Companies across the globe are scrambling to incorporate AI into their business models, but a new study has found that the technology isn’t working quite like they expected.
Only 25% of AI initiatives have delivered expected return on investment (ROI), over the past three years, according to a new report from IBM, which surveyed 2,000 CEOs around the world during the first quarter of 2025.
But even with less than impressive returns so far, CEOs are still confident that AI is the future; 85% of these leaders expect a positive ROI for scaled AI efficiency and cost saving investments by 2027, while 77% anticipate a positive ROI for projects that emphasize scaled AI growth and expansion.
Despite the lackluster results, however, IBM vice chairman Gary Cohn urges CEOs to stay the course on AI, and even accelerate their implementation of the technology.
“At this point, leaders who aren’t leveraging AI and their own data to move forward are making a conscious business decision not to compete,” he writes in the report. “As AI adoption accelerates creating greater efficiency, and productivity gains, the ultimate pay-off will only come to CEOs with the courage to embrace risk as opportunity.”
Corporate America has been vocal about its enthusiasm when it comes to AI over the past few years, whether that be through streamlining internal processes, increasing productivity, upskilling the existing workforce, or improving customer service. In reality though, they are struggling to execute. Only 15% of U.S. employees reported that their workplaces have communicated a clear AI strategy, according to a Gallup poll from late 2024.
Some experts, however, believe that the latest economic uncertainty caused by President Donald Trump’s on-again-off-again tariff policies will actually help speed up AI adoption in corporate America. Studies found that during eras of historical economic strife, such as the Great Depression, the Great Recession and COVID-19, industry leaders were keen to adopt new technologies in an effort to stay afloat.
“[T]here is a view that maybe this is a moment that can actually jump start what we’ve all been playing with, in terms of AI, to find new efficiencies,” Constantine Alexandrakis, CEO of Russell Reynolds Associates, a leadership advisory firm, recently told Fortune.
He likened current C-suite thinking around AI to the COVID-era, where leaders quickly incorporated new communication technologies to keep up with the rapid change. “CEOs are saying: ‘Is this an opportunity to speed up the adoption of AI to help us on the expense line?’” he said.