Three-quarters of economic gains from artificial intelligence are being captured by just 20 per cent of top companies, creating a widening division at the top of the corporate world.

The insurance industry is among leaders identified in a new PwC AI performance study: “Want ROI from AI? Go for growth.”

The report warned: “Without a shift in approach, the performance gap between AI leaders and laggards is likely to widen further as leading companies continue to learn faster, scale proven use cases and automate decisions safely at scale.”

Arthur Wightman, territory leader, PwC Bermuda, said: “AI is fast becoming a defining source of competitive advantage — but the payoff isn’t automatic. The organisations pulling ahead are the ones using AI to reinvent how they create value, while putting strong governance and trust at the heart of every deployment.”

Joe Atkinson, global chief AI officer, PwC, said: “Many companies are busy rolling out AI pilots, but only a minority are converting that activity into measurable financial returns. The leaders stand out because they point AI at growth, not just cost reduction, and back that ambition with the foundations that make AI scalable and reliable.”

The top AI users are nearly twice as likely as other companies to say they’re using AI in advanced ways: executing multiple tasks within guardrails or operating in autonomous, self-optimising ways.

They are increasing the number of decisions made without human intervention at almost three times the rate of their peers, and their employees are twice as likely to trust AI outputs.

The leaders are driving those technology gains into productivity and growth as early adopters are two to three times more likely to use AI to identify and pursue growth opportunities and reinvent their business model.

They are not just adding AI tools, but are twice as likely to redesign workflows to incorporate the new technology and nearly three times more likely to have increased the number of decisions made without human intervention, while also going further on AI governance.

The companies are pulling sharply ahead in the race to generate real financial returns from artificial intelligence, the global study found.

It interviewed 1,217 senior executives, primarily at large, publicly listed companies across 25 sectors, asking them about the revenue and efficiency gains they are seeing from AI today, alongside questions about how they deploy the technology.

It determined that 74 per cent of AI’s economic value is captured by just one‑fifth of organisations, revealing a stark and widening divide between a small group of AI leaders and the majority of businesses still stuck in pilot mode.

The top‑performing companies are doing more than just deploying AI tools. They are using AI as a catalyst for growth and business reinvention, particularly by pursuing new revenue opportunities created as industries converge, while building strong foundations around data, governance and trust.

The financial services sector is performing better than average on overall AI fitness, but still trails the top AI leaders, especially in how widely AI is being put to work.

The report said: “Insurance comes out as one of the stronger sectors in the survey, with solid groundwork in place for using AI. It has clear direction and strong controls around security and risk, however, it is not yet using AI as widely as the top performers.

“The biggest gap is working with partners outside insurance and reshaping how work gets done across the value chain. Leaders are also seeing bigger cuts in energy use and waste than insurance has achieved so far.

“Banking and capital markets is also punching above its weight versus most sectors on overall AI readiness, but it’s still playing catch-up with the true AI leaders — especially on turning AI use into real-world impact.

“Asset and wealth management is sitting in the middle of the pack when it comes to AI readiness. While its foundations and governance are solid, it’s falling behind other sectors — and the top AI innovators — because it hasn’t yet tapped into AI’s full potential, especially around sector convergence.”