Shift: AI framed for growth, not just cuts

Companies that get real returns from artificial intelligence are increasingly using it to chase growth, not just trim payroll or automate tasks. (pwc.com) PwC said April 13 that 20% of companies in its global study captured 74% of AI-driven economic value. The firm surveyed 1,217 senior executives at mostly large, publicly listed companies across 25 sectors. (pwc.com) PwC said the leaders were 7.2 times stronger on AI-driven financial performance than other companies, measured through revenue and efficiency gains against sector medians. It said those companies were about two to three times more likely to use AI to find growth opportunities and rethink business models. (pwc.com) The firm said the biggest separator was not the number of pilots but whether companies used AI to enter adjacent markets, work across industry lines and redesign workflows around the technology. PwC called that pattern “AI fitness,” built from strategy, investment, data, workforce, governance and innovation. (pwc.com) Nickle LaMoreaux, chief human resources officer at International Business Machines, made a similar argument on April 13 in remarks highlighted by HR Executive. She said companies that focus only on employee productivity can miss larger gains from rebuilding enterprise workflows and redirecting labor into new products and customers. (hrexecutive.com) LaMoreaux pointed to International Business Machines’ own results, saying the company generated $4.5 billion in free cash flow from its AI work over the last three years. She said the question for executives is not only how much work AI can absorb, but what the company will do with the capacity it frees up. (hrexecutive.com) That view marks a shift from the past year’s public debate, which has often centered on layoffs, hiring freezes and software that speeds up existing office work. PwC said the companies pulling ahead are more likely to redesign workflows for AI and 2.8 times more likely to increase the number of decisions made without human intervention, while also investing more in governance. (pwc.com) International Business Machines has been testing that operating-model approach inside its own human resources function for years. HR Executive reported in September 2025 that the company’s AskHR system handled about 94% of employee requests and completed 11.5 million transactions a year after the company centralized earlier chatbot efforts. (hrexecutive.com) That rollout was not smooth: HR Executive said International Business Machines shut off some legacy human resources channels, saw its employee Net Promoter Score fall from +19 to -35, then later recover to +74 after changes to the tool and operating model. The example underlines the tradeoff in both PwC’s and LaMoreaux’s message: the payoff comes less from adding a chatbot than from reorganizing how the company works. (hrexecutive.com)