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Innovation statistics
Innovation Statistics: 90+ Figures on Spending, Returns, Ideas and AI (2026)
Companies have never spent more on innovation, and they have rarely trusted it less. BCG counts a record 83% of executives calling innovation a top-three priority, and 3% whose organisations are set up to deliver on it. The figures below put numbers on that gap: how much goes in, what comes out, where the ideas come from, and what AI is doing to the ratio.
Every statistic links to the organisation that produced it, with the year and the source wording. We compiled the list for our own work with food, beverage and consumer-goods innovation teams, and we update it in place.
The BOX is an AI innovation platform for F&B and FMCG NPD teams, built by Quartz Labs.
Innovation statistics worth knowing in 2026
- 83% of companies rank innovation among their top three priorities, a record in BCG's twenty-year series (BCG, 2024)
- Just 3% of companies score in BCG's innovation "ready zone", meaning they are set up to turn priorities into results (BCG, 2024)
- The proportion of executives who see their company as an innovation leader fell by 24 percentage points between 2021 and 2024 (BCG, 2025)
- Companies' return on innovation investment declined 27% over a five-year period (Accenture, 2018)
- Only 14% of companies get real value from their innovation investment (Accenture, 2018)
- Corporate R&D expenditure reached almost US$1.3 trillion, a historic high, up around 3% in nominal terms (WIPO, 2025)
- 37% of organisations said they would increase innovation spending in 2024–25, 53% would hold it level and 8% would trim it (McKinsey, 2025)
- 30% of top innovators are already deploying generative AI at scale in innovation and R&D, more than six times the rate of laggards (McKinsey, 2024)
- AI-generated product ideas were seven times more likely than ideas from Wharton MBA students to rank in the top 10% by purchase intent (Wharton, 2024)
- Only 0.03% of raw ideas, about 1 in 3,000, become a commercial success, in the classic Stevens and Burley analysis (Stevens & Burley, via SRC, 1997)
- Small and medium-sized brands captured 45% of US consumer-goods growth between 2016 and 2019 (McKinsey, 2020)
- The average tenure of a company on the S&P 500 was 33 years in 1964, 24 years by 2016, and was forecast to reach 12 years by 2027 (Innosight, via I. Wladawsky-Berger, 2018)
How much do companies spend on innovation?
The honest answer is that nobody adds it up the same way. Corporate R&D is tracked by WIPO and the EU; "innovation spend" in executive surveys includes everything from a venture arm to a design sprint. Read the two groups separately.
Innovation as a priority
83% of companies rank innovation among their top three priorities, a record in BCG's twenty-year series (BCG, 2024[1])
Source wording
“83% of companies seeing innovation as a top-three priority, but only 3% ready to translate their priorities to results.”
In 2023, 79% of companies ranked innovation among their top three priorities, up from 75% in 2022 (BCG, 2023[2])
Source wording
“79% of companies ranked innovation among their top three priorities, up from 75% in 2022”
Across BCG's surveys from 2005 to 2025, innovation stayed a top-three priority for between 64% and 83% of firms every year (BCG, 2025[3])
Source wording
“innovation has remained a top-three priority for 64% to 83% firms every year”
Budgets
66% of companies planned to increase innovation spending in 2023, and 42% planned to raise it by more than 10% (BCG, 2023[2])
Source wording
“66% planning to increase spending (42% by more than 10%)”
37% of organisations said they would increase innovation spending in 2024–25, 53% would hold it level and 8% would trim it (McKinsey, 2025[4])
Source wording
“Among all surveyed organizations, 37 percent indicated they would increase innovation spending, but 53 percent would maintain investments in innovation, and 8 percent would trim spending.”
26% of corporate innovation teams expected budget cuts in 2023 (KPMG and InnoLead, 2023[5])
Source wording
“26 percent are expecting budget cuts”
29% of executives expect to increase innovation investment by more than 50% over five years (Accenture, 2018[6])
Source wording
“almost one-third (29 percent) of those Accenture surveyed expect to increase their investments in innovation by more than 50 percent over the next five years”
Incumbents and start-ups together spent US$3.2 trillion on innovation-related activities over a five-year period (Accenture, 2018[6])
Source wording
“Incumbents and start-ups spent a combined US$3.2 trillion on innovation-related activities over the past five years”
Corporate R&D, the measurable part
Corporate R&D expenditure reached almost US$1.3 trillion, a historic high, up around 3% in nominal terms (WIPO, 2025[7])
Source wording
“corporate R&D expenditure stood at almost USD 1.3 trillion – a historic high – up by around 3 percent in nominal terms”
Global R&D growth slowed to 4.4% in real terms in 2023 (WIPO, 2025[7])
Source wording
“global R&D growth slowed to 4.4 percent (in real terms) in 2023”
The world's 1,000 largest corporate R&D spenders increased spending 11.4% in 2018, to US$782 billion (Strategy&, 2018[8])
Source wording
“Worldwide R&D spending among the world's 1000 largest corporate R&D spenders increased 11.4 percent in 2018 to $782 billion.”
