At first glance, the central finding in the newly released ServiceNow and Oxford Economics’ 2025 Enterprise AI Maturity Index study seems surprising: on a 100-point scale, the average AI maturity score dropped nine points from last year. With so much attention, focus and investment in AI, how is it possible that businesses have fallen behind?
The reasons are relatable but telling. The speed of AI is overwhelming and moving faster than most organizations can keep up. In 2022, OpenAI introduced the world to generative AI. By 2024-2025, AI agents took over the spotlight. Now, agentic AI is the new rage. At the same time, AI complexity combined with the uncertainty around unproven pilots and the inherent limitations of basic use cases is holding back companies around the world, and across every industry. Naturally, they’re more reserved and move cautiously.
There are also those leaders who see uncertainty as a catalyst for finding answers and an opportunity for curiosity, exploration and imagination. This group is motivated to speed up, to challenge their assumptions and explore bolder, more ambitious pilots that move the needle. In doing so, they broaden their perspectives and force-function the ability to uncover more impactful AI use cases and outcomes. ServiceNow calls these progressive leaders AI Pacesetters.
