Avanade urges firms to use AI to remake business models

Avanade has launched Build Beyond Limits, a new position on how companies should use artificial intelligence. Preliminary findings from its upcoming AI Reality Report show that 73% of business leaders believe too much AI investment is still focused on incremental gains.

The initiative reflects what Avanade sees as a shift in corporate AI use: from improving existing processes to redesigning operating models, products and services around the technology.

Avanade based that view in part on early research showing that only 17% of leaders have fundamentally redesigned their operating model around AI. The figures come from a survey of more than 3,000 senior business leaders across industries and markets worldwide.

Chris Howarth, Chief Executive Officer of Avanade, said many organisations have completed an initial phase of AI adoption focused on efficiency and are now moving into a different stage.

"We're reaching a tipping point in the AI journey," Howarth said. "The first chapter of AI implementation was about doing things faster. The next chapter is about doing things that were never thought possible before. The organisations that lead tomorrow won't simply use AI to improve today's business. They'll use it to build entirely new ways of creating value."

Avanade describes this distinction as AI "on" the business versus AI "in" the business. In its framing, the first focuses on productivity tools, automation and copilots. The second embeds AI into workflows, products, services and business models.

Ben Beath, recently appointed Chief AI Officer of Avanade, said many companies remain at the earlier stage.

"Most organisations today have AI on their business," Beath said. "They're using Copilot, automation and AI tools to make existing work faster and more efficient. That delivers real value and is an important first step. But lasting advantage comes when organisations put AI in their business by redesigning workflows around intelligence, connecting data, technology and people differently, and creating entirely new sources of value. That's where we see the biggest opportunity emerging."

Reuters imagen

As an example of that approach, Avanade pointed to its work with Reuters Imagen, a content management platform used by sports organisations, broadcasters, rights holders and media companies.

Reuters Imagen has introduced new AI-based content activation functions, built with Avanade on Microsoft Azure. The system is designed to analyse live and archived footage, generate metadata automatically, identify key moments and create highlights in near real time.

It also includes a live-to-social function that lets users identify, clip and publish content while events are still taking place. Avanade said this changes how customers distribute material across broadcast, digital, social and marketing teams.

David Wilkinson, Head of Reuters Imagen, said the changes reflect a broader shift in how customers want to use content.

"Historically, Imagen was often viewed as a platform used by broadcast operations teams. Today, organisations want the same content to be available across broadcast, digital, social and marketing teams," Wilkinson said. "By helping customers activate content across those audiences, we're creating entirely new opportunities for how content is used and monetised. We're helping organisations activate content, create value from it, and deliver it wherever their audiences are."

The Reuters Imagen example gives Avanade a case study to support its argument that AI's commercial impact may come less from simple labour savings and more from changing how companies generate revenue and reach customers.

The position comes as technology suppliers and consultancies increasingly try to distinguish between early AI deployments, often centred on personal productivity tools, and deeper changes to core operations. For many businesses, the challenge has shifted from testing AI tools to deciding whether to restructure teams, workflows and products around them.

Avanade said it has worked with more than 7,000 organisations worldwide and has also deployed AI internally as Microsoft's Client Zero. Founded by Microsoft and Accenture, the company focuses on Microsoft technology.

Its argument is that the first phase of AI adoption has already delivered value for many companies, but will not by itself create durable differentiation. The research suggests business leaders recognise that gap, even if most have yet to act on it through a full operating model redesign.

Howarth returned to that point in a further comment on the new position.

"That's what Build Beyond Limits is ultimately about," he said. "The future winners won't be the organisations that simply do the same things faster. They'll be the organisations that use AI to redefine what's possible."