The AI Tipping Point: What McKinsey’s Superagency Report Signals for PE Investors and Portfolios
By GAPx Strategy
A new kind of industrial revolution is underway—this time, it’s cognitive. According to McKinsey’s Superagency in the Workplace report (Jan 2025), generative AI is not just a tool for automation but a force multiplier for decision-making, insight, and creativity. It is set to reshape how work is done, how value is created, and how business leaders—particularly in private equity—must think about performance, risk, and long-term return.
The findings are as sobering as they are catalytic:
92% of companies are investing in AI, yet just 1% consider themselves mature.
Employees are 3x more likely than leaders realise to already be using AI in their daily work.
The top barrier to scaling isn’t tech or talent—it’s leadership inertia.
This is more than an operational gap. It’s a strategic one. And for PE investors and portfolio companies, it points to a new frontier for competitive advantage.
From Automation to Superagency
What’s striking about the McKinsey report isn’t just the pace of AI development, but the way it reframes productivity itself. We’re not just automating tasks. We’re entering an era where intelligent systems collaborate with people—reasoning, planning, creating. This is what McKinsey and Reid Hoffman call “superagency.”
The parallel McKinsey draws is apt: AI is not like software. It’s like the steam engine—capable of changing the shape and tempo of entire industries.
But just as with previous revolutions, adoption lags impact. Most companies are still experimenting at the edges—pilots that don’t scale, disconnected dashboards, proof-of-concept fatigue. The risk now isn’t overreach. It’s underreach.
For PE investors, this creates both a warning and a window.
Investor Lens: What the McKinsey Superagency Report Means for PE Firms and Portcos
1. AI Maturity ≠ AI Investment
92% of companies are investing in AI, yet only 1% are mature.
Implication: Transformation, not tooling, drives enterprise value. Investment without operating integration won’t yield returns.
2. Leadership, Not Technology, Is the Bottleneck
Employees are using AI 3x more than their leaders realise.
Implication: Underestimating internal momentum leads to missed upside. Portfolio leaders need clearer vision and structured support.
3. The ROI Curve Is Lagging—but It Will Steepen
Only 19% see >5% revenue lift from AI today; 87% expect it within 3 years.
Implication: AI maturity will soon factor into valuation multiples. Early movers will benefit at exit.
4. Sector Variance Creates Arbitrage
Consumer goods, finance, and logistics under-invest relative to AI potential.
Implication: Digital underperformance in legacy sectors creates margin for value creation through transformation.
5. Training and Trust Are Undervalued Assets
71% of employees trust their employer to deploy AI responsibly—more than governments or tech giants.
Implication: Firms that lead with responsible AI build talent stickiness and brand trust.
6. Scale Is the Differentiator
Most AI use cases are still in pilot mode.
Implication: Scaling AI across business workflows, not just functions, is what separates innovation theatre from enterprise performance.
The Leadership Delta
There’s a clear message in the data: AI readiness isn’t being held back by employee resistance—it’s being stalled by executive underestimation. C-suites continue to undervalue how quickly their people are adapting. Millennial managers, often closest to the work, are ready to lead but lack permission. And nearly half of senior leaders admit their AI rollout is too slow. The message? The constraint is not capability—it’s coordination.
Employees, meanwhile, are not only eager to adopt AI tools, they trust their own employers more than governments, universities, or big tech to deploy AI safely and responsibly. The permission space for bold, transformative leadership is wide open—but it won’t stay open forever.
For PE: A Moment to Shape, Not Chase
Private equity firms are uniquely positioned. With the vantage point of ownership and the levers of governance, they can drive transformation at the system level—across strategy, operations, and talent.
The Superagency report underscores the urgency of that role:
Portfolio maturity is uneven. Even sectors with high AI potential are underinvesting.
Returns are coming—just not yet. The economic value is real, but unrealised.
Transformation, not experimentation, is the lever. And leadership buy-in is the fulcrum.
This moment calls for more than CapEx and headcount. It requires vision, orchestration, and cross-functional clarity across the portfolio.
GAPx and the New Playbook for Value Creation
At GAPx, we view McKinsey’s report not as a roadmap—but as a mirror.
It reflects a business world that knows AI matters but struggles to operationalise it. It shows employees more ready than expected, and leaders more cautious than they should be. And it paints a picture of massive, latent opportunity—waiting to be unlocked through aligned ambition, integrated execution, and sustained momentum.
This is why we believe transformation is no longer optional—it’s structural. And firms that embrace it will redefine not just how they invest, but how they win.