Austin, Texas, USA, September 2, 2025

New Futurum Research Reveals Dramatic Acceleration in Generative AI Expectations, With Organizations Shifting From Moderate to Transformational Impact Projections for Their Industries

Futurum released new research showing a significant shift in how organizations view generative AI’s potential industry impact over the next 3-5 years. The study reveals that 71% of decision-makers expect fundamental disruption or widespread transformation from generative AI in 2025, up from 56% in 2024, marking a pivotal moment in enterprise AI adoption strategies.

The research (see Figure 1) surveyed more than 800 AI decision-makers across industries and countries and found that expectations for transformational impact have intensified dramatically. The percentage expecting “Widespread Operational & Functional Transformation” jumped from 40% to 51% year-over-year. Meanwhile, those expecting only moderate operational impact plummeted from 34% to just 18%, signaling a clear shift in sentiment toward more aggressive AI transformation expectations.

Figure 1: Expected Level of GenAI Impact on Industry (3-5 Year Outlook)

Nick Patience, VP & AI Platforms Practice Lead at Futurum, said, “The dramatic shift from moderate to transformational impact expectations reflects organizations’ growing understanding of generative AI’s true potential. Over half of decision-makers now foresee widespread operational transformation, with an additional 20% anticipating fundamental business model disruption. This indicates a shift beyond the initial hype, moving into a phase of strategic implementation and tangible business transformation.”

The research reveals several key developments shaping generative AI adoption strategies:

• Transformation Acceleration: The combined percentage of organizations expecting fundamental disruption or widespread transformation has grown by 15 percentage points year-over-year, reaching 71% in 2025, demonstrating a rapidly maturing understanding of GenAI capabilities.
• Diminishing Middle Ground: The sharp decline in “Moderate Operational Impact” expectations from 34% to 18% suggests organizations recognize that GenAI will either be transformational or have limited applicability – there’s increasingly little middle ground.
• Industry Disruption Rising: One in five organizations (20%) now expects fundamental industry disruption and business model transformation, up from 16% in 2024, indicating growing confidence in GenAI’s potential to reshape entire sectors.
• Persistent Skepticism Remains Minimal: Only 11% of organizations expect marginal or no impact from GenAI (compared to 9% in 2024), confirming broad consensus that the technology will be consequential for most industries.

The findings suggest that organizations are rapidly moving past the experimental phase of generative AI adoption and are now preparing for substantial operational and strategic changes. This shift in expectations likely reflects both improved understanding of the technology’s capabilities and real-world implementation experiences that have validated its transformational potential.

“What’s particularly striking is the speed of this sentiment shift,” Patience added. “In just one year, we’ve seen organizations dramatically recalibrate their expectations upward. This isn’t just optimism – it’s based on actual deployment experiences and a clearer view of what’s possible when generative AI is applied strategically across the enterprise.”

This data is sourced from a new, comprehensive survey conducted by Futurum Research, encompassing insights from IT and line-of-business decision-makers. The survey explores:

• Generative AI Maturity: Current stages, adoption challenges, and anticipated progression within enterprises over the next 12 months.
• AI Use Cases & Metrics: Key use cases, budget allocation strategies, and common success metrics for measuring AI effectiveness.
• Vendor Selection & Deployment: Factors influencing vendor choice, model usage in production, deployment options (public, private, hybrid cloud, and edge), and satisfaction ratings for preferred approaches.
• Agentic AI: Approaches, concerns, potential business impacts, and near-term buying plans for AI tools.

Subscribers can read more in the report, “1H 2025 AI Platforms Decision Maker Survey Report” on the Futurum Intelligence Platform” on the Futurum Intelligence Platform. Non-subscribers can click here for inquiry and access.

About Futurum Intelligence for Market Leaders

Futurum Intelligence’s AI Platforms IQ service provides actionable insight from analysts, reports, and interactive visualization datasets, helping leaders drive their organizations through transformation and business growth. Subscribers can log into the platform at https://app.futurumgroup.com/, and non-subscribers can find additional information at Futurum Intelligence.

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