Why The Term Digital Transformation Is Dead - Tim Crawford Q&A
Digital CxO, Wednesday, April 9th, 2025
Despite the vast investments in digital transformation, worldwide $3.9 trillion by 2027, according to IDC's forecasts - up from $2.5 trillion in 2024 - persistent challenges remain; high failure rates continue to plague enterprises. Only 26% of enterprises reached their digital transformation objectives in 2023.
A study by McKinsey found the cost of failures to be high: $2.3 trillion wasted on stalled efforts and 17% of business technology projects posing an existential risk to organizations.
Despite the attention, AI initiatives aren't fairing much better, with 42% of companies projected to abandon most of their AI initiatives this year, according to a study from S&P Global. That's up from 17% in 2024. Deloitte finds that 70% to 85% of GenAI projects fail to meet return on investment targets, with 30% abandoned post-pilot due to poor data quality.
Recently, we reached out to Tim Crawford, a CIO strategic advisor at his firm AVOA, to discuss the nature of digital transformation and the nature of transformation failures, as well as the mindset it takes to succeed.