Aptean Research Reveals Why General-Purpose AI is Falling Short of Corporate Expectations

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Optimism Endures

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Despite early failures and governance gaps, companies remain overwhelmingly optimistic about AI and see it as essential to long-term success. In fact, 83% said opportunity is their primary motivator, and 82% agree AI offers clear value that hasn’t been fully realized yet. Rather than reading current failure rates as a reason to pause, respondents see them as a reason to keep investing and gain a competitive advantage.

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¹Challapally et al., The GenAI Divide: State of AI in Business 2025, MIT NANDA, July 2025

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About this Research

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The Aptean 2026 Artificial Intelligence Research is a multi-region study of how organizations are putting artificial intelligence (AI) to work, where it’s paying off, where it isn’t, and why. Aptean commissioned independent research firm Vanson Bourne to survey 1,535 decision-makers at businesses with $10 million or more in annual revenue across six markets (the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, and Germany) and five industries: food and beverage; apparel and soft goods; transportation and distribution; discrete and process manufacturing; and equipment dealers, plus a cross-sector supply chain cut. Participants were business and IT leaders, from the C-suite to management, with direct involvement in their organization’s AI strategy and influence on decisions relating to enterprise resource planning (ERP) or supply chain management (SCM) systems.

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About Aptean

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Aptean is an AI company built for industrial business. For medium and enterprise manufacturers, distributors, and wholesalers facing rising costs, shrinking margins, and operational complexity, Aptean embeds AI directly into the workflows, decisions, and data your business already runs on – so intelligence isn’t a bolt-on, it’s how the work gets done. The result: faster decisions, lower costs, and measurable margin improvement delivered through an ongoing partnership, not a one-off implementation. Headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia, with offices across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. Learn more at aptean.com.

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About Vanson Bourne

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Vanson Bourne is an independent specialist in market research for the technology sector. Their reputation for robust and credible research-based analysis is founded upon rigorous research principles and our ability to seek the opinions of senior decision makers across technical and business functions, in all business sectors and all major markets. For more information, visit www.vansonbourne.com.

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For translated versions of the research report, please reach out to our media team directly.

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