Business Models Need To Be Transformed To Unlock Ai S True Fortune

Bonisiwe Shabane

-Dec 19, 2025, 2:11 AM

business models need to be transformed to unlock ai s true fortune

AI has the potential to boost productivity within organizations, but only once business models have been transformed, according to Ana Paula Assis, senior vice president and chair of EMEA and growth markets at IBM. Assis told the audience at the Fortune Global Forum in Riyadh that exploring the full potential of AI means adopting “a systemic approach” to the technology: “One that embraces pervasive implementation across the organization;... According to IBM research cited by Assis, two-thirds of EMEA leaders are already seeing a positive impact from AI in productivity initiatives. Saudi leaders claimed they were seeing the largest positive impact, with 84% of leaders in the region citing AI’s positive impact. However, while a majority of companies are investing rapidly in AI, some have struggled to get the technology past the pilot phase. In the past year, the number of companies running entire workflows with AI has almost doubled, while overall workplace use of the tech has also doubled since 2023.

However, a recent MIT Media Lab study found that 95% of the organizations using AI weren’t seeing a clear return on those investments. This was partly attributed to a so-called learning gap—people and organizations not understanding how to use the AI tools properly, rather than an problem with the core technology itself. Integrating new technology into complicated corporate structures can take time. According to Assis, adopting the technology in a “systemic” way means considering data readiness, openness, and trust. Roughly three years since gen AI emerged as the most disruptive force in enterprise software since the dawn of software-as-a-service (SaaS), companies are racing to launch agentic use cases and embed AI in every... Whereas previous shifts in the industry have involved clear technological transformations, this burgeoning era is more combinatorial; AI+SaaS adds the intelligence and automation potential of AI with the scalability and accessibility of cloud-based software.

But while many software players are bringing AI capabilities to existing products and rapidly devising new ones, the most suitable business model is still in question. There is little doubt that the potential opportunity is massive: Previous McKinsey research indicates that as much as $4.4 trillion of incremental economic potential could be generated from AI-driven increased productivity.1“The economic potential of... The total addressable market for AI+SaaS has expanded beyond IT budgets to include labor—and momentum appears to be building. One year ago, 33 percent of companies surveyed saw productivity impact at scale or were already capturing financial impact from AI. In 2025, 46 percent of companies are (Exhibit 1). Even as customer traction accelerates, a critical question remains: How will leaders evolve their business and go-to-market (GTM) models to thrive in this new AI+SaaS era, as they have needed to in previous shifts?

This article aims to answer that question, based on an analysis of pricing models and success metrics from 150 global vendors (both incumbent SaaS players and AI natives), and conversations with more than 50... It examines monetization challenges that AI providers have already encountered and the actions and strategies required to capture the full growth potential of this emerging technology. Based on earnings reports from several SaaS leaders, there have been some early signs of traction with AI monetization, such as the nearly two million paid users GitHub has reported for its Copilot.2Satya Nadella,... But while global enterprise spending on AI applications has increased eightfold over the last year to close to $5 billion, it still only represents less than 1 percent of total software application spending.3Tim Tully,... Howard Bloom has never been interested in polite thinking. He’s the...

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AI is fundamentally changing how companies create, customise and scale products and services. Explore what’s ahead and how you can prepare. AI isn’t just improving corporate productivity and efficiency. It’s poised to reshape how value is defined, delivered and captured with its ability to create content, ideas and logic, and solve problems autonomously. The result: new AI-fuelled business models are challenging long-standing business assumptions and further blurring industry boundaries, contributing to massive new value pools and growth opportunities that will emerge over the next decade and beyond. While past tech shifts—like cloud, mobile and the internet—also enabled new business models and rapid-growth industries, AI is notable in its potential to transform the economics of product and service creation, customisation and scale...

