McKinsey wonders how to sell AI with no measurable benefits

"According to the consultancy, there are three main challenges it identifies as holding back broader growth in AI software monetization in the report " Upgrading software business models to thrive in the AI era." One of these is simply the inability to show any savings that can be expected. Many software firms trumpet potential use cases for AI, but only 30 percent have published quantifiable return on investment from real customer deployments."

"The billions poured into developing AI models mean they don't come cheap, and AI-enabling the entire customer service stack of a typical business could lead to a 60 to 80 percent price increase, McKinsey says, while quoting an HR executive at a Fortune 100 company griping: "All of these copilots are supposed to make work more efficient with fewer people, but my business leaders are also saying they can't reduce head count yet.""

"Another challenge is scaling up adoption after introduction, which the report blames on underinvestment in change management. It says that for every $1 spent on model development, firms should expect to have to spend $3 on change management, which means user training and performance monitoring. The third issue is a lack of predictable pricing, which means that customers find it hard to forecast how their AI costs will scale with usage because the pricing models are often complex and opaque."

Three primary obstacles hinder effective AI monetization for software vendors. First, vendors frequently cannot demonstrate concrete savings or ROI; only about 30 percent have published quantifiable returns from real deployments. Second, AI development and deployment can substantially raise IT costs—potentially increasing customer service stack pricing by 60–80 percent—while labor reductions often do not materialize. Third, adoption scaling is weakened by underinvestment in change management, with an estimated $3 required for change efforts per $1 of model development, and pricing models remain complex and unpredictable. Vendors must prove ROI, fund change management, and offer transparent pricing.

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