Digital World Class® IT teams invest 3X more in AI and automation – driving agility, scale and transformation
The Hackett Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: HCKT), a leading generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) consultancy and executive advisory firm, today released its 2025 Digital World Class® Technology research. It reveals how enterprises with top-performing information technology (IT) organizations are reshaping value creation by embracing Gen AI, automation and agile delivery models.
The report defines Digital World Class® IT organizations as those achieving top-quartile performance in both business value and operational excellence. Enterprises with top-performing IT organizations operate with 9% lower technology costs than peers, while delivering 40% more revenue and 3X higher earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA). They are outperforming not just through efficiency, but by embedding Gen AI across the enterprise, aligning tightly with business strategy, and modernizing the technology landscape to enable speed, innovation, and scale.
“Technology organizations and leaders that embrace their role as AI and transformation enablers help their enterprise deliver exponential business impact,” said Kyle McNabb, principal and head of research at The Hackett Group®. “Digital World Class® IT teams are redefining how value is created – with a clear focus on innovation, alignment and agility.”
Key metrics defining today’s Digital World Class® IT teams
The Hackett Group’s research, based on global benchmarks from hundreds of companies, highlights four key differentiators that define Digital World Class® IT performance:
1. Tighter integration with business strategy
- 2.9X more likely to be consistently engaged in business strategy and decision-making
- 69% have IT strategies fully aligned with enterprise goals (vs. 29% of peers)
2. Greater focus on innovation
- 34% of IT spend allocated to Gen AI, intelligent automation and other emerging technologies – 3X more than peers
- 22% more per end user spend on application innovation processes
3. Higher investment in IT talent
- 11% higher labor rates overall, reflecting higher compensation in key roles
- 56% higher average tenure for skilled employees and 43% higher tenure for managers
4. Modernized, streamlined technology environments
- 50% of total tech budgets spent on cloud (vs. 28% for peers)
- 57% fewer applications and 64% fewer primary databases managed than peer organizations
- 36% more business processes automated, including full automation of critical customer and supplier transactions
Digital World Class® IT organizations are not only more efficient – they are more agile, resilient, and better equipped to navigate disruption and seize new value creation opportunities.
Reshaping the IT operating model to close the performance gap
The next wave of IT excellence will be led by organizations that embrace AI to reimagine work, talent and service delivery. The research outlines six key levers for reshaping the IT service delivery model and enabling enterprisewide Gen AI adoption:
- Service design: Build agile delivery models, scale machine learning operations, and prioritize innovation that can be proven and scaled.
- Technology: Rationalize outdated systems, prioritize cloud-first strategies, and use Gen AI to accelerate coding, documentation, and IT operations.
- Human capital: Upskill teams for AI fluency and embrace co-intelligence models where people and agents work together.
- Analytics and information management: Ensure enterprise data is AI-ready with strong governance, orchestration and security protocols.
- Service partnering: Rebalance outsourcing to focus internal talent on transformational work; partner with AI leaders who emphasize ethical practices.
- Organization and governance: Shift to a business-enablement mindset; create AI centers of excellence and formalize top-down AI evaluation and prioritization.
A public version of the research paper, “Transform Technology Performance With Gen AI,” is available for free with registration.
About The Hackett Group®
The Hackett Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: HCKT) is an IP and platform-based, Gen AI strategic consulting and executive advisory firm that enables Digital World Class® performance. Using AI XPLR™ and ZBrain™ – our ideation through implementation platforms – our experienced professionals help organizations realize the power of Gen AI and achieve quantifiable, breakthrough results, allowing us to be key architects of their Gen AI journey.
Our expertise is grounded in unparalleled best practices insights from business benchmarking the world’s leading businesses – including 97% of the Dow Jones Industrials, 90% of the Fortune 100, 70% of the DAX 40 and 51% of the FTSE 100. Visit us at www.thehackettgroup.com.
Trademarks
The Hackett Group®, quadrant logo, and Digital World Class® are the registered marks of The Hackett Group®.
Cautionary Statement Regarding “Forward-Looking” Statements
This release contains “forward-looking” statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Statements including without limitation, words such as “expects,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “seeks,” “estimates,” or other similar phrases or variations of such words or similar expressions indicating, present or future anticipated or expected occurrences or outcomes are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not statements of historical fact and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company’s actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors that may impact such forward-looking statements include without limitation, the ability of The Hackett Group® to effectively market its digital transformation, our ability to transition our capabilities to support generative artificial intelligence (AI)-related consulting services and solutions and other consulting services, our ability to effectively integrate acquisitions, including the Spend Matters acquisition, into our operations, our ability to manage joint ventures and successfully cooperate with our joint venture partners, competition from other consulting and technology companies that may have or develop in the future, similar offerings, the commercial viability of The Hackett Group® and its services as well as other risk detailed in The Hackett Group’s reports filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The Hackett Group® does not undertake any duty to update this release or any forward-looking statements contained herein.
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Enterprises with top-performing IT organizations operate with 9% lower technology costs than peers, while delivering 40% more revenue and 3X higher earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA).
