Companies miss revenue targets as AI and geopolitical risk shake markets: Bain report

Despite rising confidence and growth ambitions, B2B companies in a variety of different industries have been missing revenue targets as disruptions related to AI and geopolitical instability continue to shake markets.

The widening performance gap among global companies is becoming a concern in boardrooms across different industries. A new report from Bain & Company, which surveyed over 1,000 global B2B executives, reveals that many organizations are struggling to convert high growth ambitions into tangible results.

Despite the fact that 91% of business leaders expect to achieve their 2026 revenue targets, the pattern over the past few years suggests a difficult road ahead. In 2025, 86% of executives expected to hit growth targets, yet 42% of them failed to. This is a notable increase from the 32% who missed targets in 2024. This likely signals the difficulty of adapting to fast-moving markets.

“Volatility is now a constant condition for B2B companies, not a temporary disruption,” said Jamie Cleghorn, global head of Bain’s Customer practice.

“Leaders are setting high growth ambitions, but many are still operating with commercial models that can’t keep pace with how quickly their markets and available technology are changing. The gap between ambition and performance is widening, and closing it requires faster, more adaptive execution and a fundamentally more responsive commercial system.”

Volatility is a major challenge

Instances of market volatility are no longer viewed as temporary disruptions but rather as a permanent part of doing business. This environment is being shaped by two primary forces: geopolitical shifts and the rapid rise of AI.

While businesses expect revenue growth rates to be 20% higher this year than in 2025, market conditions are shifting rapidly. Indeed, 87% of decision makers report that their markets are evolving faster than in the past. This acceleration is creating a sharp divide between a small group of winners and the rest of the market.

Putting AI to good use

While almost every company is now experimenting with AI, very few are capturing its full economic value. The survey found that 90% of firms are testing the technology, but 60% admit they lack the robust data foundations or technical infrastructure required to scale these tools effectively.

Leading organizations are distinguishing themselves not just through better tech, but by redesigning their commercial workflows from the ground up. These top-tier companies achieve twice the AI-driven revenue growth and 1.8 times greater cost efficiency than their peers.

Comparing revenue ‘winners’ and ‘laggards’, the survey found that the most successful companies more often use customer feedback to refine digital tools and deploy AI and other digital tools for modeling, simulations, and other analysis. Winners also more often take a strategic approach to designing and refining their value proposition.

The power of a clear value proposition

One of the most significant barriers to growth remains a lack of differentiation. Only 4% of surveyed executives believe their organization has a strong, consistently understood value proposition. This lack of clarity often forces sales teams to improvise, leading to inconsistent results. The report notes businesses should not be afraid to revisit their value proposition.

The impact of a clear strategy is measurable: Companies with a well-defined value proposition grew by 19% in 2025, while those without one saw only 12% growth. Nearly half of the companies surveyed indicated that their primary challenge is the core product or service itself rather than just the marketing message.

The report found that companies that have a fully activated, consistent, clear, and reinforced value proposition report 1.24 times more revenue growth than the average. On the other hand, those with minimal or limited communication of their value proposition see revenue growth that is significantly lower than the average.

Strategic priorities across sectors

The pressures of a volatile market are felt differently in different industries. In the healthcare and life sciences sectors, for example, companies are managing sustained pricing pressure and policy changes. Meanwhile, the technology and telecom industries are focused on customer retention as AI-powered capabilities shift business models away from traditional subscriptions.

In the financial services sector, banks are prioritizing the modernization of go-to-market technology to help navigate macroeconomic uncertainty. Across all sectors, the path to a competitive edge calls for a commercial system that can turn market signals into action with speed and coherence.

Hiring used to be the main metric for growth, but now most companies look more at productivity. Bain found that companies are spending more on automation and AI and relatively less on new sales reps, for instance. The actual headcount of a company is simply no longer a reliable metric for productivity.

AI and automation now help organizations cover more accounts, operate with greater precision, and rely less on incremental hiring. Though technology alone does not deliver sustained success, it is quickly changing how companies view growth.

“While just about every company across industries is experimenting with AI, experimentation alone doesn’t drive results,” said Rob Stein, partner in Bain’s Customer Strategy & Marketing practice.

“Leading companies realize that simplifying and standardizing legacy manual workflows within their go-to-market is the critical first step to ensuring that AI and automation drive a step change in results. Combining process redesign with targeted AI use case development and robust change management efforts is the key to success.”