Those 1,000 companies account for 40% of the world's R&D spending from all sources, corporate and government (Strategy&, 2018[8])
Source wording
“The Global Innovation 1000 companies collectively account for 40 percent of the world's R&D spending, from all sources, including corporate and government sources.”
Corporate venturing
Global corporate-venture-backed funding rebounded 20% year on year to US$65.9 billion in 2024 (CB Insights, 2025[9])
Source wording
“Global CVC-backed funding rebounded 20% YoY to $65.9B in 2024”
AI start-ups captured 37% of corporate-venture-backed funding and 21% of deals in 2024 (CB Insights, 2025[9])
Source wording
“AI startups captured 37% of CVC-backed funding and 21% of deals in 2024”
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 2022 | 75% |
| 2023 | 79% |
| 2024 | 83% |
Source: BCG Most Innovative Companies reports, 2023 and 2024. Chart: Quartz Labs.
What do companies get back from innovation?
The return figures split into two camps. Consultancies that rank "top innovators" find they outperform the market; the same consultancies, surveying everyone else, find most spending produces little. Both can be true. The spread between the best and the rest is the story.
Only 14% of companies get real value from their innovation investment (Accenture, 2018[6])
Source wording
“Only 14 percent of companies are successfully using innovation to unlock value”
Companies' return on innovation investment declined 27% over a five-year period (Accenture, 2018[6])
Source wording
“companies' return on innovation investments declined 27 percent over the past five years”
Among companies that raised innovation investment by at least 25% in five years, 57% underperformed their industry peers on profit or market-cap growth (Accenture, 2018[6])
Source wording
“56 percent of respondents who reported increasing their innovation investments by at least 25 percent in the past five years ... more than half (57 percent) underperformed their industry peers in growing profits or market capitalization”
Innovation leaders generate almost twice as much revenue growth from innovation as their competitors (McKinsey, 2015[10])
Source wording
“innovation leaders generate almost twice as much revenue growth from innovation as their competitors.”
Organisations that excel at most of McKinsey's eight innovation practices deliver 2.4 times higher economic profit (McKinsey, 2020[11])
Source wording
“organizations that excel at most of these practices delivering 2.4 times higher economic profit”
The top 50 companies in BCG's 2023 Most Innovative Companies ranking beat the MSCI World Index on shareholder return by 3.3 percentage points a year (BCG, 2023[2])
Source wording
“The top 50 companies in the 2023 Most Innovative Companies report outperform the MSCI World Index on shareholder return by 3.3 percentage points per year.”
Over twenty years, BCG's top innovators outperformed the broader market by 2.4 percentage points a year on average (BCG, 2025[3])
Source wording
“Top innovators outperformed the broader market by 2.4 percentage points annually on average”
Companies that tie innovation tightly to strategy get a 74% higher share of revenue from new products than companies with only a weak link (BCG, 2024[1])
Source wording
“Strategy-led innovators achieve a share of revenue from new products 74% higher than companies with just a weak link between strategy and innovation.”
On average, 80% of corporate growth comes from within a company's core industry (McKinsey, 2025[12])
Source wording
“On average, 80 percent of corporate growth comes from within a company's core industry”
38% of executives name innovation of new offerings within the core business as one of their largest growth factors (McKinsey, 2025[12])
Source wording
“the next two largest factors, noted by 38 and 34 percent of our survey respondents, respectively, are innovation of new offerings within the core business and expanding into new regions”
How confident are executives in their own innovation?
Less than they were. The 2025 BCG series records a 24-point fall in the share of executives who consider their company an innovation leader, and the readiness scores underneath explain why: strategy and innovation are rarely linked, and the metrics in use do not drive decisions.
The proportion of executives who see their company as an innovation leader fell by 24 percentage points between 2021 and 2024 (BCG, 2025[3])
Source wording
“the proportion of executives who said that they see their companies as innovation leaders declined by 24 percentage points”
Just 3% of companies score in BCG's innovation "ready zone", meaning they are set up to turn priorities into results (BCG, 2024[1])
Source wording
“Just 3% score in the 'ready zone.'”
Just 12% of companies say there is a strong link between their business strategy and their innovation strategy (BCG, 2024[1])
Source wording
“just 12% say their company has a strong link between the two.”
84% of "need seeker" companies say their innovation and business strategies are closely aligned, against 48% of market readers and 53% of technology drivers (Strategy&, 2018[8])
Source wording
“84% of need seekers say their innovation and business strategies are closely aligned, whereas this is true for only 48% of market readers and 53% of technology drivers.”
No more than 32% of executives reported being capable of using innovation metrics for any single purpose, in a 2008 McKinsey Quarterly survey (McKinsey Quarterly, via Viima, 2008[13])
Source wording
“32% reported themselves to be capable of any single one of these”
The average organisation used eight separate metrics to measure innovation, per the same McKinsey survey (McKinsey Quarterly, via Viima, 2008[13])
Source wording
“uses 8 separate metrics to measure innovation”
How are innovation teams organised and funded?
