09/10/2026
Large companies are scaling AI agents. Smaller ones haven't moved.
McKinsey's State of AI 2026 (1,719 respondents, 97 countries):
→ Companies with $1bn+ revenue scaling AI agents: 27% → 40% in one year
→ Smaller companies: 22%, essentially unchanged
→ Only 37% report any impact on EBIT
The easy explanation is cost. The survey doesn't support it: only about one in five say operating costs limited their AI use.
We read it as capacity. Large firms have people who connect the agent to their systems, catch its mistakes and rebuild the process around it. A twenty-person firm can buy the same tools, but nobody has the hours.
What a smaller company can do this quarter:
1. Pick one workflow, not a platform
2. Draw it before you automate it
3. Put a human checkpoint where mistakes cost money
4. Decide the measure before you start
5. Give it an owner
Full article: link in the comments 👇
