Georgian Releases 2025 AI Adoption Enterprise & Growth-Stage Benchmarks Report; Among Respondents, Enterprises Lead in AI Deployment (32%) with Growth-Stage Reporting Higher ROI Gains (48%)

Compiled in partnership with NewtonX, and leveraging 600+ exec respondents, the report highlights AI maturity similarities but distinct adoption paths between Growth-Stage and Enterprise Respondents

TORONTO, Aug. 27, 2025 /PRNewswire/ - Georgian Partners, a growth-stage B2B investor that helps companies scale via its AI Lab, today announced the findings from its AI, Applied – Enterprise Benchmarks report, completed in collaboration with NewtonX. While AI is becoming increasingly embedded across the workflows of both R&D and GTM respondents, the report shows that this integration varies significantly by company stage. The full report can be downloaded here.

The AI, Applied, Enterprise Benchmarks, August 2025 Report, released in partnership with AI Marketers Guild and GTM Partners, is part of Georgian's AI, Applied Benchmark Research, which surveyed 600+ executives globally across 10 countries and 15 industry verticals. To create global benchmarks of B2B AI adoption, Georgian partnered with nine international organizations including AI Marketers Guild, GTM Partners, FirstMark and Untapped Ventures (San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles) and Startup Nation Central, Herzog and Grove Ventures (Tel Aviv) in addition to the Vector Institute and the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Toronto, Edmonton).

According to Sangram Vajre, CEO of GTM Partners, "This data shows a surprising truth: AI maturity isn't just about scale. Growth-stage respondents, with fewer resources, are often realizing bigger and faster gains because they deploy AI with laser focus on impact. Enterprise respondents may win on breadth, but agility is proving to be a real accelerator."

Enterprise respondents report deploying AI across a broader range of R&D and GTM functions, with an average lead of 10 percentage points of in-production usage compared to their growth-stage peers. This gap appears especially pronounced in areas such as Customer Support and Cybersecurity, where 57% of enterprise respondents lead compared to 39% of growth-stage respondents. However, growth-stage respondents are concentrating their investments, matching enterprises in the adoption of advanced AI techniques and large language models (LLMs), signaling that focused efforts can deliver comparable technical sophistication.

In growth-stage respondents, both R&D and GTM teams report higher gains across business (ARR, LTV, and Sales and Marketing efficiency). Growth-stage R&D respondents also report a more positive impact from AI on engineering metrics (code quality, commit frequency) despite lower deployment, suggesting leaner teams may realize more value, faster than enterprise peers.

"This report underscores the reality that AI is no longer a future concept for enterprise respondents. It's here, and the winners will be those who apply it with clarity, accountability, and measurable impact. Our members see firsthand that enterprise AI success depends as much on governance, skills, and cultural readiness as it does on technology. Applied AI is a business imperative," said David Berkowitz, Founder, AI Marketers Guild (AIMG).

Enterprise respondents favor advanced models, which come with a greater need for cost control:

• 58% of surveyed Enterprise R&D teams use custom-trained or fine-tuned models (vs. 39% Growth-stage, ▲19 pts) and are more likely to adopt cost management strategies like simplification (▲11 pts) and narrowing to high-priority initiatives (▲8 pts).

GTM AI adoption is broader among Enterprise respondents—except in content: 

• Enterprise GTM Respondents lead AI use in Lead Scoring (▲19 pts) and Customer Retention (▲13 pts), but surveyed Growth-stage companies lead in Marketing Messaging and Content (▲12 pts), the top use case for both cohorts.

Enterprise concerns center on integration, risk, and responsibility:

• Across both R&D and GTM functions, Enterprise Respondents are more likely to cite integration with existing systems (R&D ▲7 pts; GTM top-ranked), data security and privacy (R&D ▲6 pts; GTM top-ranked), regulatory compliance (R&D ▲13 pts), and ethical use (R&D ▲11 pts) as key barriers. These concerns reflect the operational and legal complexity of AI deployment at scale.

"Enterprise respondents leverage AI more broadly across key operational functions than growth-stage respondents, with a particular focus on customer success—where chatbots are already prevalent—and on cybersecurity to address emerging AI-driven threats. In contrast, surveyed growth-stage companies tend to be more risk-averse, concentrating their AI deployments on targeted go-to-market initiatives, including product features that maximize ROI and drive topline growth," said James Lamberti, Head of Go-to-Market at Georgian. "Through our AI, Applied, Enterprise & Growth-Stage Benchmarks, we believe these two vital market constituents will learn from each other, helping AI deploy in the most impactful way in the B2B world."

The Enterprise Benchmarks Report is part of Georgian's ongoing AI, Applied Benchmark Research series. The report aims to help R&D and GTM leaders calibrate their AI strategies against industry peers and identify practical steps for advancing maturity. In collaboration with its global partners, Georgian is hosting in-person events around the world featuring technical discussions and workshops on AI maturity. A dedicated in-person session on AI maturity will take place on September 16 in New York, in collaboration with FirstMark. Georgian plans to release the third wave of AI, Applied in Q1 2026, continuing longitudinal analysis alongside additional market-specific benchmarks.

About Georgian: 

Georgian invests in high-growth B2B software companies and collaborates to build software to help those companies scale through our AI Lab. We seek to identify and accelerate leading growth-stage software companies in our thesis areas of Applied AI and Trust. Georgian's AI Lab team works with portfolio companies to address growth-stage product and go-to-market challenges through one-on-one engagements, the Transferred Learnings community and AI research. Based in Toronto, Georgian's team brings together investors with machine learning professionals, software entrepreneurs and experienced operators.

About NewtonX:

NewtonX is a leading B2B research company that employed robust methodology for this study, involving 634 B2B executives globally with balanced representation from R&D and GTM leaders. The study surveyed 201 Canadian executives (100 R&D, 101 GTM) alongside 433 respondents from the rest of the world. Participants were drawn from businesses with annual recurring revenues starting at $1 million, ranging up to 200 large global enterprises. The blind study was conducted through 15-minute online interviews in April and May 2025, adhering to rigorous qualification and quality assurance processes.

About AI Marketers Guild:

AI Marketers Guild, part of Marketecture Media, is the leading community for marketing professionals navigating the fast-changing world of AI. We connect members through an active Slack community, exclusive weekly events with guest experts, and a members-only newsletter. Our programs provide practical insights, professional development, and opportunities to showcase and grow members' businesses while fostering collaboration across the AI marketing ecosystem.

About GTM Partners: 

GTM Partners is the leading Go-to-Market research, advisory, and community platform helping B2B leaders drive predictable, scalable growth. We work with CEOs, CROs, CMOs, and GTM teams to align strategy, metrics, and execution using our proven GTM Operating System™. Through data-driven research, executive workshops, and a global network of certified GTM experts, we equip companies to move from fragmented efforts to unified, high-performing revenue engines. Learn more at gtmpartners.com.

SOURCE Georgian Partners Growth LP