The Hackett Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: HCKT), a global leader in generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) consultancy and executive advisory services, has unveiled the recipients of its prestigious 2025 Hackett Innovation Awards. Recognizing the transformative impact of AI across industries, the awards honor six global organizations—Bosch, BT International, Johnson & Johnson, McCormick & Company, Roche Turkiye, and Schneider Electric—for their visionary use of artificial intelligence to enhance business processes and operational performance at scale.

As businesses worldwide confront intensifying market competition and technological disruption, the 2025 Innovation Award winners serve as compelling examples of how AI is reshaping operations, driving efficiencies, delivering measurable returns, and fostering innovation on a global scale.

Transformation at Scale: A New Era for AI in Business

The Hackett Group’s announcement highlights more than isolated projects; it signals a definitive shift from experimental AI pilots to broad, enterprise-wide adoption. According to Vin Kumar, principal at The Hackett Group and award judge, “These companies aren’t just adopting AI—they’re building intelligent systems that solve real business problems at scale.” The judges observed three clear trends among the winning submissions:

• Hyper-automation at scale: Leading organizations are deploying Gen AI and agentic automation to transform entire end-to-end processes, reducing manual workload, optimizing cycle times, and achieving swift, significant ROI.
• Domain-specific innovation: From healthcare to agriculture and procurement, companies are embedding AI into industry-specific workflows to unlock unprecedented performance gains.
• Rapid ROI realization: All honored initiatives achieved measurable business value within 3–12 months—with several projects boasting ROI exceeding 2,500%—demonstrating the immediate impact of strategic AI investments.

Spotlight on the 2025 Award Winners

Bosch: Purchase-to-Pay Innovation

Bosch, the world-renowned engineering and technology company, was recognized for its ground-breaking application of AI in the Purchase-to-Pay process. Receiving over 500,000 invoice and payment inquiries annually, Bosch deployed an agentic AI solution capable of retrieving cross-system invoice information from over 40 SAP instances. Since its late 2024 launch, the AI system responded to 20% of inquiries within minutes and is expected to handle 80% within months, drastically reducing cycle times and freeing staff to focus on higher-value tasks.

BT International (with Wipro): Transforming Order-to-Cash

BT International, a leading UK-based telecommunications firm, partnered with Wipro to overhaul its Order-to-Cash process using AI and machine learning. Their solution predicts backlog and fulfillment risks with over 85% accuracy—a first in global telecommunications. As a result, BT reduced its order backlog by 29% and increased first-time delivery rates to 96%, realizing $83.9 million in annual early revenue and achieving an astonishing 26,000% ROI.

Johnson & Johnson: Building an AI Center of Excellence

Building on its JAIDA (Artificial Intelligence Digital Assistant) program, Johnson & Johnson established a five-stage methodology to structurally deliver AI-powered automation across 11 business functions. Since its evolution from a limited chatbot in 2020 to a robust Gen AI platform, J&J’s Center of Excellence has successfully improved digital employee experiences and internal efficiency. Use-case level investment is paying back within 12–18 months, with the company poised to expand these benefits across the enterprise.

McCormick & Company: Optimizing Procurement with AI

McCormick & Company, a global leader in flavor manufacturing, was honored for its Iconic Raw Materials Analytics (IRMA) project, which uses AI and machine learning to identify optimal procurement windows for raw agricultural commodities. By integrating economic, weather, and commodity data, IRMA delivers predictive insights, strengthens supply chain resilience, and sustains McCormick’s competitive advantage. The cloud-based platform is now central to the company’s strategic sourcing decisions, helping mitigate market volatility and improve margin performance.

Roche Turkiye: Saving Lives with Clinical AI

Roche Turkiye’s Clinical Data Platform for Oncology not only improves efficiency—it saves lives. The AI solution standardizes breast cancer treatment across regional Turkish healthcare systems and has shown remarkable results: in a four-month pilot, 25% of patients received better interventions by following AI-driven recommendations, and healthcare provider participation has surged by 50%. The program produced ROI exceeding 2,500% within the initial eight months, exemplifying AI’s transformative potential in global healthcare.

Schneider Electric: Reinventing Cost Analytics in Procurement

Schneider Electric, a global leader in energy management and automation, was awarded for its Cost Analytics Power (CAP) tool—a Quickbase, low-code platform solution boosting procurement negotiations. CAP consolidates data across ERP and BI systems to create granular cost forecasts, enabling the analysis of over 30 million transactions per year and uncovering major savings opportunities. The investment payback was realized within three months, setting a benchmark for rapid digital transformation in procurement.

AI Adoption Accelerates: Market Trends and Expectations

The 2025 Hackett Innovation Awards underscore how AI is no longer a future concept but an essential component of competitive enterprise strategy. Recent industry research supports this transformation. According to Gartner’s 2025 CIO Agenda, over 60% of large enterprises have scaled AI applications organization-wide—double the rate reported just two years earlier. On the investment side, IDC projects global spending on AI to surpass $500 billion in 2025, fueled by demand for automation, analytics, and domain-specific solutions like those showcased by this year’s winners.

“The award-winning organizations have found operational areas where they have designed, developed, and implemented AI solutions in their production environments. We’re seeing a wave of adoption that is rapidly maturing and scaling,” said John K. Thompson, SVP and principal at The Hackett Group. “We expect to see even broader and deeper application of AI next year, with enterprises leveraging these technologies for sustainable growth.”

About The Hackett Group

The Hackett Group, Inc. is a global advisory leader focused on Gen AI-empowered digital transformation. Serving clients across Fortune 100, DAX 40, and FTSE 100, The Hackett Group leverages proprietary platforms such as AI XPLR™ and ZBrain™ to drive quantifiable, breakthrough business results. Its expertise is rooted in benchmarking and best practices developed from decades of research and client collaboration worldwide.

For further information, visit www.thehackettgroup.com.

Disclaimer: This article contains forward-looking statements and is provided for informational purposes only. Please refer to The Hackett Group’s official disclosures for comprehensive risk factors.