The Hackett Group® (NASDAQ: HCKT), a global leader in generative AI consulting and executive advisory services, has unveiled the recipients of the 2025 Hackett Innovation Awards. These prestigious honors recognize trailblazing organizations that have integrated artificial intelligence at the core of their business operations, achieving significant improvements in efficiency, accuracy, and value realisation. This year’s winners — Bosch, BT International, Johnson & Johnson, McCormick & Company, Roche Turkiye, and Schneider Electric — exemplify the move from small-scale AI experimentation to large-scale, ROI-driven transformation, redefining best practices across their respective industries.

Transformational Trends: AI Moves from Experimentation to Scaled Execution

According to Hackett Group principal and award judge Vin Kumar, “These companies aren’t just adopting AI — they’re building intelligent systems that solve real business problems at scale.” 2025’s cohort stands out not only for ambitious scope but also for their demonstration of measurable value: award-winning deployments reported ROI realization within three to twelve months and, in some cases, returns exceeding 2,500%.

• Hyper-automation at Scale: Companies are deploying generative AI and agent-based automation to re-engineer end-to-end processes, dramatically reducing cycle times and enabling rapid self-funding of future AI investments.
• Industry-Targeted Solutions: From clinical health data in oncology to supply chain analytics and finance optimization, this year’s honorees embedded AI in highly domain-specific workflows to drive performance gains that generic solutions could not unlock.
• Accelerated Returns: All six winning organizations secured rapid payback, highlighting that with strategic focus and robust change management, advanced AI solutions can yield immediate enterprise value.

Industry analysts expect this trend to accelerate, with a surge in global AI adoption forecast to generate more than $4.4 trillion in business value by 2030 (source: McKinsey & Company).

Meet the 2025 Hackett Innovation Award Winners

The winners were selected based on the scale, impact, and inventiveness of their AI and automation deployments. Here’s how each organization transformed its operations:

Bosch: Revolutionizing Invoice Processing

In the vast landscape of global manufacturing, Bosch tackled the challenge of managing approximately 500,000 Invoice-to-Pay (I2P) inquiries each year. Through an agentic AI-powered service center spanning 40 SAP instances, Bosch automated the retrieval and response to dunning requests within minutes—handling up to 80% of cases electronically. Since rollout in late 2024, the AI had already fielded 20% of inquiries by March 2025, with a goal of automating 80% within months. These efforts not only slashed manual labor but also increased supplier and partner satisfaction through unprecedented response speed, illustrating the power of intelligent automation in finance operations.

BT International (Powered by Wipro): AI-Driven Order-to-Cash Optimization

Faced with delayed revenue recognition and mounting order backlogs, BT International partnered with IT leader Wipro to apply machine learning-driven forecasting to its order-to-cash process. The system predicted potential order fulfillment failures with over 85% accuracy, yielding a 29% reduction in backlog and 96% “right first-time” order fulfillment. The early revenue realization benefit was estimated at $83.9 million—resulting in an extraordinary 26,000% ROI. This represented not only operational excellence but also an industry-first for telecommunications, setting new benchmarks for the sector.

Johnson & Johnson: Pioneering AI/Automation Centers of Excellence

Building on the success of its JAIDA (J&J Artificial Intelligence Digital Assistant), Johnson & Johnson expanded the tool from a narrow-scope chatbot to a comprehensive Generative AI platform driving transformation in 11 business functions. By implementing a five-stage automation methodology, J&J projected that AI investments would generate payback within 12 to 18 months, while creating a scalable foundation for continued digital innovation across the organization. The initiative is viewed as instrumental not just for operational productivity but for long-term business growth and market leadership in healthcare and life sciences.

McCormick & Company, Inc.: Predictive Procurement with Project IRMA

Known worldwide for its spices and flavors, McCormick & Company addressed procurement volatility by implementing the Iconic Raw Materials Analytics (IRMA) platform. By integrating weather, futures, economic, and agricultural data using advanced machine learning, IRMA identified optimal purchasing windows and refined sourcing strategies. The AI-driven approach significantly enhanced procurement agility, risk management, and cost efficiency, positioning McCormick at the forefront of strategic supply chain management in the food sector.

Roche Turkiye: AI in Oncology Care

Roche Turkiye‘s clinical data platform for oncology deploys AI to standardize and optimize breast cancer treatment across regional healthcare systems. During the initial pilot, 25% of participants received improved care aligned with AI recommendations, while a 50% expansion in healthcare provider participation prompted a 2,500% ROI in just four months. Beyond efficiency and cost improvements, this platform demonstrates AI’s growing role in personalizing treatment and improving patient outcomes in global healthcare.

Schneider Electric: Empowering Procurement with Advanced Analytics

Schneider Electric developed its Cost Analytics Power (CAP) Tool by blending ERP and BI data to support procurement negotiation and cost modeling. Operating on Quickbase’s low-code platform, the solution analyzes over 30 million transactions annually, surfacing significant savings opportunities and improving data reliability across global operations. The tool’s rapid deployment — reaching payback within three months — highlights the agility AI can bring to manufacturing and industrial supply chains.

The Broader Impact and Market Outlook

According to John K. Thompson, Senior VP at The Hackett Group®, “The award-winning organizations have found operational areas where they designed, developed, and implemented AI solutions in production environments, driving meaningful, scalable change.” Experts project that such innovation will be a prerequisite for competitive advantage, with Gartner estimating that by 2026, at least 80% of enterprises will have implemented AI-augmented processes in mission-critical workflows, up from less than 20% in 2022.

Analytical firms expect enterprises to prioritize domain-specific AI, combining data from multiple internal and third-party sources to enhance customer experience, operational agility, and regulatory compliance.

About The Hackett Group®

The Hackett Group®, leveraging advanced platforms like AI XPLR™ and ZBrain™, is a strategic consulting partner to Fortune 500s and global enterprises on their generative AI transformation journey. Their reach includes 97% of the Dow Jones Industrials and 90% of the Fortune 100, with deep domain expertise in benchmarking and digital execution.

For more information, visit thehackettgroup.com.