ST. LOUIS, MO — Annual research report covering AI adoption across 240+ mid-market and enterprise companies finds a widening gap between AI Leaders and AI Bystanders.
ST. LOUIS, MO — January 14, 2026 — Abstrakt Solutions today published its second annual AI Readiness Benchmark Report, drawing on survey data from 240+ mid-market and enterprise companies plus the firm's own production deployment experience.
Key findings include:
- Only 14% of companies surveyed have a written AI strategy with executive-level accountability
- AI Leaders (top quartile) have implemented an average of 7 production AI use cases, compared to 0.8 for AI Bystanders (bottom quartile)
- The single strongest predictor of AI ROI is data foundation maturity, not size of AI budget
- 62% of companies report that their first production AI deployment took longer than expected, with the most common cause being inadequate evaluation methodology
The report is available as a free download from abstraktsolutions.com/resources, alongside the AI Readiness Quiz — a 50-question diagnostic that maps respondents to one of five maturity tiers.
"The gap between AI Leaders and AI Bystanders is widening," said our VP of AI Practice. "Companies that built a solid foundation in 2024 are now compounding their advantage. The good news is that the gap is closeable — but it requires honest assessment and disciplined execution, not more pilots."
"The gap between AI Leaders and AI Bystanders is widening. Companies that built a solid foundation in 2024 are now compounding their advantage."