PwC: Top AI-savvy Firms Earning 7 Times Higher Returns Amid $7tn Revenue Shift

• Firm says only 36% of African companies trust AI for decision-making 

•Continent’s spending remains at 2% versus 5% globally

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The world’s most AI-savvy companies are generating 7.2 times higher returns from artificial intelligence investments than their peers, even as more than $7 trillion in enterprise value shifted across industries globally in 2025, according to a new report by PwC.

The report titled: ‘Decoding ROI from AI in Africa’, warned that African businesses risk falling behind global competitors unless they move beyond small-scale AI experiments and begin deploying the technology as a core driver of growth, innovation and business transformation.

PwC said the top 20 per cent of firms with the strongest AI capabilities currently capture 74 per cent of all AI-driven financial returns globally, highlighting the growing concentration of value among companies that are scaling AI aggressively.

“Findings from the study show that the most AI-fit companies generate 7.2 times greater AI-driven performance than others on an industry-adjusted basis. They capture more AI-driven revenue growth, achieve greater efficiency and cost improvements, and realise more substantial operating model transformation,” the PwC report added.

The study, which surveyed 1,217 large organisations worldwide, including 85 in Africa, found that companies generating the strongest AI returns are no longer focusing solely on productivity gains or cost reductions, but are increasingly using AI to create new revenue streams, reinvent business models and reposition themselves for emerging markets.

According to the report, Africa’s median AI spending remains significantly below global benchmarks, with organisations on the continent allocating just 2 per cent of revenue to AI investments compared with 5 per cent among global AI leaders.

“African business leaders have learned to make strategic decisions under constraints. Capital constraints, infrastructure gaps, skills scarcity, currency volatility, and the need to protect fragile operating performance have made building resilience a business imperative. As AI reshapes competition, companies with higher AI fitness are realising outsized returns, which may widen the gap in market leadership and profitability over time.

“In today’s business environment, African CEOs cannot afford to let constraints slow reinvention, as delay may limit their ability to compete for emerging sources of growth. PwC’s AI performance study shows the companies seeing the biggest returns from AI are not simply chasing improved productivity or cost savings. They are making bold decisions, using AI to drive growth and new value creation.

“Africa’s AI Fitness Index sits at the global median, yet the region trails AI leaders across every major dimension of AI-driven performance. This gap suggests that the challenge is not adoption, but execution at scale. The opportunity for the region is not to do more AI. It is to scale the right AI, deliberately and decisively,” the global professional services firm stated.

The report showed that only 32 per cent of African organisations surveyed said their current AI investment levels were sufficient to achieve strategic goals, compared with 55 per cent among leading AI-driven companies globally.

PwC stated that although AI adoption is rising across Africa, most organisations remain trapped in pilot stages without building the infrastructure, governance systems and workforce capabilities necessary to scale deployment enterprise-wide.

The report noted that 82 per cent of African firms have participated in AI pilot projects, close to the 88 per cent recorded among global AI leaders. However, many companies have struggled to translate experimentation into measurable financial outcomes.

PwC referenced its Value in Motion research in the report, stressing that more than $7 trillion in value shifted across industries in 2025 alone as companies redesigned operations and repositioned for new growth opportunities.

According to the report, Africa scored 5.8 points in sector convergence compared with 7.1 among global AI leaders, reflecting lower levels of collaboration between industries such as finance, telecommunications, agriculture, healthcare and energy.

PwC said many of Africa’s largest economic opportunities increasingly lie at the intersection of sectors rather than within traditional industry boundaries.

The report warned that firms limiting AI deployment to internal efficiency improvements risk missing larger growth opportunities emerging from these cross-sector transformations.

Despite the gaps, PwC suggested that Africa may possess a significant workforce advantage in AI adoption.

The report added that workers across Africa also exhibit relatively high trust in leadership and stronger psychological safety than global averages, factors which could support faster AI adoption if organisations invest more aggressively in training and digital capabilities.

However, PwC noted that organisational trust in AI-generated decision-making remains comparatively low, explaining that only 36 per cent of African organisations said employees trust AI-generated insights enough to use them in decision-making processes, compared with 60 per cent among AI leaders globally.