Only a quarter of AI initiatives’ expected return on investment ( ROI ) has been met, according to a recent IBM study, and only 16 % of them have successfully scaled AI across the enterprise despite rapid investment and growing competition pressure.
Despite this, the majority of Directors continue to be invested in AI, believing that it is essential to long-term success, with the majority anticipating good results by 2027. Gary Cohn, the vice chairman of IBM, said that “leaders who don’t use AI and their own information are properly choosing not to compete.”
Despite receiving subpar results, Directors continue to invest in AI.
According to the 2025 IBM CEO Study, 2, 000 Executives from 24 different locations and 24 sectors responded to the survey, the majority of leaders continue to invest in AI even though only a small percentage of projects achieve the expected returns.
CEOs continue to give priority to AI as a key driver of future growth, with 77 % predicting a positive result in scaled AI growth and expansion by 2027 and 85 % anticipating a positive ROI in scaled efficiency and cost savings.
The adoption of relational AI and AI agents is growing faster.
According to the IBM study, 61 % of CEOs are actively adopting and preparing to use AI agents scale, believing that AI is essential to maintaining their position in the market.
As businesses transition from small-scale tests to embedding AI agents in routine operations to improve modeling, agility, and decision-making across the business, IBM’s recent news that the “era of AI research is over” is now in place.
What’s stopping AI from paying off?
stifled software and information environments
Many businesses still deal with segmented data and disconnected business functions, which impede the impact of AI. Leading CEOs handle this by integrating end-to-end workflows and creating a unified data culture, which is essential for unlocking AI’s complete worth across teams, according to a new analysis.
Privacy and security
As businesses expand the use of artificial intelligence, security and data protection continue to be among the major issues, sharing the concerns of security professionals. According to the IBM survey, one of the best CEO objectives for 2025 is improved security and data privacy.
Having trouble measuring Profit
Many leaders challenge to compare and compare AI investments to tangible business outcomes, which another businesses across industries even struggle with. However, some business leaders think that real-time, AI-driven ROI is possible, especially for those who invested early and made the correct usage cases.
The way to AI ROI
According to the IBM Study, leaders who are willing to take proper risks and use their data to gain will be the ones who will see AI’s whole payoff. According to IBM, Executives who hold may be choosing not to thrive because they don’t really miss out on productivity increases.
In the end, it’s the clever decisions, not just the strong ones, that does determine AI’s worth.
