Virgent AI: State of AI & Business in 2024 - Now What?

"AI is not a futuristic technology. It's already here, and businesses need to adapt to stay competitive." - Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google

Over the past year, we’ve engaged in countless conversations with CEOs, founders, and business leaders from diverse industries, uncovering what’s driving success—and where challenges remain—as companies navigate their first or next steps into AI.

We felt it was important to distill our insights and share a snapshot of the current state of AI in business with you--especially as many of you are working on your 2025 strategic planning and focusing on your AI Digital Transformation. We believe these perspectives can help.

While many companies have moved beyond asking “Why AI?”, the new imperative is clear: “How do we optimize AI effectively, minimize risks, and determine where to begin?”

The good news? That’s exactly where we come in. Let’s start by understanding where most companies are today and how you can lead the way forward.

Where Companies Are Now

AI adoption is accelerating, but it’s clear from our conversations with leaders across industries that many companies are still grappling with foundational challenges.

Here’s what we’ve observed—and where action is needed:

Leadership Alignment Is Still Uneven

While many executives now agree AI is essential, alignment across leadership teams remains inconsistent. Often, a lack of education on AI/ML fundamentals leads to siloed or reactive strategies, making cohesive execution difficult.

Our Takeaway: Education is the first step. Leadership teams need a shared understanding of AI’s strategic potential to move forward with clarity and confidence.

Governance Is a Big Gap

The number one thing we hear from CEOs is: “We want to adopt AI, but we cannot afford to get this wrong.” Urgency to innovate is outpacing the creation of governance frameworks, putting companies at risk. Ethical AI practices, regulatory compliance, and clear accountability can’t be afterthoughts—they must be built into your strategy from the beginning.

Our Takeaway: Governance isn’t a blocker—it’s a competitive advantage. Companies that prioritize responsible AI are earning trust and avoiding costly mistakes.

Workforce Readiness Lags Behind

Many companies are investing in AI, but not enough in their people. Employees need skills and confidence to integrate AI seamlessly into their workflows. Some roles may evolve, but when employees see AI as their superpower instead of a replacement, businesses unlock their full potential.

Our Takeaway: Empower your workforce. Partner with experts to provide tailored training that upskills employees on AI fundamentals, governance policies, and your organization’s specific stance on AI’s role. Clear communication is key—leaders who actively address fears about job loss and emphasize the opportunities AI creates are already seeing higher morale, engagement, and adoption rates.

Pilots Are Stalling Without Clear Metrics

Many organizations have launched AI pilots, but too few define clear success metrics or plan for scaling. As a result, pilots often remain isolated experiments rather than stepping stones to broader transformation.

Our Takeaway: Pilots are just the beginning. Clear metrics and alignment across leadership ensure pilots lead to scalable success.

Build vs. Buy Dilemmas Are Slowing Decisions

The decision to build custom AI solutions or use off-the-shelf tools often slows progress. The key is understanding your organization’s maturity, short, and long-term goals. The problem is companies do not understand the way a lot of AI tools are being built today so find it hard to vet third party tools—and require an expert to support them.

Our Takeaway: There are definitely times where out of the box / customizable tools can be part of your new AI-enabled tech stack and where proprietary custom solutions are more relevant. Having an unbiased expert guide these decisions can validate the decision and accelerate your timeline for implementation.

Data Infrastructure Is Still a Bottleneck

Without modern data architecture—like lakehouses that handle both structured and unstructured data—companies can’t fully optimize AI for competitive advantage. Poor data foundations lead to inefficiencies and subpar AI performance. `

Our Takeaway: Your AI is only as good as your data. Investing in the right infrastructure now pays off in better insights, faster decisions, and scalable solutions.

Use Case Focus Is Lacking

Too many businesses are “doing AI” without a clear focus on the problems they want to solve. The best results come from targeting high-impact, high-ROI use cases that require the least effort to implement.

Our Takeaway: Start with purpose. We help client identify the highest impact, highest ROI, and lowest effort opportunities to enable AI—and ensure it solves a real business problem or a burning painpoint. You must focus AI efforts build your strategy around solving those problems.

We hope this analysis has given you a clearer assessment of where businesses stands with AI adoption and provided actionable insights to help you shape your 2025 strategic planning.

Want Virgent AI to Help You With Your AI Transformation?

We would love the opportunity to speak with you and to see if we can help.

Reply to this email or schedule a discovery call with our team to discuss how you can align leadership, empower your workforce, and develop AI roadmap and solutions for maximum ROI.

Need Consulting on Your AI Roadmap. Schedule a Discovery Call Here.

Virgent AI in Action

Exciting News! We are so honored that Virgent AI was recently showcased as on the top 100 emerging tech companies in Innovation of the World book for the DC, Maryland and Virginia region. See the full article below.

https://innovationsoftheworld.com/virgent-ai-move-beyond-ai-curious-to-ai-powered/

The AI Expo for National Competitiveness

Our CEO, Jesse Alton, and President, Seema Alexander, participated as speakers the The AI Expo for National Competitiveness on panels focused on building AI Product Solutions to drive innovation, efficiency and open up human agency—and building AI-driven disruptive businesses.

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n the pic: Rachel Kortesky (DCSTW); Chida Sadayappan(Deloitte); Jesse Alton (Virgent AI), Banjo Obayomi (AWS) & Seema Alexander (Virgent AI)

World Trade Center Institute

Our President participate on a AI at a CrossRoads Discussion at the World Trade Center Institute Panel. See full panel talk here.

Let’s Plan a 2025 AI Roadmap for Your Company! Click Here to Set Up a Discovery Call Today!

https://calendly.com/seemaalexander/virgent-ai-discovery-meeting

About Virgent AI

At Virgent AI, we move businesses and industries beyond AI-curious to AI-powered—safely and strategically.

We are your trusted thought partner and development team, specializing in identifying and creating high-impact AI agents and AI-enabled software solutions that drive innovation, boost productivity, enhance customer experiences, and provide a competitive edge—all while mitigating risks.

Our expertise spans evaluating and implementing best-in-class solutions, from off-the-shelf tools to custom AI agents, bespoke models, and autonomous workflows. We prepare your organization and workforce for transformation, ensuring seamless alignment and readiness across teams—supporting in governance policies and responsible AI practices.

As a technology-agnostic partner, we provide unbiased, best-in-class recommendations tailored to your IT infrastructure, business goals, and industry needs.

Discover how Virgent AI can help your business lead in this AI-driven era. Visit us at www.VIRGENT.ai and join the forward-thinking organizations transforming with AI today.