EPAM Systems, Inc. (NYSE: EPAM) has released its AI research report, "From Hype to Impact: How Enterprises Can Unlock Real Business Value with AI," which examines the factors driving enterprise AI success in 2025 and beyond. The report, based on a survey of 7,300 participants across nine countries and eight industries, reveals a disconnect between perception and reality in enterprise AI adoption.

Nearly half (49%) of respondents rated their companies as "advanced" in AI implementation, with 5% identifying as "disruptors," 32% as "competent," and 14% as "beginners." However, only 26% of those who self-identified as advanced companies and disruptors have successfully delivered AI use cases to market.

Elaina Shekhter, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer, EPAM, noted that companies experimented with AI in 2023 and 2024, primarily targeting productivity improvements and operational efficiencies. The research indicates that success now depends on identifying high-value use cases and prioritizing them strategically to achieve broad organizational impact. Enterprises that align their talent, data, and technology around these priority use cases will be the ones that deploy AI to scale and capture business value from their AI investments in 2025 and beyond.

Key findings from the report include:

• Acceleration of AI investments: Companies plan to increase their AI spending by 14% year-over-year in 2025.
• Scaling AI remains a challenge: While 30% of technology-advanced companies have successfully implemented AI at scale, many organizations struggle to bridge the gap between experimentation and enterprise-wide deployment.
• AI's direct impact on business: Disruptors attribute 53% of their expected 2025 profits to AI investments.
• Governance and security trail AI growth: Businesses anticipate a minimum of 18 months to implement effective AI governance models.
• AI talent remains a priority: 43% of all companies surveyed plan to hire AI-related roles throughout 2025, with machine learning engineers and AI researchers being the most in-demand positions.

Dmitry Tovpeko, VP, Engineering, EPAM, stated that true transformation lies in bridging the gap between tech teams and the business. As AI reshapes the enterprise, developers are evolving from task-oriented users to strategic experts, responsibly harnessing AI for end-to-end scenarios. Success hinges on aligning tech teams with business objectives to solve real-world customer problems.

The report highlights the importance of aligning people, data, and technology to unlock real business value and identifies four critical areas for successful AI adoption:

• People, processes, and culture: Effective AI implementation requires strong executive leadership that clearly articulates priorities and focus areas. 65% of disruptors understand the necessary skills for AI adoption.
• Business and technology modernization: While 31% of executives see outdated technology as a barrier to AI adoption, the real challenge is the lack of alignment between business and technical teams.
• Security: Security remains a universal priority for senior executives and engineering teams, particularly regarding data protection, data quality, and cloud security. 35% of businesses say their top challenge to achieving modernization is their lack of sophisticated security programs.
• Governance and responsible AI: While 75% of advanced companies claim to have established clear AI strategies, only 4% of disruptors say they have developed comprehensive governance frameworks, even with the understanding that effective governance is typically 18 months away.

Nir Kaldero, Chief AI Officer, EPAM NEORIS, noted that the next phase of AI is not just experimentation but deployment at scale, focusing on enterprise-wide, high-impact use cases while continuing the effort to align people and culture, data and cloud, and new processes to unlock true exponential business value.

The report concludes that organizations must now align AI with their business objectives rather than adapting business goals to fit AI capabilities. Success requires companies to evolve beyond implementing AI solely for productivity gains and operational efficiencies. Forward-thinking enterprises must leverage AI strategically across their entire value chain to drive revenue growth and enhance customer experience.

The data in the report is based on a survey of 7,300 respondents from enterprises with headcounts of 10,000+ evenly split across the C-Suite and Vice President level as well as engineers and developers spanning nine countries (the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Germany, Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, Singapore, and Argentina) and eight industries (financial services, life sciences and MedTech, education and business information services, energy, retail and consumer product goods, telco, media and entertainment, insurance, automotive, and manufacturing). The survey was conducted between October 24, 2024, and December 3, 2024, in partnership with Censuswide.