Pfizer takes 48th on AIQ 75 as 98% finish AI training

Fortune's expansion of its AI ranking from 50 to 75 companies pushed a batch of new names into public view, and several of them describe AI rollouts that go well beyond pilots. Pfizer says 98% of its workforce completed an AI certification program, and Hancock links that education to lower resistance to using AI in key workflows. Lumen's chief technology and product officer, Jim Fowler, says all the code for its Multi-Cloud Gateway was written by AI, and UPS's Bala Subramanian frames AI as a way to absorb roughly 1 billion signals of data from 20.8 million daily packages.

The common thread across these companies is organizational rather than purely technical. Cisco consolidated all products and engineering under Jeetu Patel in May 2025, and Thimaya Subaiya credits that change with closer collaboration across engineering teams. Palo Alto Networks' CIO Meerah Rajavel built an agent that automates 83% of IT tickets, and Thermo Fisher has rolled out over 100,000 ChatGPT licenses. None of these steps guarantees financial returns, but they suggest the newest AIQ members are betting on scale and process change rather than isolated tools.

The stakes appear to hinge on whether these internal programs convert into durable advantages. Pfizer is working with XtalPi on quantum computing, PostEra on AI drug discovery and the research lab Boltz. Lumen's fiber expansion is a multi-year build, and its payoff could take years to appear. For now, the ranking rewards adoption; the harder test, as Fowler suggests, is whether companies that focus only on efficiency find long-term success.