Innovation Brief · IB-2025-10a · October 2025
Unlocking AI ROI
A bimodal strategy of optimization and innovation to transform your business
Most AI programmes stall because efficiency gains go nowhere. The winners run two strategies at once, so savings fund reinvention.
- Authors
Dave WrightChief Innovation Officer
- Length
- 18 pages
- Themes
- AI Strategy & Maturity, Business Reinvention, The Actualized Enterprise
Summary
- Despite significant investments in AI, many companies are struggling to see meaningful returns.
- The problem is that most are simply applying AI to existing work for incremental improvements, with no plan to capitalize on the cost and time savings.
- Leading organizations see ROI by pursuing a bimodal approach: two parallel AI strategies where efficiency gains from automation directly fuel innovation and new business models.
- True AI value comes from reimagining what's possible, not just optimizing what exists.
- Executives face a critical decision: use AI to marginally improve yesterday's business model, or leverage the savings in money, time and talent to build tomorrow's competitive advantage.
From the brief
Recent MIT research reveals that 95% of generative AI pilots fail to create meaningful revenue acceleration, and another study estimates over 80% of AI projects fail — twice the failure rate of traditional technology initiatives.
The problem isn't the technology. What many mistake for failures of AI are actually failures of imagination and implementation — treating AI like a faster calculator rather than a catalyst for business transformation.
Read the full report