Video
Chuck Whitten, global leader of Bain’s Digital practice, urges companies to scale AI bets—and rewire the organization if needed.
What's the boardroom dynamic around generative AI in 2026?
There's real urgency. We're three years down the line since ChatGPT was released by OpenAI, and very few companies are scaling their AI bets, and boards are losing patience. They're saying 2026 is the year we need to see this translate into bottom-line results. It's time to start thinking about how they act decisively. How do they translate all of that urgency and that pressure into real results in 2026?
Is AI different than other technology cycles?
I think this technology cycle is different for a couple of reasons. First is, this technology is having a measurable impact on white-collar workflows. It generates text, writes code, and generates images, and as agentic comes online, it starts to do entire portions of a process and make decisions, and that's very, very different. The second is the rate of technology development continues to accelerate. The models, the capabilities are getting better week over week and month after month. So, this is a once-in-a-moment disruption I think that is very different than prior technology cycles.
Where do companies get stuck unlocking value from generative AI?
The technology is actually the easy part. I think companies are finding that it's the data, the process, and the change management that is the inhibitor today of creating value from generative AI. In fact, in our client success stories, we find that two-thirds of it is probably those things, and one-third is the technology. Now, that may change when you get to agentic, but for now, it's much more about how do I drive change in an organization and reimagine process? The technology part takes care of itself.
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First published in Januar 2026