Small, and on a short leash. The KPMG and InnoLead benchmark is the best public picture of the corporate innovation function, and it shows teams of ten or fewer tied to the annual budget cycle, with the transformational share of the portfolio shrinking year on year.
Nearly 60% of corporate innovation leaders work with a team of 10 or fewer people (KPMG and InnoLead, 2023[5])
Source wording
“Nearly 60 percent of our respondents are working with a team of 10 or fewer people.”
Nearly 73% of innovation teams say they are beholden to the annual budgeting process (KPMG and InnoLead, 2023[5])
Source wording
“Nearly 73 percent of companies this year tell us they are beholden to the annual budgeting process.”
Transformational activities shrank to 18% of innovation portfolios in 2023, from 26% in 2020 (KPMG and InnoLead, 2023[5])
Source wording
“transformational activities had shrunk to 18 percent”
51.9% of innovation leaders cite politics, turf wars or lack of alignment as a barrier (KPMG and InnoLead, 2023[5])
Source wording
“Politics / Turf wars / No alignment”
Leading innovators allocate fully one-third of their innovation spending to breakthrough innovation (BCG, 2023[2])
Source wording
“allocat[e] fully one-third of spending toward developing breakthrough innovations”
Top-performing companies were 78% more likely than peers to build new businesses in other industries, and 68% more likely to acquire one (McKinsey, 2025[12])
Source wording
“top performers were 78 percent more likely than their peers to build new businesses in different industries and 68 percent more likely to acquire one in another sector”
Where do good ideas come from?
The funnel numbers people quote are old, and the brainstorming research is older still. Both hold up better than most of what gets said in workshops. One pattern across forty years of studies: individuals working alone, outsiders, and small evaluation panels beat the room.
Only 0.03% of raw ideas, about 1 in 3,000, become a commercial success, in the classic Stevens and Burley analysis (Stevens & Burley, via SRC, 1997[14])
Source wording
“Only 0.03 per cent (1 in 3,000) of products from the original/raw idea stage succeed.”
Raw ideas rated one standard deviation better went on to sell at roughly a 50% higher rate, in Kornish and Ulrich's study of Quirky product ideas (Kornish & Ulrich, Wharton, 2014[15])
Source wording
“an approximately 50% increase in sales rate”
Consumer panels as small as 20 people reliably predict which raw ideas will succeed (Kornish & Ulrich, Wharton, 2014[15])
Source wording
“predictions with samples as small as 20 consumers are reliable”
People brainstorming alone produced nearly twice as many different ideas as the same number of people brainstorming in a group (Diehl & Stroebe, 1987[16])
Source wording
“Nominal groups produced nearly twice as many different ideas as the real groups.”
In a field experiment with nearly 1,500 engineers in five countries, pairs working over video came up with fewer ideas than pairs in the same room (Brucks & Levav, via Scientific American, 2022[17])
Source wording
“nearly 1,500 telecommunication engineers from five different countries”
Problems broadcast to outside solvers on InnoCentive had a 29.5% solve rate across 166 challenges (Jeppesen & Lakhani, 2010[18])
Source wording
“a solve rate of 29.5%”
Outside scientists solved one-third of the problems that corporate research labs had been unable to solve internally (Lakhani et al., HBS, 2007[19])
Source wording
“the outside scientists were able to solve one-third of the problems that the research laboratories were unable to solve internally”
A submitted solution was 23.4% more likely to win an InnoCentive challenge if the solver was female, a sign that outsiders to a field win more often (Jeppesen & Lakhani, 2010[18])
Source wording
“the probability of winning increases by 23.4% if the individual submitting a solution is female”
The average employee suggests six ideas a year to their employer, and only 43% of those suggestions are acknowledged (Wazoku survey, via HR Magazine, 2016[20])
Source wording
“the average employee suggests six ideas per year to their employer, but less than half of the suggestions (43%) are acknowledged”
52% of employees say their organisation is full of people with good ideas but has no established process for them (Wazoku survey, via HR Magazine, 2016[20])
Source wording
“More than half (52%) of employees claimed that although their organisation is full of people with great ideas there is no established process”
A note on the employee-idea figures. They come from a survey run by Wazoku, which sells idea-management software, and the report is undated (we believe 2016). Use them as directional.
Is AI better at ideas than people?
On volume and average quality, yes, and the studies are not close. On novelty, the human crowd still wins. The more useful finding is the one from the BCG field experiment: AI lifts weak performers far more than strong ones, and it makes everyone worse on tasks it cannot actually do.
Head-to-head studies
AI-generated product ideas were seven times more likely than ideas from Wharton MBA students to rank in the top 10% by purchase intent (Wharton, 2024[21])
Source wording
“AI-generated ideas are seven times more likely to rank among the top 10% of ideas”
The average purchase probability for a ChatGPT-generated product idea was 47%, against 40% for the human idea (Wharton, via Penn Today, 2023[22])
Source wording
“The average purchase probability of a ChatGPT product was 47%, compared with 40% for the human idea.”
