Corporate leaders spent the past two years racing to bolt artificial intelligence onto everything from customer service to supply chains. Now a harsh verdict is emerging from the people signing the checks: a reported 56% of companies say their AI investments have delivered zero financial return so far. The result is a quiet revolt in boardrooms, where CEOs are demanding proof that the technology can move beyond hype and into hard numbers.
Yet even as frustration mounts, few leaders are walking away. Instead, they are doubling down on AI while overhauling how projects are chosen, governed, and measured, hoping to turn a costly experiment into a genuine productivity engine before shareholders lose patience.
The 56% shock: AI’s missing money
The most jarring figure in the current AI cycle is simple and brutal: 56% of companies report that their AI initiatives have produced no financial return at all. That number comes from a Jan survey of global executives that found More than half of respondents in Companies Have Seen Zero Financial Return From AI Investments, Survey Says, despite years of spending justified on promised ROI. That same research shows the share of executives who feel stuck in this “waiting-for-ROI” phase has actually grown compared with 2022, suggesting that early pilots have not scaled into profit engines.
The frustration is especially acute among CEOs who were told AI would quickly boost revenue or slash costs. A related Jan poll of leaders across industries found that only 30% of CEOs reported increased revenue from AI in recent months, leaving Across all polled industries 56% still seeing no revenue lift at all. In that context, the headline figure of 56% with zero financial return is not an outlier, it is part of a broader pattern in which AI is widely deployed but rarely monetized in a way that shows up clearly in earnings.
CEOs are fed up, but they cannot back out
That gap between promise and payoff is now shaping CEO sentiment. The PwC 2026 Glob CEO survey reports that confidence in revenue outlook has fallen to a five year low, and only three in ten leaders believe their organizations have successfully translated AI investment into consistent financial gains, according to CEO findings. A separate analysis of that same research notes that Enterprises are struggling to move beyond pilots, with 56% saying their AI projects have yet to generate meaningful ROI, a figure highlighted in coverage of how Enterprises are fed up with poor returns on investment from AI.
Yet those same CEOs also say they cannot afford to sit out the AI race. In the Jan poll that found only 30% reporting revenue gains, leaders still described AI as required to remain relevant, even if it is not yet helping them make money, as detailed in the poll. The result is a paradoxical mood: CEOs are angry about the lack of ROI, but they are also convinced that pulling back would leave their Companies exposed to more aggressive rivals that are still betting heavily on automation and data driven decision making.
All in on AI, even as anxiety spikes
Despite the ROI shortfall, corporate investment plans are moving in the opposite direction. A New BCG Report Shows Companies Plan to Double Their Spending on AI in 2026 and Remain Bullish on ROI, with 94% of surveyed leaders expecting the technology to deliver measurable returns in the near term, according to New BCG Report. Another summary of the same research notes that Companies expect to double their AI spending in 2026, and that Tellingly, CEOs are suddenly the key decision makers on artificial intelligence budgets, with some firms planning to devote up to 20% of their revenue to it, as reported in a Companies focused finance survey.
At the same time, executives are far from relaxed about where this money is going. A global survey exploring AI acceleration and the mindset of executives finds that Companies are doubling their investments year on year, but also that leaders are worried about potential errors and malfunctions if this year’s initiatives fail to pay off, according to Companies research led by Jessica Apotheker and BCG. That same work notes that a global survey exploring AI acceleration and the mindset of executives suggests that enterprises are doubling their investments yet fear the consequences if this year’s initiatives fail to pay off, a tension captured in a separate summary of the survey.
Why the returns are so hard to see
Part of the problem is that many AI deployments are still stuck in experimentation mode. Analysts who examined the Jan survey data on Companies Have Seen Zero Financial Return From AI Investments, Survey Says, note that most CEOs say their companies are still testing AI in limited pilots or using it to add functionality not yet present in core systems, rather than redesigning entire workflows, as highlighted in the Survey Says commentary. That helps explain why 56% see no ROI: incremental tools bolted onto legacy processes rarely deliver the kind of step change in productivity that shows up in quarterly reports.
There is also a growing recognition that technology alone is not enough. One advisory analysis argues that AI Alone Won’t Transform Your Business, Your People Will, noting that companies are not pulling back, they are doubling down on AI led transformation, but that success depends on rethinking roles, incentives, and training, as described in an AI led strategy piece. Without that kind of organizational overhaul, AI projects risk becoming yet another layer of complexity that adds cost and risk without delivering the “sustained earnings inflection” investors expect, a phrase that has also been used to describe how the legacy of the last year for Axtel S.A.B. de C.V. is not just a modest loss but a creeping sense of frustration that only a decisive strategic shift or a sustained earnings inflection could dispel, according to an analysis of Axtel S.A.B. de.
From hype to discipline: how CEOs are changing course
Faced with this disconnect, CEOs are starting to treat AI less like a moonshot and more like any other capital project. Key Takeaways from a Jan analysis of As AI Investments Surge, CEOs Take the Lead report that Four out of five CEOs are more optimistic about the ROI of their AI investments than they were a year ago, and that Nearly all expect their programs to produce measurable returns in 2026, according to Key Takeaways. That optimism is not blind: Nearly three quarters of chief executives now say they are personally leading AI decision making and upskilling themselves to understand the technology, as detailed in a press summary titled As AI Investments Surge, Take the Lead, Decision Making and Upskilling Themselves, New BCG Report Shows Companies Plan, which underscores how CEOs are taking direct control of Decision Making and.
Other research suggests leaders are also tying their own futures to AI outcomes. A commentary on The CEO AI Gamble notes that Here at LinkedIn and at Forbes, the author regularly writes about management and technology trends, and that According to BCG, a Radar survey of 2,360 executives found that roughly half believe their jobs will depend on delivering measurable business impact with AI in the next 18 months, as summarized in the Radar overview. That personal stake is one reason a global survey led by Jessica Apotheker and BCG finds that CEOs are all in on AI but anxieties remain, with leaders both accelerating investments and worrying about potential errors and malfunctions, as captured in the Jessica Apotheker analysis.
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