AI is a false economy… or is it?

Well, that depends entirely on the source of the opinion

The conversation around AI’s ROI is exactly what happens when you get a load of finance and tech people looking at spreadsheets. The reports from the big consulting firms about the true or limited impact of AI are both self-serving and one-dimensional – ooh, shots fired!

I’ve seen this first-hand in research with leaders of a global brand: a leader will say they don’t get any ROI from AI, and, in the same breath, explain how it’s massively improved people’s ability to focus on the work that matters.

I’m not trying to play into the tech bros’ hands here, but the ROI story that’s being told reminds me very much of the “70% of change or transformation programmes fail” line. How were they measuring that stat? Who does it serve to tell that story?

The answer is that right now, it serves consultants to say that companies can’t achieve true value on their own. It probably won’t surprise you to know that the consultants selling this line haven’t figured it out themselves either.

So how do you determine the ROI on AI?

With a true evaluation of its value, not just from a financial perspective, but from the perspective of the employee experience, improved access, and wellbeing for everyone. Including, for example, neurodiverse people, for whom we’ve found AI has dramatically improved their confidence with communication.

In practice, that means measuring four things, not one:

• Time back, and where it goes. Hours saved mean nothing on their own. Ask people what they’ve stopped doing, and what they’re doing instead.
• How work feels. Run a quick pulse survey before and after on confidence, workload, and frustration. If AI is doing its job, you’ll see it here first.
• Who it helps most. Ask the people who historically have found parts of work hardest, from neurodiverse colleagues to people working in a second language. Accessibility is a return too.
• Quality, not just speed. Are decisions better? Proposals sharper? Fewer revisions? Faster rubbish is still rubbish.

The ROI of AI is more than just productivity. It’s more than just bottom-line impact. And it’s more than just how it works.

If you’re a company that wants to show you’re future-focused and inclusive, AI is a great opportunity for you. Equally, we shouldn’t kid ourselves that it’s the solution to everything. As usual, the answer is more complex than the story we’re being told.

Perhaps the answer to the BS posts saying “companies who win in the future will do X” is that it’s going to be more luck than judgement, and more about understanding the complexity of AI’s impact than boiling it down to one-liners.

If you want to know what AI is really worth to your organisation, and how to lead your people through it, then we should talk.