Unframe releases the 2025 Enterprise AI Trends Report
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There’s no question that AI is reshaping how enterprises operate. Lately, the big question that keeps coming up in boardrooms and strategy sessions is:
It’s not just a technical choice, it’s a business decision. Getting it right determines how fast your organization can turn AI from buzzword to impact.
At Unframe, we’ve seen this decision play out across industries, from finance to manufacturing to healthcare. You can use our new guide — Enterprise AI: Build or Buy? — to make smart, scalable AI investment decisions that balance speed, control, and value. Get a glimpse below.
AI evolves faster than most enterprises can plan. The sooner you can deploy governed, explainable AI, the sooner your teams and customers benefit.
That’s why speed to value matters just as much as the sophistication of your models.
Only 5% of enterprise AI pilots delivered measurable value, as demonstrated in insights from the 2025 MIT State of AI in Business Report. Why? Because many organizations tried to build everything themselves. In-house development often stalls under the weight of integration challenges, talent shortages, and compliance complexity.
Building AI isn’t just about model training. It’s about creating and maintaining the infrastructure around it:
Each of these adds friction and expense. The result? Projects that take months (or years) to launch, while competitors who buy managed AI platforms are already seeing ROI.
Enterprises want control over their IP, their data, their compliance standards. And in cases where AI defines your product or competitive advantage, building makes sense.
For example:
But control doesn’t always equal capability. Owning infrastructure can actually slow down innovation, unless it’s built on a modern, flexible foundation.
Buying AI solutions gets you speed, often in days or weeks instead of months. This approach can work when you need quick, visible outcomes or when use cases support your internal operations.
For example:
With managed upgrades and no need to hire scarce technical talent, a buy-first approach helps teams focus on repeatable tasks and fast outcomes. However, buying point solutions comes with limitations.
Not all off-the-shelf AI tools are created equal. Point solutions can solve one problem beautifully but rarely scale across an enterprise. They create silos, governance headaches, and integration challenges.
True enterprise AI maturity doesn’t come from stacking tools. It comes from building on a unified, governed foundation.
AI initiatives involve choices to be made when it comes to speed and differentiation.
The framework below makes it easier to identify which AI efforts should be built in-house, which should be bought, and where a hybrid strategy delivers the best of both.
The takeaway: build for differentiation, buy for acceleration.
Most successful enterprises don’t go with just one path, they blend both. Typically, 70% of enterprise AI use cases are bought to deliver quick transformation, while 30% are built to secure long-term competitive advantage. This hybrid approach balances control with speed. But Unframe goes a step further.
At Unframe, we bridge the gap between build and buy. Our platform delivers the speed of managed AI with the control of custom development. This way, enterprises can deploy production-ready AI fast and rest assured that it’s governed, explainable, and adaptable.
We do this through:
This approach allows organizations to scale AI confidently — fast — without compromising security or control.
AI success isn’t about owning every model. It’s about owning your outcomes. Build when it defines your product or IP. Buy when it strengthens how you operate. You can do both with governance, agility, and confidence. That’s the essence of modern enterprise AI — and it’s what Unframe was built for.
Learn how to accelerate your AI strategy with the right balance of speed, control, and innovation.
Download the full guide: Enterprise AI: Build or Buy?