In many cases, the large language models at the foundation of GenAI allow companies to create additional units of output—the design of a personalised product, a customer service response or a digital offering—more efficiently,... As a result, companies can create customer value that is less constrained by production costs, including labour. Expanding the scope of how products are produced, distributed and purchased might no longer introduce more operational complexity. And managing all types of capital—financial, physical assets and talent—may no longer be limited by data bottlenecks. Instead, companies can act on data at the speed it’s generated for adaptive decision-making. by Nohad Ahsan, Last updated: November 19, 2025, Code:

As businesses evolve, traditional strategies are no longer enough to stay competitive. This blog explores how AI-driven business models are reshaping industries by enhancing efficiency, innovation, and customer experiences. Discover how AI is driving growth and transforming the way companies operate. Every day, businesses are reinventing themselves using AI. But if you're still relying on traditional models, you're at risk of being left behind. It’s 2025, and AI is no longer a futuristic concept—it’s a present-day game-changer that’s already redefining the landscape of business.

If you’re a business leader, chances are you’ve heard about artificial intelligence, but are you truly aware of its potential to reshape your business model? Let’s walk in the shoes of a business leader navigating digital transformation. They face mounting challenges—rising operational costs, shifting customer expectations, and fierce competition. Without AI business models, keeping up with market trends and delivering personalized experiences becomes increasingly difficult. The pressure to innovate is greater than ever. Here’s the tough truth: If your business is still running on traditional models—linear, product-focused, or service-oriented—you’re likely missing out on opportunities to leverage AI for growth.

AI is the key to unlocking new business models, enhancing operational efficiency, and delivering superior customer experiences. The good news? AI isn't just for tech giants like Google or Amazon. Today, AI is accessible to businesses of all sizes and industries. In less than two years, artificial intelligence (AI) has evolved from a promising technology to a powerful tool that has already reshaped many aspects of modern life. From voice assistants like Siri and Alexa to GPS, from online shopping to medical diagnoses, it runs inconspicuously yet is becoming integral to our daily existence.

It has also captured the attention of business leaders, with recent reports of generative AI (GenAI)’s ability to stimulate astounding increases in productivity. But missing from the headlines is another powerful application that is enabling new sources of value, efficiency, and differentiation: innovating your business model. For those leaders who embrace GenAI, there is the potential for substantial gains. According to new research by McKinsey & Company, companies that embrace generative AI for business model innovation are 1.5 times more likely to experience considerable revenue growth compared to those that don’t. “More and more businesses are finally paying attention,” says Wharton Dhirubhai Ambani Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Serguei Netessine. “They are starting to see that there is more to AI than incredible gains in productivity and creativity.

It’s not an exaggeration to say it is on par with the steam engine, electricity, and the internet, which touched — and disrupted — every aspect of our lives. Those that fail to see this about GenAI, that don’t innovate, that don’t change their business model based on this new technology, are greatly increasing their chances of becoming obsolete.” Serguei Netessine, PhD, Dhirubhai Ambani Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship; Professor of Operations, Information, and Decisions; Senior Vice Dean for Innovation and Global Initiatives, The Wharton School In his Wharton MBA Innovation class, Netessine requires the use of GenAI as students create startup companies. “It helps you be more innovative, generating more and better ideas, and it helps you better present those ideas with more compelling stories and better visuals. Why wouldn’t you want to use it?” he says.

Artificial intelligence has finally arrived. But for most firms, it has yet to depart from the runway. In boardrooms and break rooms alike, AI has become a byword for progress. Executives trumpet digital transformations, while investors pile into anything algorithmic. But beneath the surface, a more sobering question lurks: Are companies using AI to do fundamentally new things—or merely to do the same old things, slightly faster? At Shift Actions, a venture consultancy working at the frontiers of business reinvention, the answer is clear.

Most corporate deployments of AI remain tactical—cost-saving tools dressed up as innovation. The truly strategic opportunity lies elsewhere: using AI not as a bolt-on, but as a foundation for reimagining how value is created, captured, and scaled. The bulk of today’s AI deployments focus on narrow efficiency gains: automating workflows, summarizing documents, streamlining customer support. These are worthwhile endeavors', but they are evolutionary, not revolutionary. They optimize the existing paradigm rather than challenging it. A more ambitious approach begins with a different question: What would this business look like if it were born in an AI-native world?

Business Models Need To Be Transformed To Unlock Ai S True Fortune

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