The Hackett Group Announces 2025 Innovation Awards: AI Excellence Reshapes Global Enterprises
By Business Wire • June 30, 2025
Image: Unsplash
Celebrating AI-Powered Innovation Across Industries
The Hackett Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: HCKT), a global leader in generative AI consultancy and executive advisory, has unveiled the winners of its inaugural 2025 Hackett Innovation Awards. The awards honor organizations setting new benchmarks in business process transformation through the strategic application of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, spanning sectors from manufacturing to healthcare and telecommunications.
This year’s honorees—Bosch, BT International, Johnson & Johnson, McCormick & Company, Roche Turkiye, and Schneider Electric—have embedded AI deeply within core operations, unlocking exceptional efficiency, cost savings, and competitive advantage. Their achievements provide a blueprint for how digital innovation delivers both significant financial returns and operational resilience in an increasingly complex business environment.
Key Trends: Automation at Scale and Rapid ROI
According to Vin Kumar, principal at The Hackett Group and awards judge, there has been a remarkable shift among organizations from AI experimentation to deploying intelligent systems at scale. “These companies aren’t just adopting AI—they’re building solutions that solve real business problems across the enterprise,” Kumar commented.
Three transformative trends emerged among winners:
- Hyper-Automation at Scale: Gen AI and agentic automation are now orchestrating complex, end-to-end business processes, slashing execution times and reducing manual intervention.
- Domain-Specific Innovation: Whether optimizing clinical oncology pathways or agricultural procurement, companies achieve breakthrough performance by integrating AI into industry-specific workflows.
- Rapid, Measurable ROI: All awardees reported tangible returns within a year—some exceeding 2,500% ROI—demonstrating that targeted AI investments can deliver swift, meaningful impact.
Profiled Award Winners: Transforming Business with AI
Bosch: Revolutionizing Purchase-to-Pay with Agentic AI
Bosch, a global technology and services leader, addressed over 500,000 annual Invoice-to-Pay (I2P) customer service inquiries using an advanced agentic AI solution. With the new system able to retrieve data across 40 SAP environments, Bosch reduced response times on 80% of inquiries to mere minutes. By mid-2025, the platform is projected to autonomously handle the majority of incoming requests, liberating human agents for more complex tasks and drastically reducing operational costs.
BT International (Wipro): Enhancing Order-to-Cash Performance
UK-based telecommunications giant BT International, in partnership with Wipro, deployed AI and machine learning to address backlogs and cycle time delays in order fulfillment. Their digital smart operations platform now predicts potential failures with over 85% accuracy, reducing order backlogs by 29% and improving on-time, right-first delivery to 96%. This enabled early revenue realization totaling $83.9 million, yielding ROI exceeding 26,000%—an industry-leading leap in efficiency for telecom supply chains challenged by inflation and global uncertainties.
Johnson & Johnson: Building an AI/Automation Center of Excellence
Healthcare innovator Johnson & Johnson expanded its internal AI assistant—JAIDA—into a comprehensive generative AI platform. By rolling out a structured, five-stage automation program across 11 business functions, J&J enhanced employee digital experiences and unlocked new opportunities for value creation. Leaders expect use case investment payback within 12–18 months, while fostering a future-ready culture where automation amplifies innovation and operational agility.
McCormick & Company: Data-Driven Agricultural Procurement
McCormick, a world leader in flavors and spices, developed the Iconic Raw Materials Analytics (IRMA) platform—an AI-powered tool leveraging agricultural, economic, weather, and futures data to optimize procurement timing and sourcing strategies. This predictive, cloud-based solution empowers McCormick’s procurement teams to outmaneuver market volatility, secure supply chain agility, and enhance long-term profitability.
Roche Turkiye: AI for Life-Saving Oncology Treatments
Roche Turkiye’s Clinical Data Platform for Oncology harnesses AI to standardize and guide treatment of breast cancer across Turkish healthcare providers. During the pilot, a quarter of patients received improved care based on AI-driven recommendations, resulting in better health outcomes and a 2,500% ROI due to the dual impact of enhanced treatment efficacy and cost savings. With rapid adoption among healthcare professionals, Roche exemplifies how AI can deliver both financial and societal value, especially in critical, time-sensitive domains.
Schneider Electric: Smarter Procurement Negotiations
Energy management powerhouse Schneider Electric launched its Cost Analytics Power (CAP) tool, merging traditional ERP data with rich business intelligence—including waste, part composition, and market analytics—for unrivaled cost transparency. Built with Quickbase, this low-code platform now processes 30 million transactions annually, surfacing substantial savings opportunities and delivering payback in just three months. Amid supply chain disruptions worldwide, this solution represents a best-in-class approach to procurement resilience and efficiency.
Industry Outlook: Scaling AI Across the Global Enterprise
John K. Thompson, senior vice president at The Hackett Group, noted, “Award-winning organizations have not only implemented AI—they’ve identified, built, and scaled solutions across complex global operations. The momentum from experimentation to mainstream adoption is undeniable, with the next frontier focused on enterprise-wide orchestration of AI for even deeper impact.”
According to recent IDC projections, global spending on AI-centric systems is set to reach $409 billion in 2025, up from $166 billion in 2023, as organizations recognize AI’s capacity to drive digital advantage—even amid economic headwinds. Continuous innovation, governance, and cross-functional upskilling will be essential as enterprises seek to replicate the successes highlighted by Hackett’s award recipients.
About The Hackett Group
The Hackett Group combines leading benchmarking data with deep consulting expertise to help clients achieve Digital World Class® performance. With a client footprint that includes over 90% of Fortune 100 companies, Hackett’s platforms—AI XPLR™ and ZBrain™—support ideation and deployment for organizations embarking on large-scale AI journeys. Learn more at thehackettgroup.com.
Looking Forward
As enterprise leaders recalibrate for an AI-first future, the 2025 Hackett Innovation Awards spotlight a new standard for digital transformation—where measurable ROI, operational excellence, and societal benefit converge. With continued global investment and collaboration between technology partners, consulting advisors, and business innovators, the pace of AI adoption and impact is poised only to accelerate in the years ahead.
