Gartner: Only 13 percent of companies see major AI returns

The Gartner survey, presented at the Gartner IT Symposium in Orlando, captures a split screen in corporate AI spending. On one side, 58 percent of CIOs are tasked with delivering cost savings through AI, yet 51 percent expect AI to raise total operating costs for their tech stack — a mismatch that helps explain why only 13 percent report major or transformative returns. Gartner analyst Alicia Mullery describes a growing gap between the "innovation race" vendors are running and the "outcomes race" companies need to win, and notes that successful companies decide early which projects to pursue and which to shut down, even those already in production.

Not everyone shares the impatience. Bloomberg CEO Vlad Kliatchko says it is too early to measure AI's economic payoff, and his company is investing because it believes this is the right moment. That stance sits alongside Gartner's finding that 75 percent of CEOs plan to increase technology spending despite uncertain returns — a signal that many executives are treating the payoff as a longer-term bet rather than a near-term number.