Why IDC Identifies EY as a Global Leader in AI Strategy

As organisations increasingly seek to move beyond pilot projects toward scaled AI implementations, the challenges are only getting harder – demanding more sophisticated strategies for long-term AI success.

Yet as the competition heats up for AI supremacy, some companies’ strategies are starting to pull off.

Investigating what AI strategies are working the best, International Data Corporation (IDC) MarketScape research, conducted by technology market intelligence company IDC, evaluated 20 vendors across scoring criteria based on written submissions, vendor briefings and customer feedback surveys. 

Deloitte and EY in particular are identified as leaders in IDC’s 2025 MarketScape assessment of worldwide AI services providers.

“At EY, we don’t just talk about transformation – we live it,” says Dan Diasio, Global AI Leader at EY Consulting.

So what strategies are behind these enterprises’ AI success? How have they come out on top despite all the challenges global firms face today?

The evolution of challenges against AI progression in business

The assessment is the fourth iteration of this market evaluation, with the previous study published in 2023, just months after ChatGPT captured public consciousness.

The AI services market has drastically changed since IDC’s previous assessment. 

For example, throughout 2023, potentially transformative enterprise Gen AI use cases dominated industry conversations, with the technology quickly gaining executive attention and investment support. 

However, 2024 presented organisations with obstacles to scaling AI initiatives including internal skills gaps, implementation complexity, cost concerns, misalignment between use case priorities and stakeholder needs and poor data access and quality.

Now, IDC’s research indicates that organisations in 2025 are seeking to transition from endless experimentation and pilot projects toward production-grade AI deployments. 

The study finds that 30% of buyers surveyed achieved improvement of 30% or greater in measurable key performance indicators from their AI services engagements.

How market conditions drive vendor assessment changes

With each assessment iteration, IDC has revised evaluation criteria and buyer perception survey instruments to reflect market evolution. 

Additionally, the fast emergence of agentic AI in recent quarters adds complexity to organisational AI strategies.

When buyers identified their primary business objectives for engaging AI services vendors, the most frequent responses were increased operational efficiency, faster innovation and cost savings. 

IDC’s Artificial Intelligence Services Buyer Perception Survey identifies “ability to achieve business outcomes” as the most critical vendor attribute for AI services engagements, unchanged from the 2023 study.

Furthermore, the highest-rated vendor attribute in aggregate was the ability to “integrate vendor project team with internal team,” maintaining consistency with previous study findings. 

This suggests that seamless collaboration between external service providers and internal teams remains paramount for successful AI implementations.

The study therefore finds that effective AI adoption and scaling require addressing business and technology challenges across multiple dimensions. 

IDC identifies critical building blocks for establishing AI-fueled business foundations, including:

• AI-integrated operational plans that unify strategy
• Governance and workforce development
• AI-ready technology operating models encompassing applications
• AI platforms
• Data management
• Infrastructure

How EY’s AI strategy achieved a leader status

What makes EY stand out as a leader is its holistic approach.

According to the report: “EY delivers transformation through an integrated approach, combining business insight, technology innovation, people and risk capabilities, to build AI-powered enterprises. 

“The firm aligns its approach around ’re-thinking the enterprise’ with humans and machines together at the centre of clients’ strategies and operations.”

“Our own journey as client zero has shaped how we deliver AI at scale for our clients,” Dan says.

IDC considers EY’s strategies related to offerings, delivery model, client adoption, growth and employee skills retention as key strengths positioning the firm as a leader.

Over the past 12 months, EY has evolved its AI services offerings as part of what it terms its “All in on AI” strategy, including significant re-architecting of the company’s business operations. 

This transformation begins with AI-enhanced services and progresses toward autonomous agents.

As a result, the internal evolution has driven creation of frameworks including AI Engine Room, which focuses on ideation, rapid design and industrialised development of AI-powered solutions. 

Meanwhile, EY uses its global technology platform, EY Fabric, to provide repeatable technology patterns for accelerating client AI transformations.

The company’s technology portfolio also includes its EY.ai platform and sector-specific solutions addressing client requirements around strategy, business value creation, responsible AI implementation and workforce development. 

Additionally, EY has developed EYQ, an internal generative AI tool enabling its professionals to incorporate AI into their work processes. 

Furthermore, the firm recently launched the EY.ai Agentic Platform, built on the Nvidia AI stack.

IDC’s findings show that strategic support with project prioritisation, coordination between IT and business teams and access to developer skills are key success factors for organisations achieving high levels of AI initiative success.

Jennifer Hamel, Senior Research Director for Enterprise Intelligence Services at IDC, says: “The market for AI services has never been more competitive, offering organisations an abundance of choices when considering external partners to help them successfully pivot from experimentation to adoption at scale.

“The 20 vendors assessed in this study have established themselves as trusted providers across the full life cycle of AI services, with the ability to assist clients both to establish AI-fuelled business plans and to transition to AI-ready technology operating models.”