From GenAI to Agentic AI: How COOs Can Drive Real Operational Impact

The hype around GenAI and Agentic AI promises big things: operational efficiency, rapid innovation, and significant revenue growth. But the reality? Few companies are seeing measurable financial results.

A recent McKinsey survey found that only 19% of C-suite leaders report GenAI contributing more than 5% to revenue, and just 1% say they’ve reached true GenAI maturity. The barriers aren’t the tech—it’s how companies are deploying it.

The COO’s Role in Making AI Work

While most eyes are on CIOs to implement AI, it’s the COO who drives the transformation of work itself. Operational leaders sit at the intersection of processes, teams, and outcomes—and they’re essential to turning GenAI from a shiny tool into a strategic engine.

COOs can unlock GenAI’s potential by focusing on three key areas:

1. Operational Structure: Define where GenAI can drive the greatest impact—whether in supply chains, customer operations, or financial processes—and build the capabilities to scale its use.

2. Data Governance: Help clean up and structure operational data, often buried in legacy systems, so GenAI models have quality inputs—and risks from inaccurate data are minimized.

3. Change Management: Ensure that teams not only adopt AI tools but evolve how they work with them. GenAI’s real power lies in rethinking how humans and machines collaborate, not just automating tasks.

Collaboration Is the Multiplier

GenAI success isn’t just an operations initiative—it’s an enterprise transformation. COOs and CIOs must work together to align the technology with the business.

• The COO identifies the operational pain points and opportunities for transformation.

• The CIO ensures the technical infrastructure, data readiness, and security are in place to support those goals.

In one example, a COO redefined how the company generated statements of work—improving speed and accuracy—while the CIO adapted enterprise-wide GenAI investments to meet the specific data and workflow needs of the business.

GenAI’s Real Potential

The companies that win with GenAI and Agentic AI won’t just automate processes—they’ll rethink entire value chains. That’s where the COO’s leadership becomes essential: reimagining how work gets done, where value is created, and how human potential is amplified by AI.

At 3GC Group, we help operational leaders build data and AI strategies that deliver real outcomes—not just pilots. The future of operations isn’t just smarter processes. It’s about reimagining how work gets done.