Celebrating Enterprise AI Excellence: The 2025 Hackett Innovation Awards

The Hackett Group, a global leader in executive advisory and AI-driven business consulting, has unveiled the winners of its inaugural Hackett Innovation Awards. This recognition highlights companies that have not only adopted artificial intelligence (AI) but have seamlessly fused it into their core operations, generating transformative results at scale.

Winners of the 2025 awards—Bosch, BT International, Johnson & Johnson, McCormick & Company, Roche Turkiye, and Schneider Electric—have all demonstrated outstanding achievement by deploying Gen AI and advanced automation to revolutionize business processes from procurement and order management to clinical oncology and strategic sourcing.

Vin Kumar, principal at The Hackett Group and a judge for the competition, remarked, “These companies aren’t just dabbling in AI—they are setting new benchmarks for what is achievable at scale. They have moved from experimentation to broad execution, and the value delivered is remarkable.”

Key Trends in AI-driven Transformation

• Hyper-Automation at Scale: Leading firms are utilizing generative AI and agentic automation to reimagine entire end-to-end processes. This trend is rapidly lowering cycle times, eradicating manual workflows, and delivering unprecedented return on investment (ROI).
• Domain-Specific Innovation: Award-winning solutions are deeply tailored—ranging from AI-powered predictive procurement to personalized oncology treatment recommendations—demonstrating the flexibility and power of AI across industries.
• Rapid ROI Realization: All projects highlighted achieved measurable ROI within just 3–12 months, with some programs reporting payback exceeding 2,500%—illustrating that focused AI investment delivers both immediate and sustainable value.

Profiles in Innovation: The 2025 Hackett Innovation Award Winners

Bosch: Agentic AI Streamlines Purchase-to-Pay

Bosch’s AI-based processing system has radically improved its Invoice-to-Pay Customer Service operations. Handling roughly 500,000 inquiries annually, Bosch’s new system leverages AI agents capable of searching and retrieving invoice information from 40 separate SAP systems. Within months of launch, the system reduced response times in 80% of cases from hours to minutes. By mid-2025, this technology is expected to autonomously handle the vast majority of inbound inquiries, driving both efficiency and significant cost reduction. Bosch’s large-scale application of AI in finance operations not only sets a new efficiency standard but also offers a blueprint for global enterprises with complex, multi-system environments.

BT International, Powered by Wipro: AI Enhances Order-to-Cash Performance

Facing challenges with order backlog and revenue realization, BT International teamed with Wipro to deploy AI-driven predictive analytics. Their solution—an industry first for telecommunications—accurately forecasts order delays and backlogs with over 85% precision. As a result, BT International reduced order backlog by 29% and achieved a remarkable 96% right-first-time delivery rate, enabling $83.9 million in accelerated revenue with a stunning 26,000% ROI. This showcases how AI can deliver immediate and measurable results within legacy-heavy sectors.

Johnson & Johnson: JAIDA-GenAI as an AI Center of Excellence

Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) JAIDA—originally launched in 2020 as a chatbot—has evolved into a powerful Gen AI platform integrating automation across 11 internal departments. The company’s structured, five-stage AI deployment method has enabled rapid and repeatable automation rollouts, with most investments expected to pay back within 12–18 months. JAIDA exemplifies the integration of AI into daily operations, driving improvement in employee experience and supporting the long-term vision for innovation at scale.

McCormick & Company: AI-Driven Source-to-Purchase Optimization

McCormick, a global spice and flavor leader, has harnessed AI to develop Iconic Raw Materials Analytics (IRMA), a predictive platform merging agricultural, economic, weather, and futures data. This cloud-based system boosts procurement agility, lowers costs, and ensures consistent supply—vital criteria in today’s volatile commodity markets. IRMA’s success demonstrates how AI can balance agility and risk, helping businesses maintain supply chain resiliency amid global disruptions.

Roche Turkiye: Clinical Data Platform Generates Life-Saving Results

Roche Turkiye’s AI-powered Clinical Data Platform for Oncology is revolutionizing cancer care. By standardizing treatment pathways and providing AI-generated clinical recommendations, the platform helped 25% of patients in a pilot phase receive improved treatment. As enrollment soared, so did ROI—topping 2,500%—highlighting both cost savings and profound societal impact by enabling earlier, more effective interventions.

Schneider Electric: CAP Tool Transforms Plan-to-Source-to-Make-to-Deliver

Schneider Electric’s Cost Analytics Power (CAP) tool, built on a low-code Quickbase platform, consolidates procurement and market intelligence data for more accurate cost forecasting. CAP now analyzes 30 million transactions per year, unlocking significant savings and providing business leaders a comprehensive negotiation toolkit. With payback achieved in under three months, Schneider Electric has set a new benchmark for digital procurement transformation and decision-making agility within multinational supply chains.

Broader Implications: AI’s Enterprise Inflection Point

According to John K. Thompson, Senior Vice President and Principal at The Hackett Group, “This year’s honorees have not only implemented AI but have embedded it deep into business process execution, paving the way for expanded, global adoption. The outcomes achieved—rapid ROI, scale, and sustainability—underscore that AI is no longer aspirational, but essential for competitive advantage.”

The momentum from these award-winning projects mirrors a broader market shift: IDC predicts that global AI spending will exceed $500 billion by 2027, with the bulk of investments aimed at automating core business processes, improving supply chain analytics, and enhancing the customer experience.^[1]

Forward-looking organizations are expected to further explore generative AI, AI-driven analytics, and automation, not only for operational efficiency but to unlock new revenue streams and market opportunities.

About The Hackett Group

The Hackett Group (NASDAQ: HCKT) is recognized globally for digital consulting and benchmarking services, working with more than 90% of the Fortune 100 to drive AI-enabled transformation. The firm’s portfolio includes the AI XPLR™ and ZBrain™ platforms, which support ideation and end-to-end Gen AI project delivery.

As AI matures from pilot projects to full-scale deployment, The Hackett Group’s annual Innovation Awards are poised to become a bellwether for industry progress and a catalyst for shaping tomorrow’s intelligent enterprise.