Only 13% of Companies See Real AI Returns, Gartner Survey Finds

**Title:** Only 13% of Companies See Real AI Returns, Gartner Finds **Target keywords:** AI ROI, Gartner AI survey, AI business value, CIO survey, AI operating costs, technology budgets, AI investment returns, digital transformation **Meta title:** Only 13% of Firms See Real AI Returns: Gartner Survey **Meta description:** A Gartner survey of 2,002 CIOs finds only 13% of companies see real business value from AI, while 51% expect higher operating costs.

What happened

Only 13 percent of companies are getting real business value from their AI investments, according to a Gartner survey of 2,002 CIOs, as reported by The Decoder.

The same survey found that 51 percent of respondents expect AI to increase their operating costs. Despite this, 75 percent of CEOs plan to keep raising their technology budgets.

The reporting frames the result as strategic conviction currently outpacing measurable results. Investment intent is holding up, while proof of return is still thin.

Why it matters

For leaders, the headline is less about AI's potential and more about how that potential is measured. When most organisations cannot yet point to clear business returns, investment decisions are being made on expectation rather than evidence. That changes how AI programmes should be governed, from the budget line through to the operating model.

The cost finding matters just as much. If a majority of CIOs expect AI to add to operating costs, then efficiency is not an automatic result of deployment. Service and digital leaders will need to be clear about which customer and employee outcomes each AI initiative is meant to improve, and how those outcomes will be tracked before spend scales further.

By the numbers

• 13 percent of companies report getting real business value from their AI investments.
• 2,002 CIOs took part in the Gartner survey.
• 51 percent expect AI to increase their operating costs.
• 75 percent of CEOs plan to keep raising their technology budgets.

The Renascence take

Most readers will fixate on the 13 percent and conclude that AI is failing. The more useful signal is the gap between spending and measurement, where budgets are rising faster than the systems meant to justify them.

The 13 percent figure is not a verdict on AI; it is a verdict on how most organisations define success. Budgets are being set around ambition, while the journeys AI is supposed to change remain unmapped and unmeasured. Customer-obsessed operators should stop asking whether AI works in general and instead name the specific behaviour, friction point or cost each initiative must shift, then instrument it before expanding spend.