A Bain & Company survey of 951 companies revealed that nearly 40 percent achieved less than 10 percent in AI cost savings, even though most targeted 11 to 20 percent. The study highlights that AI budgets are growing, yet returns are not matching expectations. Despite this, 14 percent saved more than 21 percent, and 43 percent cleared 10 percent. Nine out of ten companies plan to increase their AI investments, particularly in AI agents. Nearly 40 percent of companies that measured AI cost savings landed below 10 percent, even though most had targeted 11 to 20 percent.
One reason savings are lagging is excessive human involvement, according to the study. Only 7 percent run fully autonomous AI agents, even though their business cases assume that level of automation. 32 percent loop in humans only when needed, while the most common setup (38 percent) still requires human approval. Data access remains the biggest hurdle, cited by 41 percent. Bain says companies should treat it as a management issue, not an IT task, and rethink processes before rolling out AI.
Bain & Company conducted the survey to understand why companies are not meeting their AI cost savings targets. The findings suggest that human intervention and data access challenges are major obstacles to achieving expected returns from AI investments.
Source: thedecoder