Generative AI produced each circular-economy solution in 27.2 seconds, at a cost of about US$0.037 (Boussioux et al., HBS, 2023[23])
Source wording
“Each solution was generated in 27.2 seconds on average ... cost $0.037 on average”
AI solutions were 7.4 percentage points less likely than human crowd solutions to receive the top novelty rating (Boussioux et al., HBS, 2023[23])
Source wording
“AI solutions are 7.4 percentage points less likely to receive the top novelty rating”
Writers given five AI-generated ideas produced stories rated 8.1% more novel (Doshi & Hauser, 2024[24])
Source wording
“writers in the Human with 5 GenAI ideas condition showed an increase in novelty of 8.1%”
For the least creative writers, "well written" ratings rose by up to 26.6% with AI ideas, while the stories as a group became more similar to each other (Doshi & Hauser, 2024[24])
Source wording
“assessments of how well the story was written increase by up to 26.6%”
AI at work: the BCG field experiment
Consultants using GPT-4 completed 12.2% more tasks and finished them 25.1% faster, on tasks inside the model's capability (Dell'Acqua et al., HBS/BCG, 2023[25])
Source wording
“completed 12.2% more tasks on average, and completed task 25.1% more quickly”
Their output was rated more than 40% higher in quality than the control group's (Dell'Acqua et al., HBS/BCG, 2023[25])
Source wording
“more than 40% higher quality compared to a control group”
Below-average performers improved 43% with AI; above-average performers improved 17% (Dell'Acqua et al., HBS/BCG, 2023[25])
Source wording
“those below the average performance threshold increasing by 43% and those above increasing by 17%”
On a task outside the model's capability, consultants using AI were 19 percentage points less likely to reach the correct answer (Dell'Acqua et al., HBS/BCG, 2023[25])
Source wording
“19 percentage points less likely to produce correct solutions”
Adoption inside innovation and R&D
30% of top innovators are already deploying generative AI at scale in innovation and R&D, more than six times the rate of laggards (McKinsey, 2024[10])
Source wording
“thirty percent of top innovators we surveyed said they are already deploying gen AI at scale in their innovation and R&D functions, more than six times the rate of companies that are lagging on innovation.”
86% of innovators are experimenting with generative AI to at least some degree (BCG, 2024[1])
Source wording
“While 86% percent of innovators in our research are experimenting with GenAI to at least some degree, ready innovators are moving out ahead.”
"Ready" innovators are five times more likely to have applied generative AI at scale (BCG, 2024[1])
Source wording
“They're applying GenAI more frequently in a single use case and are five times more likely to have applied it at scale.”
86% of companies now dedicate a portion of their R&D budget to AI development (Ayming barometer, via Unite.ai, 2024[26])
Source wording
“86% of companies now have a portion of their R&D budget dedicated to AI development”
85% of companies say AI tools are having an impact on their R&D teams (Ayming barometer, via Unite.ai, 2024[26])
Source wording
“85% of companies say AI tools are having an impact on their R&D teams”
Gartner predicted that at least 30% of generative AI projects would be abandoned after proof of concept by the end of 2025 (Gartner, 2024[27])
Source wording
“At least 30% of generative AI (GenAI) projects will be abandoned after proof of concept by the end of 2025”
How real is disruption?
Real at the level of company lists, and uneven at the level of categories. Large companies do disappear from the indices faster than they used to. In consumer goods, the growth has gone to small brands for a decade, with a partial reversal in 2024. The food-tech funding numbers show what happens when a disruption story runs ahead of the demand.
Corporate longevity
The average tenure of a company on the S&P 500 was 33 years in 1964, 24 years by 2016, and was forecast to reach 12 years by 2027 (Innosight, via I. Wladawsky-Berger, 2018[28])
Source wording
“The 33-year average tenure of companies on the S&P 500 in 1964 narrowed to 24 years by 2016 and is forecast to shrink to just 12 years by 2027.”
At the current churn rate, about half of today's S&P 500 companies would be replaced within ten years (Innosight, via I. Wladawsky-Berger, 2018[28])
Source wording
“at the current churn rate, about half of S&P 500 companies will be replaced over the next ten years”
Only 52 of the 1955 Fortune 500 companies, 10.4%, were still on the list in 2019 (Mark J. Perry, AEI, via FEE, 2019[29])
Source wording
“only 10.4 percent of the Fortune 500 companies in 1955 have remained on the list during the 64 years since in 2019”
63% of large companies currently face high levels of disruption, in Accenture's index of 3,600 companies (Accenture, via SmallBusiness.co.uk, 2018[30])
Source wording
“almost two-thirds (63 per cent) of companies currently face high levels of disruption”
44% of companies show severe signs of susceptibility to future disruption (Accenture, via SmallBusiness.co.uk, 2018[30])
Source wording
“two-fifths (44 per cent) show severe signs of susceptibility to future disruption”
Small brands versus incumbents in consumer goods
Small and medium-sized brands captured 45% of US consumer-goods growth between 2016 and 2019 (McKinsey, 2020[31])
Source wording
“captured 45 percent of growth”
The leading brands in each US CPG category generated only 25% of growth over the same period (McKinsey, 2020[31])
Source wording
“leading brands in each CPG category have generated only 25 percent of growth in US Nielsen-covered channels”
Small brands contributed 50% of value growth while accounting for only 11% of 2016 revenues (McKinsey, 2020[31])
Source wording
“they contributed 50 percent of value growth, while contributing only 11 percent of 2016 revenues”
Venture capitalists put US$18 billion into small CPG brands in five years (McKinsey, 2020[31])
Source wording
“Venture capitalists have provided $18 billion of funding to small CPG brands in the past five years”
About 70% of US CPG-sector growth has come from small and medium-size brands (McKinsey, 2018[32])
Source wording
“About 70 percent of CPG-sector growth has come from small- and medium-size brands.”
