Digging Out From The AI Money Pit

Digging Out From The AI Money Pit

https://www.forbes.com/sites/joemckendrick/2026/06/27/digging-out-from-the-ai-money-pit/

Publish Date: 2026-06-27 12:28:00

Source Domain: www.forbes.com

  • AI Spending Surge: Worldwide spending on AI is projected to reach $2.59 trillion this year with a 47% year-over-year increase, and is expected to grow to $3.5 trillion next year according to Gartner.

  • Lagging Realization of AI Value: A Bain and Company survey finds that nearly 40% of companies achieve under 10% AI cost savings, falling short of their initial targets of 11% to 20%, but 90% are still planning to increase their AI budgets.

  • AI Value Delivery Gap: Despite increased spending and investments in technology, the value delivered by AI remains short of expectations, causing mild but persistent discomfort among executives.

  • Obstacles to Realized AI Benefits: Key roadblocks include the need for human involvement due to limited autonomous agents, circular funding through previous automation savings, and persistent data integration barriers.

  • Recommendations to Improve AI ROI: Bain suggests auditing previous tech ROI, establishing clear governance with a designated owner, using AI to automate specific data workflows, redesigning employee roles to support AI, and measuring overall enterprise-level outcomes rather than focusing on individual programs.