This study will resonate with animal health pros who wish to see if collective industry experiences compare to Digitail’s veterinary industry benchmark studies <Link>. We’ll share takeaways from the study overview here.
Now in its fourth year, this year-over-year study from Wharton Human-AI Research and GBK Collective tracks the evolution of AI adoption, ROI, agents, training and workforce impact. It highlights what separates widespread adoption from strong returns and deeply embedded change.
Access to powerful AI is quickly becoming ubiquitous. The advantage comes from what an organization can do with it: redesign workflows, align leaders and employees, and translate AI into measurable business outcomes. That requires clear ownership, aligned leadership teams, empowered employees, and a much sharper understanding of the outcomes the organization is trying to achieve.” – Jeremy Korst, Mindspan Labs
Source: Knowledge at Wharton, October 13, 2026. Link. This year’s AI adoption study examines three markers of an adaptive organization: proving value, workflow transformation, and organizational alignment.
Waves 1 and 2 (2023-2024): Exploration and experimentation
Trial by early adopters gave way to formal experimentation as pilots spread across functions. Enthusiasm matured while scrutiny increased, pointing from excitement toward a search for ROI.
Wave 3 (2025): Accountable acceleration
Regular usage became integrated into core operations, bringing skill enhancement but also fears of proficiency decline. Leaders embedded ROI metrics, invested in internal R&D, and tightened guardrails.
Wave 4 (2026): Success through transformation
Adoption is no longer the question. Employees largely report that AI is embedded in core operations and some workflows have been redesigned around it. While positive returns are near-universal, though, substantial ones are not. What separates organizations seeing real financial return is how completely they have integrated AI up and down the business: what they measure, how far they let AI act, and whether they have settled on an approach. This is the development our 2025 report anticipated: from “accountable acceleration” to “performance at scale.”`
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