The leaders track outcomes, not usage
Only 25% of product and engineering leaders report meaningful AI acceleration. 86% of them track outcomes, not usage.
Self-assessment
Choose the stage that describes you today
Read the criteria for each stage. If you match some criteria from two stages, pick the earlier one.
- 01SDLC
Assisted coding
AI helps individual developers write code faster.
You're here if:
- Coding assistants such as Copilot, Cursor, or Claude are licensed for some or all engineers
- Success is reported as seats, usage, or suggestion acceptance
- AI work isn't linked to tickets, releases, or business outcomes
- Adoption varies widely from team to team
- 02PDLC
AI across product
AI reaches product, design, and quality, not just code.
You're here if:
- Product managers, designers, and quality engineers use AI in their daily work
- Agents write tests, specs, or documentation alongside code
- Some teams compare delivery metrics before and after AI
- AI spend is growing faster than anyone can show its return
- 03AI-DLC
Agent-led delivery
Agents run multi-step work; people approve at checkpoints.
You're here if:
- Agents take work from ticket to merged change, with human review gates
- Human and agent work are tracked in the same delivery data
- You can show cycle time, rework, and cost per outcome by team
- AI budget decisions are made on measured return
- 04Enterprise
Agentic enterprise
Agents work across business processes, well beyond software.
You're here if:
- Agents operate in IT service, finance, customer operations, or supply chain
- You see one end-to-end process flow across your systems of record
- Human and agentic capital are allocated as one portfolio
- The board sees AI value reported like any other investment
Choose a stage to see where you sit.
Your position is marked on the curve above.
Your result: Assisted coding
You're with the 75%.
Most enterprises are here. The top 25% are already running agent-led delivery and measuring what their agents return. The gap widens every quarter you can't prove value.
Your result: AI across product
Ahead of most. Not yet with the leaders.
AI is spreading across your product teams, but without outcome measurement the value curve flattens. That measurement is what separates the top 25%.
Your result: Agent-led delivery
You're in the leaders' zone, if you can prove it.
Agent-led delivery puts you with the top 25%. Staying there depends on showing cycle time, rework, and cost per outcome to the people who fund it.
Your result: Agentic enterprise
Beyond the curve.
Few enterprises run agents across the business. At this scale, unmeasured AI becomes one of the largest unmanaged lines in the budget.