Moving From Experimentation to Scale: Six Levers to Industrialize AI
In the News
Moving From Experimentation to Scale: Six Levers to Industrialize AI
Too many Swiss companies are stuck in isolated AI use cases. Creating a real competitive advantage requires a structured approach that aligns strategy, technology, skills, and governance. Here are the keys to AI with a lasting impact.
AI is entering a new era. After an intense experimentation phase in 2023/24, companies are now at a crossroads: should they continue to multiply isolated initiatives, or should they structure an overall performance-oriented strategy on a large scale?
The figures from the international EPAM From Hype to Impact report are revealing: 49% of companies already consider themselves "advanced" in AI, but only 30% of them have actually deployed solutions at scale. Even more strikingly, the majority continue to focus their efforts on productivity and operational efficiency objectives – relegating levers such as growth, innovation or customer experience to the background.
Only 26% of so-called "disruptive" companies have managed to set up concrete use cases, compared to only 3% of beginners. The gap between ambition and industrialization, therefore, remains wide. This situation illustrates a strategic tension: AI is well identified as a lever for competitiveness, but IT, the initiator and often the pilot of projects, does not always benefit from the support and active commitment of all internal stakeholders.
In this field, far too many French-speaking companies are lagging behind: AI is often confined to technical experiments, while elsewhere, it is already fueling customer journeys, intelligent platforms or growth strategies. In some centers of excellence, in Zurich, Paris or the United States, it is integrated from end to end into the customer experience. IT and business are investing together to industrialize AI. Across the Atlantic, more than 50% of the executives surveyed believe that AI will have a direct impact on their revenues as early as 2025.
AI can no longer be treated as a test suite. Swiss leaders are now looking for partners capable of structuring an integrated transformation, taking into account the realities on the ground and international standards.
This integrated transformation is based on six concrete levers:
- Prioritize use cases according to their business potential, not their technical feasibility.
- Modernize the technological ecosystem (cloud, data, security) to support industrialization.
- Create an AI-native culture, built on understanding, collaboration, and transparency.
- Strengthen internal skills, via targeted skills development paths.
- Establish responsible governance, anticipating emerging regulatory requirements.
- Systematically measure the value created, to guide future investments.
This approach allows companies to shift from a logic of tools to a logic of products and services augmented by AI – where technology becomes the natural extension of the business strategy.
On a French-speaking scale, few partners are able to combine these dimensions with agility: local proximity, technological mastery, global capabilities. Yet, this is precisely what will enable tomorrow's leaders to anchor AI in the long term – not as a promise, but as an industrial, reliable and scalable practice.
Original article here. [Opens in Swiss]
Want to know more? Download the report "From Hype to Impact" here.
Become an AI-first business to thrive in the next wave of disruption: https://www.epam.com/services/artificial-intelligence
