Beyond productivity: the AI impact waves your business needs to anticipate

The productivity trap

Most companies today use artificial intelligence for the same thing: automating repetitive tasks, speeding up workflows, and gaining some productivity. That's fine, it's a good first step. But according to a recent Gartner analysis, stopping there is like watching from the shore while the real wave hasn't broken yet.

Gartner is blunt with the diagnosis: “nearly 90% of technology leaders remain focused on generative AI initiatives applied to employees or internal processes.” It's a valid approach, but a limited one — it produces gradual improvements, not disruption.

Real disruption happens when AI forces entire industries to rethink value, pricing, and even the relevance of their core products. And that moment, Gartner says, is much closer than it seems — especially with the arrival of agentic systems (AI that doesn't just respond, but acts and decides).

What are AI's “impact waves”?

They're the second- and third-order effects of AI adoption: the ones you don't see in the first quarter, but when the whole market starts to move. In practice, this shows up as:

• Products and services that become obsolete almost overnight.
• Agile competitors — often small startups — using AI to do in weeks what takes a traditional company years.
• New business models that didn't even exist two years ago.
• Role transformation across the entire value chain, not just in technology.

An important detail: these waves almost never start in large corporations. They start at the edges — in startups and small teams willing to experiment without the weight of a traditional structure — and spread from there to the rest of the industry.

The window of opportunity is still open

Here's the number that should catch any executive's attention: fewer than 30% of technology leaders are driving AI initiatives ambitious enough to create real disruption in their industry.

In other words, there's still room to move before most others do. The window isn't closed — but it won't stay open forever either.

Five concrete steps to avoid falling behind

Gartner proposes five lines of action for companies that want to get ahead instead of reacting:

1. Embed AI at the core of your processes, not as a surface layer on top of what you already do.
2. Build an AI-driven business model, incorporating agentic AI into your customers' everyday experience.
3. Get comfortable experimenting — create small projects or units to test bold ideas without risking the core business.
4. Seek strategic partnerships with startups, vendors, and research centers that are already a step ahead.
5. Join open AI communities and ecosystems to learn faster and avoid reinventing the wheel.

The takeaway for your business

Generative AI is entering a phase of more realistic expectations — what Gartner calls the “trough of disillusionment” of the Hype Cycle. But that's not bad news: it's when the tools mature and serious companies start setting themselves apart from the ones that were just experimenting.

The question isn't whether AI will transform your industry. It's whether your company will be watching from the shore or already riding the wave when it arrives.

Based on Gartner's analysis “AI's Impact Waves: Its True Disruptive Power Goes Beyond Productivity” (Brook Selassie, August 28, 2025).