As the US and its global partners sink trillions of dollars into an AI arms race, Silicon Valley’s prime movers swear that the technology is destined to change our world for the better. Now, a new study joins the growing group that seeks to uncover an inconvenient truth: So far, most companies adopting AI aren’t making any money from it.
The new study comes from British accounting and professional services firm KPMG. The study published Wednesday looked at businesses in Canada, and surveyed them for evidence that AI was providing anything in the way of ROI. Sadly, the study found that, no, no one using AI has yet managed to discover its financial benefits. Indeed, the survey found that, while more and more businesses are using AI, only 2 percent of respondents claimed they “have seen a return on their generic AI investment.”
The survey, which included 753 business leaders from across the country, found that the vast majority of respondents reporting positive results from AI were from very large companies, those reporting at least $1 billion in annual revenue. The report notes that many companies have still not fully integrated AI into their workflows, and many of them are still experimenting with the technology.
The study shows that IT and sales and marketing are seeing the greatest rates of AI adoption. It said other areas where it has been widely adopted include research and development, finance and accounting, and engineering.
Stephanie Terrill, Canadian managing partner of digital and transformation at KPMG Canada, offered the general outlook as follows:
“Only a small portion of Canadian businesses are driving growth from their AI investments today, and this is understandable – it takes time to adopt new technologies and demonstrate recognizable returns on investment,” Terrill said. “However, Canada faces near-term threats to its economic competitiveness and is grappling with declining productivity and prosperity, so waiting years for AI investments to create value is not realistic in this environment – in fact, it is downright risky.”
Despite that fairly negative outlook, Terrill’s conclusion is not what you might think – that AI isn’t very helpful and companies should abandon it. Instead, she says Canadian companies should turbocharged Their AI investments so as to increase national “competitiveness” and see that elusive ROI that currently eludes them:
If we hope to become more economically competitive as a country, Canadian organizations need to accelerate AI implementation into core operations to realize medium-term productivity gains.
How long will companies have to wait until AI starts doing what it’s supposed to do? Many business leaders expect to wait several years for AI to have its intended impact, the study reports. Despite the fact that it is currently useless, a certain portion of companies (3 in 10) expect to start seeing returns on their AI investments within a year. A large portion (6 out of 10) said they expect to see ROI in one to five years. I guess, hope springs eternal.