Kearney report: transformation success remains stuck around 30 percent despite surge in AI investments

Companies have spent years investing in technology, transformation expertise, and methodologies, and now, they're spending enormous amounts of money on AI, yet the fundamental adoption problem persists: resistance to change.

• Kearney's new study finds that only 29 percent of transformations consistently achieve the value they set out to deliver.
• More than 80 percent of transformation executives say less than half of their AI initiatives are delivering measurable financial impact.
• Resistance to change is the top-cited implementation barrier, ahead of budget, timelines, and technology.
• Only 12 percent of leaders intentionally slow transformation to protect organizational readiness.
• Nearly 3/4 of leaders say strategy, priorities, and sequencing are set primarily by senior leadership.
• Companies that embed capability-building from day one are nearly 3x more likely to realize the value they expected.

CHICAGO, Aug. 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Global management consultancy Kearney today released the Kearney Transformation Study 2026, titled The adoption gap: why most transformations fail after the strategy is approved, which finds that, despite unprecedented investments in AI and organizational change, the share of transformations that consistently deliver their intended value remains at roughly 30 percent. The study, which surveyed 102 senior transformation executives across industries and company sizes, finds that resistance to change, not a shortage of strategy or technology, is the primary obstacle to transformation success and that companies that take a "human-shaped" approach are the clear exception to an otherwise stagnant trend.

The article derived from the study identifies the need to shape transformations around four mutually reinforcing human elements: motivation, human contribution, capacity for change, and capabilities needed.

"Companies have become much better at designing and launching transformations, but they haven't made the same progress in getting organizations to adopt them," said Jennifer McGee, Kearney partner and lead author of the report. "That's the paradox: we have more technology, more sophisticated transformation methods, and more investment than ever, yet consistent value realization is still elusive. The next transformation advantage won't come from better strategy alone; it will come from mastering adoption."

The study probes leadership sentiment on the efficacy of transformation efforts and companies' approaches to improving readiness and adoption, including the following:

• How many organizations have transformation underway and whether leaders now view it as an ongoing capability rather than a one-time event
• How well organizations balance value realization against organizational fatigue
• The biggest perceived barriers to transformation and how those barriers compare to findings from prior years
• Whether and how leaders are embedding capability-building from the start of a transformation
• The measurable performance impact of embedding capability early
• Where AI is genuinely accelerating adoption and where it risks compounding existing failure patterns

"Adoption isn't what happens after a transformation is designed. It has to shape the transformation from the beginning," McGee said. "That means designing around what motivates people, giving the organization a meaningful role in shaping change, creating capacity to absorb it, and building capabilities before they are needed. When those elements come too late, organizations spend the rest of the transformation trying to overcome resistance they helped create."

Report co-author Bryan Arcati, partner in Kearney's Strategy, Growth, and Organizational Transformation practice, points to the added urgency AI now creates: "AI is making human-shaped transformation more urgent, not less. At a time when most leaders aren't seeing measurable financial impact from the majority of their AI initiatives, it's clear that digital capability alone isn't enough. The organizations that close that gap will be the ones that build capabilities before implementation: equipping leaders to redesign work, helping employees build confidence and judgment in using AI, and reinforcing new ways of working every day."

For more information, to schedule an interview with Jennifer McGee or Bryan Arcati, or to receive a pdf of The adoption gap: why most transformations fail after the strategy is approved, please contact:

Meir Kahtan
Meir Kahtan Public Relations
[email protected] | +1 917-864-0800

About Kearney
For 100 years, Kearney has been a leading management consulting firm and trusted partner to three-quarters of the Fortune Global 500 and governments around the world. With a presence across more than 40 countries, our people make us who we are. We work impact first, tackling your toughest challenges with original thinking and a commitment to making change happen together. By your side, we deliver—value, results, impact. To learn more about Kearney, please visit www.kearney.com.

About the Kearney Transformation Study 2026
To understand the performance of transformation programs and the organizational shifts required to make them more successful, Kearney surveyed 102 global transformation leaders across multiple industries, including tech and media, financial services, manufacturing and industrials, and more. Company sizes ranged from $500 million to $10 billion in annual revenue. 

SOURCE Kearney