American millennials are almost four times more likely than baby boomers to avoid buying products from "the big food companies" (McKinsey, 2018[32])
Source wording
“American millennials are almost four times more likely than baby boomers to avoid buying products from 'the big food companies.'”
US CPG manufacturers under US$1 billion grew distribution 42% on average in 2025, against 7% for all other manufacturers (Circana, via MediaPost, 2026[33])
Source wording
“Companies under $1 billion grew distribution 42% on average, compared to just 7% for all other manufacturers”
Private brands reached 25.5% of US CPG unit sales in 2023, up from 24.7% a year earlier (Circana, 2024[34])
Source wording
“Private brands gained share from name brands, increasing to 25.5% of total unit sales, up from 24.7% in 2022”
Food-tech: when the disruption story outruns demand
Global agrifood-tech funding reached US$16.2 billion in 2025, almost flat on the prior year at −3% (AgFunder, 2026[35])
Source wording
“Global agrifoodtech funding hit $16.2 billion in 2025, almost flat versus the prior year (-3%)”
Food-tech venture investment fell to US$8.6 billion across 679 deals in 2025, down 22.6% in value and 41.2% in deal count (PitchBook, 2026[36])
Source wording
“In 2025, foodtech logged $8.6 billion across 679 deals, down 22.6% in deal value and down 41.2% in deal count”
Disclosed food-tech exit value collapsed 98% to US$287.7 million in 2025, from US$12.8 billion in 2024 (PitchBook, 2026[36])
Source wording
“Foodtech exit activity collapsed to $287.7 million across 85 transactions—a 98% decline in disclosed exit value from 2024's $12.8 billion”
Alternative-protein companies raised US$881 million in 2025, the first year below US$1 billion since 2018 (GFI, via Green Queen, 2026[37])
Source wording
“The alternative protein category only attracted $881M last year, falling below the $1B mark for the first time in seven years, according to the Good Food Institute's (GFI) analysis of data from Net Zero Insights.”
Global retail sales of plant-based meat, seafood and dairy reached US$28.9 billion in 2025 (GFI, via Green Queen, 2026[38])
Source wording
“Retail sales for plant-based meat, seafood, and dairy reached $28.9B worldwide in 2025”
Plant-based meat carried a 76% price premium over conventional meat in 2025, down from 82% in 2024 (GFI, via Green Queen, 2026[38])
Source wording
“The latter carried a 76% price premium in 2025, down from 82% in 2024.”
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Small and medium brands | 45% |
| Private label | 30% |
| Category-leading brands | 25% |
Source: McKinsey, "What got us here won't get us there", 2020. Chart: Quartz Labs.
How big is the innovation software market, and who is using AI in it?
Small, and growing faster than its users are changing. Market-size estimates vary with each firm's definition, so we list the firm beside each. The adoption surveys are the more interesting half: consumer-goods companies call idea-to-market their most strategic process and have barely applied AI to it.
The innovation management market is projected to grow from US$2.98 billion in 2025 to US$5.38 billion by 2030, a 12.6% CAGR (MarketsandMarkets, 2025[39])
Source wording
“the Innovation Management Market is projected to reach USD 5.38 billion by 2030 from USD 2.98 billion in 2025, registering a CAGR of 12.6% from 2025 to 2030.”
Another estimate puts the innovation management market at US$3.57 billion in 2026, reaching US$7.7 billion by 2031 at a 16.62% CAGR (Mordor Intelligence, 2026[40])
Source wording
“the market is forecast to grow from an estimated $3.57 billion in 2026 to $7.7 billion by 2031, representing a compound annual growth rate of 16.62%.”
Global Market Insights valued the innovation management market at US$1.6 billion in 2022, with a CAGR above 9% to 2032 (Global Market Insights, 2023[41])
Source wording
“Innovation Management Market size was valued at USD 1.6 billion in 2022 and is estimated to register a CAGR of over 9% between 2023 and 2032”
The idea management software market was valued at US$2.81 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach US$6.63 billion by 2033 (Verified Market Research, 2025[42])
Source wording
“the Idea Management Software Market was valued at $2.81 Bn in 2025 and is projected to reach $6.63 Bn by 2033, reflecting a 12.5% CAGR.”
