Enterprises Delay AI Spending Amid Low Financial Returns
Business leaders are slowing AI investments as a gap persists between technological potential and real-world profit, prompting AI developers to embed experts within client companies.
Enterprise leaders are delaying multimillion-dollar investments in generative AI as they struggle to realize meaningful financial returns. Surveys from Forrester Research and BCG show that only 15% and 5% of executives, respectively, saw improved profit margins or widespread value from AI over the last year. McKinsey reports that while 88% of global enterprises use AI in some capacity, fewer than 33% have scaled the technology meaningfully.
Companies including Verizon, Klarna, and Cando Rail and Terminals have faced significant hurdles, such as a lack of empathy in customer service and inconsistency when summarizing technical documents. These failures have led some firms to reintegrate human agents. Consequently, Forrester predicts companies will delay 25% of planned AI spending by a year in 2026, a period some observers call the great AI hype correction of 2025.
In response, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google are shifting strategies toward specialized models and direct client support. OpenAI has established a Forward Deployed Engineering team to tackle specific business problems, while Anthropic is hiring applied AI experts to embed within companies to move them from general-purpose tools to high-impact applications. Despite the current friction, nearly 70% of CEOs still plan to increase AI spending in 2026, and financial institutions like JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo expect the technology to eventually boost productivity, though they warn it may trigger job cuts.
