Boards have approved AI budgets for three years running. The question in the boardroom has shifted from whether to invest to what the investment has returned. For most companies, the honest answer is not much yet.
PwC's 29th Global CEO Survey, covering 4,454 chief executives in 95 countries, found that 56 percent report no significant financial benefit from AI. A third see gains in either cost or revenue. Only 12 percent report both. Meanwhile, BCG finds AI spending has climbed to about 3.3 percent of revenue, and roughly 80 percent of it now sits outside enterprise IT.
Spending is rising and spreading across the business. Returns are concentrated in a small group of companies that run AI as one program.
01Four habits of the companies that are winning
They scale instead of piloting. PwC finds that CEOs reporting both cost and revenue gains are two to three times more likely to have embedded AI extensively across products, demand generation, and strategic decisions. A portfolio of disconnected pilots rarely adds up to a financial result.
They run one program, not many. BCG reports that 61 percent of its most advanced companies run a single, multiyear, enterprise wide AI program, compared with 17 percent of laggards. The program is aimed at the company's biggest opportunities, and the leadership team is accountable for it.
They measure on the P&L. Nearly all of BCG's leaders tie AI to clear KPIs or track its effect on the P&L. Companies that do so realize about three times the AI value of companies that do not measure formally. What gets measured in financial terms gets managed in financial terms.
They build the foundations once. PwC finds that companies with strong AI foundations, including responsible AI frameworks and a technology environment built for enterprise wide integration, are three times more likely to report meaningful returns.
02Questions to bring to the next leadership meeting
- Which three AI initiatives account for most of our expected value, and who owns each one?
- How much are we spending on AI across all functions, including what sits outside IT?
- For each initiative in production, what has it changed on the P&L, and how do we know?
- What would we stop doing if we concentrated on one enterprise program?
The gap between the 12 percent and everyone else is not access to better technology. Every company can buy the same models. It is the discipline to concentrate, measure, and see the work through to the numbers.