Data study ·
AI adoption in companies: only 7% achieve measurable value and 23% scale up with moderate returns
Original title, in Spanish: “Adopción de la IA en las empresas: solo el 7% logra un valor medible y el 23% escala con retornos moderados”
- Publication
- Merca2 (Spain)
- Author
- Inversión
- Published on
- 22 September 2026 · read in the page structured data
Summary
A report by TCS and Fast Company, based on a survey of 380 senior executives across a range of industries, shows that only 7% of companies derive measurable value from AI. 23% achieve moderate returns by scaling up, 23% remain stuck at the pilot stage, 21% are in early experimentation, 18% have not yet adopted AI and 8% have abandoned their initiatives. Return on investment is the main obstacle for 39% of companies. The report distinguishes "AI native" companies, which completely redesign their processes, from the others, which merely add AI to existing processes. Examples are given: Mastercard improved its fraud detection by 300% by giving all its employees access to Copilot, and Autodesk invested $350 million over three years in an AI Academy. The article also links these findings to the Spanish SME landscape.
Summary based on the full text of the article.
Read the article on Merca2 →Figures cited
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7 %
Share of companies achieving measurable value from AI
380 senior executives, various industries
« Solo un 7% declara valor medible gracias a la IA. »
Source: Informe de TCS y Fast Company
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23 %
Share of companies scaling up AI with moderate returns
380 senior executives, various industries
« El 23% escala con retornos moderados »
Source: Informe de TCS y Fast Company
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23 %
Share of companies stuck at pilots that fail to take off
380 senior executives, various industries
« otro 23% se queda en pilotos que no despegan »
Source: Informe de TCS y Fast Company
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21 %
Share of companies in the early experimentation phase
380 senior executives, various industries
« el 21% sigue en fase de experimentación temprana »
Source: Informe de TCS y Fast Company
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18 %
Share of companies that have not yet started using AI
380 senior executives, various industries
« un 18% ni siquiera la ha tocado »
Source: Informe de TCS y Fast Company
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8 %
Share of companies that have paused or abandoned their AI initiatives
380 senior executives, various industries
« Un 8% llegó a pausar o abandonar sus iniciativas después de haberlas arrancado. »
Source: Informe de TCS y Fast Company
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39 %
Share of companies for which return on investment is the main obstacle
380 senior executives, various industries
« El retorno de inversión es el principal obstáculo para el 39% de las compañías, según el informe. »
Source: Informe de TCS y Fast Company
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70 %
Share of leading companies running several critical AI systems in production
Leading companies in the sample
« El 70% de las empresas líderes opera con varios sistemas de IA críticos en producción »
Source: Informe de TCS y Fast Company
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13 %
Share of companies with a critical system in which AI is integral to the business
380 senior executives, various industries
« solo el 13% de las encuestadas reconoce tener un sistema crítico donde la IA es integral para el negocio »
Source: Informe de TCS y Fast Company
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300 %
Improvement in Mastercard's fraud detection through AI
Mastercard
« Una mejora del 300% en la detección de operaciones fraudulentas. »
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26 %
Share of companies without a human-AI collaboration model
380 senior executives, various industries
« el 26% de las empresas no cuenta con ninguno »
Source: Informe de TCS y Fast Company
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39 %
Share of all companies giving most or all employees access to AI
380 senior executives, various industries
« más de la mitad de las AI-native dan acceso a la IA a la mayoría o a todos sus empleados, frente al 39% del total »
Source: Informe de TCS y Fast Company
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28 %
Share of companies citing lack of in-house skills as the main barrier
380 senior executives, various industries
« el 28% señala la falta de habilidades internas como su mayor barrera »
Source: Informe de TCS y Fast Company
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36 %
Share of all companies for which data quality or governance is the main obstacle
380 senior executives, various industries
« Para el 30% de los líderes y el 36% del conjunto, la calidad, el gobierno o la infraestructura de datos es el mayor freno. »
Source: Informe de TCS y Fast Company
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350,000,000 USD
Autodesk's investment in its AI Academy over three years
Autodesk, over three years
« Autodesk puso en marcha una AI Academy de un año con 350 millones de dólares comprometidos a tres años para formar en IA »
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82 %
Share of leading companies measuring AI-related revenue growth
Leading companies in the sample
« el 82% mide crecimiento de ingresos de productos o servicios con IA, frente al 51% del total »
Source: Informe de TCS y Fast Company
Classification
- Country
- Spain
- Company size
- All sizes
- Industries
- Banking, insurance, asset management, finance departments · Software vendors, IT services companies, telecoms · All industries, or industry not specified
- Companies
- Mastercard (deploys AI), Autodesk (deploys AI), Canva (cited), TCS (study author), Fast Company (study author), HP (deploys AI), E.l.f. Beauty (cited)
- Keywords
- AI adoption, return on investment, process transformation, employee training, data, TCS study
Entry written by Marsanne Studio from the cited article, with the help of an AI model (claude-sonnet-5). The rights to the article and its illustrations belong to Merca2 and its author. Entry translated from French by Claude Sonnet 5.5.