--- title: "AI adoption is accelerating in business, but its impact on profitability is stagnating — Marsanne Studio AI watch" description: "According to McKinsey, AI adoption has reached 89% of companies, but only 37% report a real gain in profitability." url: "https://marsanne.studio/en/ai-watch/ai-adoption-is-accelerating-in-business-but-its-impact-on-profitability-9cb5e6/" lang: "en" --- [Marsanne Studio](https://marsanne.studio/en/) [← Back to home](https://marsanne.studio/en/ai-watch) [← The AI watch](https://marsanne.studio/en/ai-watch) Data study · 9 September 2026 # AI adoption is accelerating in business, but its impact on profitability is stagnating Original title, in Spanish: “La adopción de la IA se dispara en las empresas, pero su impacto en la rentabilidad se estanca” **Publication** Cinco Días (Spain) **Author** [Santiago Millán](https://cincodias.elpais.com/autor/santiago-millan-alonso/) **Published on** 9 September 2026 · read in the page structured data ## Summary The report "The State of AI 2026: On the road to ROI" by QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey, indicates that AI adoption has reached 89% of organisations in at least one function, and that 80% of employees report increased productivity. However, only 37% of companies report a positive impact on their EBIT, a figure unchanged from the previous year. Large-scale deployment is progressing (44% versus 38% in 2025), particularly in large companies (more than $1 billion in revenue), where the use of autonomous agents reaches 40% versus 27% in 2025, while it stagnates at 22% among smaller ones. Companies are increasingly favouring in-house development of tools using coding agents over buying commercial software, according to Carlos Fernández Naveira, partner at McKinsey & Company. Summary based on the full text of the article. [Read the article on Cinco Días →](https://cincodias.elpais.com/companias/2026-09-09/la-adopcion-de-la-ia-se-dispara-en-las-empresas-pero-su-impacto-en-la-rentabilidad-se-estanca.html) ## Figures cited - 89 % Share of organisations that have adopted AI in at least one function organisations worldwide, 2026 > « la adopción de esta tecnología alcanza ya al 89% de las organizaciones » Source: QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey - The State of AI 2026: On the road to ROI - 80 % Share of employees reporting increased productivity thanks to AI employees, 2026 > « un 80% de los empleados asegura haber incrementado su productividad » Source: QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey - The State of AI 2026: On the road to ROI - 37 % Share of companies reporting a positive impact of AI on their EBIT companies worldwide, 2026, unchanged from the previous year > « el porcentaje de compañías que reporta un impacto positivo en su beneficio bruto (Ebit) se mantiene en el 37% » Source: QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey - The State of AI 2026: On the road to ROI - 44 % Share of companies that have deployed AI at scale across the company companies worldwide, 2026 (versus 38% in 2025) > « un 44% ya la ha incorporado a gran escala en toda la empresa, superando el 38% que lo había hecho en 2025 » Source: QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey - The State of AI 2026: On the road to ROI - 56 % Share of companies using AI in three or more departments companies worldwide, 2026 (versus 51% in 2025) > « el porcentaje de compañías que la utilizan en tres o más áreas corporativas ha crecido del 51% al 56% » Source: QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey - The State of AI 2026: On the road to ROI - 54 % Rate of large-scale AI deployment in large companies (more than $1 billion in revenue) companies with more than $1 billion in revenue, 2026 > « Un impulso especialmente evidente en las corporaciones con ingresos superiores a 1.000 millones de dólares, donde el despliegue masivo alcanza el 54% y el uso de agentes autónomos de IA asciende al 40% (frente al 27% en 2025). » Source: QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey - The State of AI 2026: On the road to ROI - 40 % Rate of use of autonomous AI agents in large companies companies with more than $1 billion in revenue, 2026 (versus 27% in 2025) > « el uso de agentes autónomos de IA asciende al 40% (frente al 27% en 2025) » Source: QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey - The State of AI 2026: On the road to ROI - 22 % Rate of use of autonomous AI agents in small companies small companies, 2026, stagnating > « en el caso de las compañías más pequeñas la adopción de estos agentes se mantiene estancada en el 22% » Source: QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey - The State of AI 2026: On the road to ROI - 64 % Share of large companies that have adopted chatbots at scale large companies worldwide, 2026 > « los chatbots continúan siendo la tecnología más extendida, adoptados a escala por el 47% de las empresas a nivel global y por el 64% de las grandes corporaciones » Source: QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey - The State of AI 2026: On the road to ROI - 32 % Share of companies that gave up buying commercial software thanks to in-house development using AI agents companies surveyed, 2026 > « un 32% de los encuestados asegura que su organización ha renunciado a comprar al menos un producto o función de software comercial al ser capaz de desarrollarlos internamente con sus propios agentes de programación » Source: QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey - The State of AI 2026: On the road to ROI ## Classification **Country** Worldwide scope **Company size** Large companies, All sizes **Industries** All industries, or industry not specified · Software vendors, IT services companies, telecoms · Healthcare, pharmaceuticals, social care · Consulting, legal, accounting, business services · Energy, utilities, environment **Companies** McKinsey & Company (study author), QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey (study author) **Keywords** AI adoption, return on investment, autonomous agents, productivity, profitability, in-house development 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 Cinco Días and its author. Entry translated from French by Claude Sonnet 5.5.