomoko Yokoi explain how IMD ranked the world’s leading companies on AI adoption and use – and reveal which topped the list
Behind the hype around AI, which companies are making real progress with it? Our research attempts to answer that question. The AI Maturity Index ranks 200 of the world’s leading companies on how effectively they have adopted AI to transform their business strategies and operations.
The results may surprise you. The tech sector certainly performs well, but representatives from financial services, telecoms, consumer goods, and the energy sector all make appearances near the top. These organizations are implementing AI solutions, each in their own way and for their own reasons but, most importantly, they are all making progress.
The AI Maturity Index is a significant milestone in our digital and AI research. Most business leaders accept that AI is going to revolutionize many aspects of working life, but many are nervous about how to harness it to maximum advantage – and even more concerned about being left behind. By identifying the leaders in the race to adopt and adapt to AI, we are helping those following to see what they should measure themselves against, and how to do it.
What the index evaluates
The AI Maturity Index evaluates organizations on five dimensions that we believe are crucial to success:
- Strong executive support: AI maturity starts with strong commitment and involvement from leadership. Evidence that a business has this in hand could include a published corporate AI strategy, a dedicated AI appointment to the C-suite, or the establishment of a dedicated AI business unit. Such strategic initiatives demonstrate the determination to integrate AI into core business operations.
- Technology and infrastructure: Investing in scalable, cloud-based data platforms is a crucial strategy for AI maturity. These platforms facilitate data access and manipulation, integrating AI systems seamlessly across business units. This integration drives operational workflows and innovation in AI-powered products and services, creating new value propositions and enhancing customer experiences.
- Operational excellence: AI-mature businesses integrate the technology into their organizational processes to enhance decision-making and improve productivity. Those organizations forging furthest ahead with AI demonstrate its practical application as a factor in their operational excellence.
- Workforce development and culture: A continuous program of reskilling and upskilling will support the workforce in pivoting effectively to work with AI technologies. This investment of time and resources will also encourage a corporate culture that embraces AI. Commitment to developing AI skills and strategic hiring practices are key measures of progress in this dimension.
- Ethics and risk management: Achieving AI maturity necessitates responsible use of AI, which, in turn, hinges on robust ethical governance. IT must develop guiding principles and create governing structures for responsible AI use. The most mature businesses have already embedded ethical considerations in their AI operations.
Inevitably, organizations have made a varying amount of progress in each of these five key areas. But the most mature businesses in our AI Maturity Index have progressed markedly across all five dimensions. This combined progress transforms business operations and drives strategic growth.
“The tech sector dominates at the top, with businesses classified as offering 'technology products and services' filling the first six places.”
And the winners are…
So, which organizations top the AI Maturity Index? The research is based on an analysis of the 2023 Forbes 500 list, which features the largest companies worldwide by sales, profits, assets, and market value. The index ranks the 200 leading businesses on this list for AI maturity.
The tech sector dominates at the top, with businesses classified as offering ‘technology products and services’ filling the first six places. US tech giants Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta lead, with Qualcomm, BM, China’s Alibaba Group, and Tencent Holdings also making the top ten along with Samsung Electronics of South Korea.
A surprising finding was how high several non-tech firms feature, including consultancy Accenture in seventh, financial services group Visa, in 12th place, while Deutsche Telekom – the top-ranked European business in the index – and KDDI Corporation (Japan), both from the telecoms sector, sit at 15th and 16th, respectively.
Accenture performed strongly thanks to its $3bn investment in its Data and AI practice, its commitment to double its AI talent, and the appointment of its first Chief Responsible AI Officer in May 2024. Visa has long pioneered AI use in global payments and invested over $3bn in AI and data infrastructure to ensure safe and seamless transactions and enhance its fraud detection. Deutsche Telecom has woven AI into the core of its operations and shown a strong commitment to ethical AI usage, including by integrating digital ethics assessments in product development and prioritizing employee education.
Consumer goods giant Sony also makes the top 20, along with Reliance Industries from the energy sector, the top-ranked Indian company. German healthcare and pharmaceutical giant Bayer is ranked 20th.
Elsewhere, automotive businesses Volkswagen, Hyundai and Toyota are also prominent, along with Lockheed Martin and General Electric from the manufacturing sector. FedEx is the leading transport and logistics business, while Comcast takes first place in the media and entertainment sector.
It’s also interesting to note that, while tech businesses fill the very top echelons of the AI Maturity Index, in terms of total representation, the financial services sector wins out, with 35 financial services companies in the top 100 businesses in the index, compared with 15 technology companies – underlining the significance of AI for the finance function.
Healthcare, with 14 businesses in the top 100, and automotive and manufacturing, with 12 and 10 representatives, respectively, have also seen widespread enthusiastic take-up of AI technology.
The AI Maturity Index offers a snapshot of the market at a single moment in time – future versions of the ranking may look quite different.
The structure behind the data
To compile the ranking, our research team scored each organization against the dimensions, across three components.
First, the team used ML algorithms to analyze the similarity of corporate text content, such as annual reports, analyst quarterly calls, and company press releases. It also looked at AI-related keywords across 16 categories, scoring companies according to how often these terms occurred. Finally, the team used data from Pitchbook to look at how many AI-related deals each company made between 2019 and 2024, as well as the total value of their investments.
The AI Maturity Index offers a snapshot of the market at a single moment in time – future versions of the ranking may look quite different. But the exercise is a fascinating one, underlining how many companies are adopting and embedding AI at the center of their business models as a signal of strategic intent.
Read more about The AI Maturity Index here.
All views expressed herein are those of the author and have been specifically developed and published in accordance with the principles of academic freedom. As such, such views are not necessarily held or endorsed by TONOMUS or its affiliates.
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