BCG's client experience suggests AI and generative AI can accelerate the innovation cycle by up to 30% (BCG, 2025[43])
Source wording
“BCG experience suggests using AI and GenAI can accelerate the innovation cycle by up to 30%”
Almost half of consumer-goods respondents named idea-to-market as their most strategic process, but only 11% have deployed AI initiatives in innovation (BCG, 2026[44])
Source wording
“Almost half of CPG respondents named idea to market as their most strategic process, but only 11% have deployed AI initiatives in innovation.”
Roughly 75% of CPG and retail respondents remain in AI pilot and exploration mode; only 18% are scaling impact (BCG, 2026[44])
Source wording
“Roughly 75% of respondents remain in pilot and exploration mode, and only 18% are scaling impact.”
67% of CPG and retail respondents use AI mainly as a copilot where humans make the final call; 9% have moved AI efforts to autopilot (BCG, 2026[44])
Source wording
“In our survey, 67% of respondents said that they are still using AI mainly as a copilot, where AI generates insights but humans make the final call. Only 9% of respondents have pushed AI efforts into autopilot.”
66% of CPG companies have implemented or are actively scaling generative AI across their operations (Salesforce survey, 2025[45])
Source wording
“A full 66% of CPG companies have either implemented or are actively scaling generative AI across their operations.”
88% of CPG companies have budget allocated to AI (Salesforce survey, 2025[45])
Source wording
“Even more telling, 88% have budget allocated to AI, signaling a shift from experimentation to enterprise-grade execution.”
49% of CPG organisations are evaluating generative AI for product development, 25% are piloting it and 20% are implementing it (IBM IBV, via ESM, 2024[46])
Source wording
“nearly half (49%) of CPG organisations are considering and evaluating the adoption of generative AI for product development”
Market-size figures from different research firms are not comparable with each other. Each uses its own definition of the category and its own base year. Quote one firm, name it, and keep its base year.
Questions people ask
What percentage of companies say innovation is a top priority?
83% of companies ranked innovation among their top three priorities in BCG's 2024 Most Innovative Companies survey, a record for the series. In 2023 the figure was 79%, and in 2022 it was 75%.
How much do companies spend on R&D worldwide?
Corporate R&D expenditure reached almost US$1.3 trillion according to WIPO's Global Innovation Index 2025 tracker. The world's 1,000 largest corporate R&D spenders account for about 40% of all R&D spending, corporate and government combined (Strategy&, 2018).
What is the return on innovation investment?
Accenture's 2018 study of 840 executives found that return on innovation investment had fallen 27% over five years and that only 14% of companies were getting real value from innovation. BCG's long-run ranking finds the opposite for the top performers: its top innovators beat the broader market by 2.4 percentage points a year over twenty years. The spread between the best and the rest is the point.
How many ideas does it take to produce one successful product?
The classic Stevens and Burley estimate is about 3,000 raw ideas for one commercial success. At the concept stage the ratios are tighter: PDMA's 2012 study found the best firms needed 4.5 ideas per successful product against 11.4 for the rest. See our new product development statistics for the full funnel.
Is AI better than humans at generating ideas?
In the Wharton study, GPT-4 product ideas were seven times more likely than MBA students' ideas to rank in the top 10% by purchase intent. The HBS crowdsourcing study found the opposite on novelty: AI solutions were 7.4 points less likely to earn the top novelty rating. AI wins on volume and average quality; people still win on surprise.
What share of consumer-goods growth comes from small brands?
McKinsey found small and medium-sized brands captured 45% of US CPG growth from 2016 to 2019, while category leaders generated 25%. Circana's 2024 New Product Pacesetters data showed large manufacturers taking 64% of new-product dollars that year, so the balance moves.
How we built this list
We built this page from a library of 301 statistics on innovation, R&D and new product development that we compiled for our own work with food, beverage and consumer-goods innovation teams. For each figure we opened the source page, copied the sentence containing the number, and recorded the organisation, publication and year. A second pass re-opened a random 30% of the sources to check the wording.
Rules we applied: we link to the organisation that produced the number wherever we could reach it; where we could only reach a figure through a second-hand page we say so beside the source. We keep each statistic's year, because an innovation survey from 2008 is not a fact about 2026. Where a figure comes from a vendor survey, a forecast or a modelled estimate, the "source wording" under the statistic shows what was actually said.
We left out two famous numbers. "Only 6% of executives are satisfied with their innovation performance" is repeated everywhere and attributed to McKinsey, but we could not find it on a dated McKinsey page. "95% of new products fail" has no traceable study behind it; we cover that one on the new product development statistics page.
Corrections and additions: hello@quartzlabs.ai. The page is updated in place; the "last updated" date at the top changes only when the content does.
