Thought leadership AI
4 minutes
February 18, 2025

Maximizing AI’s potential: Insights from Microsoft leaders on how to get the most from generative AI

By Carissa Eicholz, Director, Microsoft Cloud Marketing

Generative AI has been on a phenomenal growth trajectory over the past few years. We’re seeing businesses across industries using AI to increase productivity, streamline processes, and accelerate innovation. As generative AI applications continue to become more powerful, the question isn’t whether organizations will take advantage of AI, but how they can use it most effectively.

At Microsoft, our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. In this age of generative AI, we’re committed to sharing what we’ve learned to help further this mission. That’s why we wrote the 2025 AI Decision Brief: Insights from Microsoft and AI leaders on navigating the generative AI platform shift.

Get the full report

This report is packed with perspectives from top Microsoft leaders and insights from AI innovators, along with stories of companies across industries that have transformed their businesses using generative AI. It’s also full of pragmatic tips to help your company with its own AI efforts.

Here’s a more detailed look at what you’ll find in the report.

The state of generative AI today

The world has embraced generative AI with unprecedented speed. While it took seven years for the internet to reach 100 million users, ChatGPT reached those numbers in just two months.¹ And although generative AI is relatively new to the market, adoption is rapidly expanding. In fact, current and planned usage among enterprises jumped to 75% in 2024 from 55% in 2023, according to an IDC study.² 

Put another way, AI is rapidly evolving into what economists call a general-purpose technology. But getting to the point where everyone on the planet has AI access and takes advantage of that access will require some effort, including:

Committing to responsible, trustworthy AI.
For all people, organizations, and nations to embrace AI, it must be responsible, ethical, fair, and safe. As Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith says in this report, “Broad social acceptance for AI will depend on ensuring that AI creates new opportunities for workers, respects enduring values of individuals, and addresses the impact of AI on local resources such as land, energy, and water.”
Overcoming adoption challenges.
Organizations face several challenges in adopting generative AI, such as skill shortages, security concerns, and regulation and compliance issues. Training employees to use AI and building data privacy, security, and compliance into your AI adoption plan are essential.
Understanding the winning formula.
There’s a striking difference between customers in the AI exploration stage and those who have fully embraced it. The highest-performing organizations gain almost four times the value from their AI investments than those just getting started. Plus, those high performers are implementing generative AI projects in a fraction of the time.²

Where generative AI is headed

AI capabilities are doubling at a rate four times that of historical progress.² This exponential growth tells us that the effects of AI-powered automation, scientific discovery, and innovation will also accelerate. We expect generative AI to revolutionize operations, enable new and disruptive business models, and reshape the competitive landscape in many ways, including:

The future of work.
As the use of generative AI in companies continues to grow, employees are starting to collaborate with AI rather than just treating it as a tool. This means learning to work with AI iteratively and conversationally. “Effective collaboration involves setting expectations, reviewing work, and providing feedback—similar to managing an employee,” explains Jared Spataro, Microsoft Chief Marketing Officer, AI at Work.
The organizations leading innovation.
Startups, software development companies, research organizations, and co-innovation labs where startups and software giants collaborate on solutions will all continue to shape AI innovation.
Sustainable AI.
Generative AI is helping build a more sustainable future thanks to tools that integrate renewable energy into grids, reduce food waste, and support socially and environmentally beneficial actions.

Gain insights and inspiration with the 2025 AI Decision Brief

How to advance generative AI in your organization

As we help companies move from talking about AI to translating it into lasting results, we’ve gained a unique perspective on the generative AI strategies that drive business impact. You’ll find many of them in this report, including:

Best practices for using generative AI at scale.
Get tips for developing a scalable AI strategy that best suits your organization, implementing your AI adoption plan, and managing your AI efforts over time.
Ways to accelerate your AI readiness.
Get checklists for creating your organization’s AI business strategy, technology and data strategy, implementation strategy, cultural and mindset shift, and governance plan.
Customer success stories.
See how businesses across industries—including healthcare, energy, transportation, and finance—are demonstrating what’s possible with AI now, and in the future. Plus, explore which Microsoft and AI tools they’re using to succeed.

Maximize generative AI with insights from Microsoft leaders

We couldn’t be more excited about the promise of generative AI. Whether you’ve already begun using AI at your organization or are just getting started, we’re here to help you ease the journey and maximize your results.

Get The 2025 AI Decision Brief now for Microsoft AI leadership perspectives on:

Empowering the future: AI access for us all—Brad Smith, Vice Chair and President.
How AI is revolutionizing IT at Microsoft—Nathalie D’Hers, CVP Microsoft Digital (IT).
Learnings on the business value of AI from IDC—Alysa Taylor, Chief Marketing Officer, Commercial Cloud and AI.
The future of work is AI-powered—Jared Spataro, Chief Marketing Officer, AI at Work.
Microsoft’s commitment to supporting customers on their AI transformation journey—Judson Althoff, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer.
How software development companies are paving the way for AI transformation—Jason Graefe, Corporate Vice President, ISV and Digital Natives.
How to stay ahead of emerging challenges and cyberthreats—Vasu Jakkal, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Security Business.