A recent study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has revealed that 95 percent of organizations are seeing no returns on their investments in artificial intelligence, despite enterprises spending $30-40 billion on generative AI (GenAI) technologies. The research surveyed 300 AI deployments and included interviews with approximately 350 employees.
The study points to a “learning gap” as the main reason for the lack of ROI. According to the researchers, “The core barrier to scaling is not infrastructure, regulation, or talent. It is learning. Most GenAI systems do not retain feedback, adapt to context, or improve over time.”
More than 80 percent of the organizations surveyed have experimented with or piloted AI tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Copilot, and nearly 40 percent reported actual deployment. However, the study found that while these tools often enhance individual productivity, they rarely impact overall business performance. Researchers noted that most failures are due to fragile workflows, limited contextual learning, and misalignment with daily operations.