A Guide to Building Change Resilience in the Age of AI

by Karim R. Lakhani, Jen Stave, Douglas Ng and Daniel Martines

July 29, 2025

Illustration by Daniel Liévano

Summary.

There’s near universal consensus that AI will fundamentally change how business is done, yet most organizations have not yet seen a substantive impact from their AI efforts. A BCG Global Survey of 1,000 CXOs in more than 20 sectors reports that just 26% of organizations have achieved value from AI, realizing an average cost savings of 45% and 60% higher revenue growth compared to peer firms.

Karim R. Lakhani is the Dorothy and Michael Hintze Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and the chair and a cofounder of the Digital Data Design Institute at Harvard University. He is a coauthor of Competing in the Age of AI (Harvard Business Review Press, 2020).

Jen Stave is the Inaugural Director of the Digital, Data & Design Institute at Harvard, where she leads the university’s primary engine for investigating the impact of generative AI on business and society. Her work sits at the intersection of data, AI, change management, workforce transformation, and organizational effectiveness and her perspectives on the future of digital labor are featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Economist. She has served on the steering committee for the United Nations’ AI for Good program and is a frequent contributor to Harvard Business Review.

Douglas Ng is the director of Design at Harvard’s Digital Data Design Institute. As a digital strategist, technology educator, and innovation researcher, Ng specializes in AI transformation.

Daniel Martines is a managing director with BCG X, where he specializes in generative AI, AI platform engineering, and data management.

Read more on Experimentation or related topics Generative AI, AI and machine learning and Organizational change

A Guide to Building Change Resilience in the Age of AI

Summary.

Partner Center