IBM Survey Reveals Most AI Investments Driven by Fear of Missing Out Rather Than Proven Returns

• Only 25% of AI initiatives have delivered the expected return on investment, according to an IBM survey of 2,000 CEOs.
• The findings, published during IBM's annual Think conference, reveal that despite the hype around generative AI, enterprises struggle to extract real value.
• Just 52% of CEOs say their organizations see value beyond cost reduction from GenAI investments.

AI Adoption Accelerates Despite Uncertain Returns

• 61% of CEOs are already adopting AI agents and plan to scale them across their organizations.
• AI agents aim to automate entire tasks by integrating multiple tools, models, and data sources, with or without human intervention.
• However, only 16% of AI initiatives have scaled enterprise-wide, indicating fragmented deployments.

FOMO Fuels Spending

• 64% of respondents admit adopting AI before assessing its actual benefits, driven by fear of missing out (FOMO).
• 65% of CEOs prioritize use cases based on potential ROI, but many lack clear metrics.
• Half (50%) of organizations juggle disconnected AI technologies due to rapid evolution in the field.

Challenges Persist

• Costs remain a hurdle, whether for cloud or on-prem AI hardware.
• Over 50% of organizations struggle to balance funding for existing operations and AI innovation.
• 72% believe proprietary data is key to unlocking AI value, but many fail to normalize or filter data effectively.

Workforce Impact

• More than half of respondents are hiring for new AI roles that didn’t exist a year ago.
• A third of the workforce may need retraining or reskilling in the next three years.

IBM’s AI Announcements

At Think 2025, IBM unveiled:

• Watsonx Orchestrate framework to simplify AI agent development.
• API Agent, which identifies or generates custom APIs for AI integrations (details).
• Partnerships with Salesforce, AWS, Oracle, and Lumen.

Long-Term Optimism

• 85% of executives expect positive ROI within two years, despite current challenges.
• The study underscores the gap between AI hype and tangible business outcomes.

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