ROI in the Agentic Era

What business leaders need to know about returns, risks, and reinvention in 2025

In 2024 Wrapped, we mentioned that 2025 would be the year of Agentic AI. Did we predict it accurately? Yes, we did.

Each day, AI feels less like a tool and more like a colleague — one that takes notes, drafts the follow-up, schedules the next call, and pulls the numbers while we’re still sipping our coffee. I have to admit: I love this feeling. These are the AI agents: not just copilots whispering in our ear, but sidekicks ready to execute tasks, connect systems, and make decisions under our guardrails.

This year marks a turning point, because now we finally see AI investments turning into measurable value. Businesses are no longer asking “should we use AI?” but rather “how do we scale it, and where is the return?” Yet, there is a nuance: according to McKinsey’s State of AI 2025, even though 72–78% of companies are using AI, only 1% have reached maturity. More strikingly, over 80% of companies say they have not seen a tangible impact on EBIT from AI adoption. The open question is whethe…