---
id: "quote-widening-gap"
type: "quote"
source_timestamps: ["¶3"]
tags: ["performance-metrics"]
related: ["claim-widening-performance-gap", "concept-compounding-ai-capabilities"]
speaker: "Bruce Lawler, Vijay D'Silva and Vivek Arora"
speakers: ["Bruce Lawler", "Vijay D'Silva", "Vivek Arora"]
quote: "The leaders — defined as the top 25% of respondents — now see performance levels 3.8x that of the bottom half of companies, up from 2.7x in 2021."
source_url: "https://hbr.org/2025/01/what-companies-succeeding-with-ai-do-differently"
source_title: "What Companies Succeeding with AI Do Differently"
sources: ["execution"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-execution"
originDay: 8
articleStem: "hbr-cl-89-companies-succeeding-with-ai"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2025/01/what-companies-succeeding-with-ai-do-differently"
sourceTitle: "What Companies Succeeding with AI Do Differently"
---
# The widening performance gap

> "The leaders — defined as the top 25% of respondents — now see performance levels **3.8x** that of the bottom half of companies, up from **2.7x** in 2021."
> — [[entity-bruce-lawler|Bruce Lawler]], [[entity-vijay-d-silva|Vijay D'Silva]] and [[entity-vivek-arora|Vivek Arora]]

This is the headline statistic behind [[claim-widening-performance-gap]] and the empirical anchor for [[concept-compounding-ai-capabilities]].