Cite this page
APA: Kahan, J. (2026, October 1). Innovation statistics: figures on spending, returns, ideas and AI. Quartz Labs. https://quartzlabs.ai/innovation-statistics
MLA: Kahan, Jonathan. “Innovation statistics: figures on spending, returns, ideas and AI.” Quartz Labs, 1 Oct. 2026, https://quartzlabs.ai/innovation-statistics.
Chicago: Kahan, Jonathan. “Innovation statistics: figures on spending, returns, ideas and AI.” Quartz Labs. October 1, 2026. https://quartzlabs.ai/innovation-statistics.
You are welcome to reuse any figure or chart from this page with a link back. Each statistic belongs to the organisation named beside it; please cite them too.
Sources
46 sources, in order of first appearance. Where we could only reach a figure through a second-hand page, the entry says “via”.
- Boston Consulting Group, Innovation Systems Need a Reboot (Most Innovative Companies 2024), 2024. https://www.bcg.com/publications/2024/innovation-systems-need-a-reboot
- Boston Consulting Group, Reaching New Heights in Uncertain Times: Most Innovative Companies 2023, 2023. https://www.bcg.com/publications/2023/advantages-through-innovation-in-uncertain-times
- Boston Consulting Group, Most Innovative Companies 2025 press release (In Disruptive Times, the Resilient Win), 2025. https://www.bcg.com/press/26june2025-winning-the-innovation-race
- McKinsey & Company, Cutting edge or cutting back? (Week in Charts), 2025. https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/week-in-charts/cutting-edge-or-cutting-back
- KPMG LLP and InnoLead, Benchmarking Innovation Impact 2023, 2023. https://audit.kpmg.us/kpmg-us/content/dam/kpmg/pdf/2023/benchmarking-innovation-impact-2023.pdf
- Accenture, How to Unlock the Value of Your Innovation Investments (press release), 2018. https://newsroom.accenture.com/news/2018/high-growth-companies-buck-trend-of-declining-returns-on-innovation-accenture-report-finds
- WIPO, Global Innovation Index 2025 - Global Innovation Tracker, 2025. https://www.wipo.int/web-publications/global-innovation-index-2025/en/global-innovation-tracker.html
- Strategy&, 2018 Global Innovation 1000 study, 2018. https://www.strategyand.pwc.com/gx/en/insights/innovation1000.html
- CB Insights, State of CVC 2024 Report, 2025. https://www.cbinsights.com/research/report/corporate-venture-capital-trends-2024
- McKinsey & Company, The eight essentials of innovation, 2015. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/the-eight-essentials-of-innovation
- McKinsey & Company, Innovation in a crisis: Why it is more critical than ever, 2020. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/innovation-in-a-crisis-why-it-is-more-critical-than-ever
- McKinsey & Company, How top performers use innovation to grow within and beyond the core, 2025. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/how-top-performers-use-innovation-to-grow-within-and-beyond-the-core
- McKinsey & Company (via viima.com), 50+ statistics on innovation (Viima blog), 2008. https://viima.com/blog/innovation-stats
- Saskatchewan Research Council (via src.sk.ca), SRC web article (chart drawn from Stevens and Burley 1997), 1997. https://src.sk.ca/node/419
- Wharton Mack Institute (via mackinstitute.wharton.upenn.edu), The Importance of the Raw Idea in Innovation: Testing the Sow's Ear Hypothesis (Journal of Marketing Research), 2014. https://mackinstitute.wharton.upenn.edu/2014/the-importance-of-the-raw-idea-in-innovation-testing-the-sows-ear-hypothesis/
- University of Tübingen, Productivity Loss in Brainstorming Groups: Toward the Solution of a Riddle (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 53(3)), 1987. https://homepages.se.edu/cvonbergen/files/2013/01/Productivity-Loss-In-Brainstorming_Toward-the-Solution-of-a-Riddle.pdf
- Scientific American (via scientificamerican.com), Brainstorming on Zoom Hampers Creativity, 2022. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/brainstorming-on-zoom-hampers-creativity
- Harvard Business School, Marginality and Problem Solving Effectiveness in Broadcast Search (Organization Science), 2010. https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/1/3351241/2/Jeppesen_Marginality.pdf
- Harvard Business School (via ictlogy.net), The Value of Openness in Scientific Problem Solving (HBS Working Paper 07-050), 2007. https://ictlogy.net/bibliography/reports/projects.php?idp=740
- Wazoku (via hrmagazine.co.uk), The EveryDay Innovation Report (reported by HR Magazine), 2016. https://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/content/news/the-innovation-gap-business-not-listening-to-employee-ideas
- Wharton, Using Large Language Models for Idea Generation in Innovation (SSRN; earlier titled 'Ideas are Dimes a Dozen'), 2024. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4526071
- Penn Today (via penntoday.upenn.edu), Wharton study: ChatGPT a better entrepreneur than most, 2023. https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/wharton-chatgpt-better-entrepreneur-most
