95% of AI projects in companies show no measurable return, according to MIT.
Not because the tech failed. Because nobody decided what it was meant to buy them.
I've worked through the internet boom, the mobile boom and now the AI boom. The pattern never changes.
Either the use case isn't clear at the start.
Or ROI expectations weren’t thought about enough.
A business buys the tools - or hires someone to implement AI solutions.
And 18 months later the spend has tripled - and no one can say what it actually bought.
The cost is never the hard part. A token meter counts to the fraction of a penny and the bill lands every month.
The value is the hard part.
A wage buys an hour. A contract buys a deliverable. A token buys "intelligence", with no unit attached unless you give it one. So your finance team can tell you exactly what AI cost last quarter. But not always what it did.
The owners getting a real return aren't the biggest spenders. They named the win before they spent.
Treat AI like a hire. Give it a job and a number to hit.
If you can't say what your AI is buying you, you're not measuring it. You're just paying for it.
