The use of artificial intelligence in modern workplaces is growing and evolving. Two recent studies – McKinsey’s ‘The state of AI in 2025’ and Perplexity’s ‘Perplexity at Work’ – offer some insights into both trends and help illustrate the breadth of AI adoption.
AI Has Become an Imperative
The use of AI in the workplace has become essential for modern business. Like previous technological transitions, such as incorporating e-mail or video calls, AI’s use has rapidly expanded as capabilities and trust in the technology have increased. McKinsey’s survey reveals that 79% of respondents use some form of Generative AI in at least one function, and 88% of respondents use analytical AI in at least one process (shown below). The survey’s history also shows that Gen AI adoption this year accelerated, up eight percentage points from last year’s survey. While AI is becoming commonplace in the workplace, its benefits aren’t evenly distributed.
Not Everyone is an ‘AI High Performer’
McKinsey’s survey included a cohort of ‘AI High Performers’ – defined as those organizations who attribute “EBIT impact of 5 percent of more to AI use and say their organization has seen “significant” value from AI use.” This cohort represented about 6 percent of respondents in this year’s survey. These AI high performers aren’t just adept cost cutters, what separates these firms the most from all other respondents is their intention to drive “enterprise-wide transformation change.” The survey found that high performers report using AI to boost innovation and growth at a much higher percentage than all other firms, while the high performers’ use of AI for efficiency is roughly in-line with the rest of respondents.
Said differently, there’s a small cohort of organizations who are using AI as business drivers, not just as an efficiency imperative. This got me thinking – who are these AI high performers and how are they driving growth?
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An Inside Look at High Performers
If users are struggling to maximize the benefits of working with AI, Perplexity’s ‘Perplexity at Work: A Guide to Getting More Done’ might be the handbook they’ve been looking for. Within the report, Perplexity details how users can enhance their ‘prompt engineering’ skills to get the full use of LLMs and research assistants. For instance, Perplexity notes its assistance in ‘Smarter Decision Making’ which “helps you gather the best information, pull in proven methods from other industries, and put together strong solutions—without needing a whole team of specialists or spending endless hours on research.”
Page 33 of the Perplexity report lists a handful of specific prompts that detail some of the capabilities of these research assistants. In short, users are encouraged to as precisely, not succinctly, ask the assistant to detail the implementation of expert-level skills and solutions, such as implementing a freemium SaaS model (with conversion strategies) or a buy vs build decision-making model. And these samples are just that, a small list, of what assistants may be capable of doing. Users can run wild with these ideas for innovation and growth that are detailed by an AI high performer.
Artificial intelligence continues to be rapidly adopted by businesses. The technology has quickly transformed from chatbots to an enterprise workflow necessity. But while adoption has become mainstream, excellence hasn’t. Only six percent of firms, according to McKinsey, are ‘AI high performers’ who use the technology for enterprise-wide transformational change. One of the firms at the center of AI’s growth – Perplexity – offers a handbook to help users get the most out of these AI assistants to help propel users to be high performers. The strategies detailed from Perplexity and the data from McKinsey show that AI’s use is both growing and evolving.
McKinsey and Company, November 28, 2025, The state of AI in 2025: Agents, innovation, and transformation, https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/our-insights/the-state-of-ai
Perplexity, November 28, 2025, Perplexity at Work: A Guide to Getting More Done, https://r2cdn.perplexity.ai/pdf/pplx-at-work.pdf
For more content by Blake Anderson, CFA®, Associate Portfolio Manager click here
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