- Harvard Business School, The Crowdless Future? Generative AI and Creative Problem-Solving (Boussioux, Lane, Zhang, Jacimovic, Lakhani), 2023. https://bu.edu/dbi/files/2023/11/Crowdless_Future_111323_Digital_BU.pdf
- University College London, Generative artificial intelligence enhances creativity but reduces the diversity of novel content (Doshi & Hauser; Science Advances 2024), 2024. https://arxiv.org/pdf/2312.00506
- Harvard Business School, Navigating the Jagged Technological Frontier: Field Experimental Evidence of the Effects of AI on Knowledge Worker Productivity and Quality (HBS Working Paper), 2023. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4573321
- Ayming (via unite.ai), AI's impact on innovation: key insights from the 2025 Innovation Barometer report, 2024. https://www.unite.ai/ais-impact-on-innovation-key-insights-from-the-2025-innovation-barometer-report/
- Gartner, Gartner Predicts 30% of Generative AI Projects Will Be Abandoned After Proof of Concept By End of 2025, 2024. https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2024-07-29-gartner-predicts-30-percent-of-generative-ai-projects-will-be-abandoned-after-proof-of-concept-by-end-of-2025
- Innosight (via blog.irvingwb.com), The pace of creative destruction is accelerating (blog), 2018. https://blog.irvingwb.com/blog/2020/01/the-pace-of-creative-destruction-is-accelerating.html
- Foundation for Economic Education (via fee.org), Comparing 1955's Fortune 500 to 2019's Fortune 500, 2019. https://fee.org/articles/comparing-1955s-fortune-500-to-2019s-fortune-500/
- Accenture (via smallbusiness.co.uk), Two-thirds of large companies face high levels of industry disruption, 2018. https://smallbusiness.co.uk/large-companies-industry-disruption-2542987/
- McKinsey & Company, What got us here won't get us there: A new model for the consumer goods industry, 2020. https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Industries/Consumer Packaged Goods/Our Insights/What got us here wont get us there A new model for the consumer goods industry/What-got-us-here-wont-get-us-there-vF.pdf
- McKinsey & Company, Agility@Scale: Solving the growth challenge in consumer packaged goods, 2018. https://www.mckinsey.com/br/en/our-insights/agility-at-scale-solving-the-growth-challenge-in-consumer-packaged-goods
- MediaPost (via mediapost.com), Red Bull, Chobani, Unilever Named CPG Leaders -- But Smaller Brands Are Coming For Them, 2026. https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/414201/red-bull-chobani-unilever-named-cpg-leaders-.html
- Circana, CPG Private Brands Update (press release), 2024. https://www.circana.com/post/circana-report-reveals-private-brands-surge-amidst-inflation
- AgFunder, AgFunder Global AgriFoodTech Investment Report 2026, 2026. https://agfunder.com/research/agfunder-global-agrifoodtech-investment-report-2026/
- PitchBook, Q4 2025 Foodtech VC Trends (preview), 2026. https://pitchbook.brightspotcdn.com/5e/d8/758c418e49108cc1decf7dafa2a7/q4-2025-foodtech-vc-trends-preview.pdf
- Green Queen (via greenqueen.com.hk), Alternative Protein Funding Down by 20% in 2025, Falling Below $1B for First Time in 7 Years, 2026. https://www.greenqueen.com.hk/alternative-protein-funding-q4-2025-plant-based-investment/
- Green Queen (via greenqueen.com.hk), Global Sales of Plant-Based Food Grew by 3% in 2025 Amid Funding Decline: GFI Report, 2026. https://www.greenqueen.com.hk/gfi-state-of-the-industry-report-2025-2026-plant-based-sales/
- MarketsandMarkets, Innovation Management Market worth $5.38 billion by 2030 (press release), 2025. https://tools.prnewswire.com/en-us/live/20823/release/20250830EN61880
- Mordor Intelligence (via globalprojectleader.co.uk), Innovation Management Market Set to Reach $7.7bn by 2031 as AI Adoption Accelerates, 2026. https://www.globalprojectleader.co.uk/2026/05/innovation-management-market-set-to-reach-7-7bn-by-2031-as-ai-adoption-accelerates
- Global Market Insights, Innovation Management Market Size report, 2023. https://gminsights.com/industry-analysis/innovation-management-market/market-size
- Verified Market Research, Idea Management Software Market report, 2025. https://www.verifiedmarketresearch.com/product/idea-management-software-market/
- Boston Consulting Group, The Role of AI in Reshaping Product Innovation, 2025. https://bcg.com/publications/2025/role-of-ai-reshaping-product-innovation
- Boston Consulting Group, AI in CPG and Retail: How Winners Are Pulling Ahead, 2026. https://www.bcg.com/assets/2026/state-of-ai-for-cpg.pdf
- Salesforce (via kantar.com), What 200 CPG leaders just told Salesforce about AI adoption, 2025. https://www.kantar.com/north-america/Inspiration/Retail/What-200-CPG-leaders-just-told-Salesforce-about-AI-adoption
- IBM Institute for Business Value (via esmmagazine.com), Generative AI could significantly improve product innovation, says IBM, 2024. https://esmmagazine.com/technology/generative-ai-could-significantly-improve-product-innovation-says-ibm-267204
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