70% of companies are stuck at AI experimentation: Get a tailored AI automation strategy with Make AI Playbook

According to McKinsey’s State of AI research report, 78% of organizations currently use AI in at least one business function. Your company is probably no different, and your team has been experimenting with AI for quite some time.  But now, the CEO wants each department to implement AI in at least half of its processes by the end of Q1. While you have a sea of ideas, when it comes to execution, things get fuzzy. You aren’t sure where to start.

Don’t worry, you’re not the only one. Many organizations are still in the piloting phase of AI implementation, discovering how to reach the technology's full potential. However, as 2026 approaches, AI continues transforming from a useful technology into a must-have for success. The expected 36.89% annual AI market growth between 2025 and 2031 only underscores this trend. It shows how important it is to accelerate the process right about now.

Make is here to point you in the right direction. Recently, we launched a Make AI Playbook, a free AI maturity assessment tool that helps organizations understand where they stand on their AI journey. It provides you with a strategic roadmap for advancing to the following AI maturity stages. This way, you can move from random experimentation to a structured process before you lose momentum. 

Let’s dive deeper into the AI implementation roadblocks you may be currently facing, how to overcome them, and how the Make AI Playbook fits in.

Beware the experimentation trap

Right now, your AI usage may look like this: individuals are trying AI tools on their own, generating quick wins. Someone automated a report. Someone else streamlined a repetitive admin task. These moments feel promising, proving AI can deliver value.

But without a clear owner, a focused strategy, and a way to identify which opportunities actually matter, these wins stay isolated. The energy dissipates. Teams go back to their regular workflows, and you’ll find yourself walking in circles. Six months later, you're still having the same conversation about the need for a proper AI adoption strategy.

This is not due to a lack of resources or motivation. It is a structural problem. According to McKinsey, while AI adoption continues to accelerate year on year, 60 to 70% of organizations remain stuck in early experimentation phases despite AI being a stated C-suite priority. Why? Because they are missing a clear direction. This is a trap you can avoid by having a tangible AI automation roadmap at hand.

Proper strategy wins the race

The AI landscape is unarguably shifting from the era of "AI as a helpful assistant" to "AI as an autonomous agent", and it’s happening at hyperspeed. After all, the AI market is estimated to reach $254.50 billion in 2025. By 2033, it could hit $4.8 trillion. 

But here's what often gets lost in the urgency: the goal isn't to race toward "agentic everything." It's to clarify where AI adds genuine value, where traditional automation makes more sense, and where human judgment remains essential. That balance will look different for every organization, which is precisely why a structured AI strategy matters more than speed alone.

The companies truly pulling ahead have moved from scattered exploration to focused AI pilot projects, from individual experiments to organizational AI capabilities, from excitement to execution. Not only quickly, but also strategically.

Know your AI maturity with Make AI Playbook

To help companies understand their current AI maturity state, the ultimate purpose of the Make AI Playbook is to place them into one of the four distinct stages:

Build → Accelerate → Scale → Lead

What value does it bring? Especially at the Build stage, where our survey has most organizations so far, the assessment helps you understand how to move past paralysis from not knowing which specific use case has real business value. 

Here's how Make AI Playbook works 

First, you’ll take a 4-question assessment about your organization's current AI readiness. You'll instantly be assigned your maturity stage and receive an AI transformation roadmap tailored to where you stand. It has concrete next steps, specific use cases to explore, skills your team needs to develop, and resources to support them.

You'll also get access to expert support and a tracking system to follow your progress. Think Trello for your AI strategy.

What makes the Make AI Playbook so effective?

The Make AI Playbook is built on Make’s own wins and learnings, because we once went through our own journey from AI experimentation to execution. We faced the same questions as you may be asking yourself:

• Which use cases actually matter?

• How do we balance innovation with governance through a proper AI governance framework?

• Where do we use AI agents versus traditional automation?

Those experiences are reflected in the AI Playbook. It's built on real, actionable frameworks. Together with Make’s visual-first approach, it helps you navigate your AI automation landscape to make AI transformation happen. 

A clear path to 3-5x better ROI 

Research shows that companies with structured AI strategies achieve 3-5x higher return on AI investment than those with an ad hoc approach. The Make AI Playbook serves as a starting point on your journey towards this goal through effective enterprise AI implementation. You’ll get something most organizations spend months searching for: a clear picture of where you stand in AI maturity and a concrete plan for moving forward through sustainable AI implementation.