Most firms see no immediate payoff for AI. Are they asking the wrong questions?

""If we truly believe AI to be an enabler, It's going to reflect its positives in everything we do in a strategic, smart way," she said. "If we are looking for that one silver bullet output," she added, "we're kidding ourselves." If AI initiatives genuinely work, she said, the results will eventually show up in retention rates, the new skillsets employees build, and -in time - the revenue a company generates."

"The question leaders should be asking instead is whether they are willing and ready to challenge the status quo-and empower their employees to do it, said Teuila Hanson, LinkedIn's chief people officer. "You can't just sprinkle AI on top of existing structures and expect your metrics or some wild metric to skyrocket," Hanson said. "As an organization, you need to really reimagine how work is going to get done and how ideas are generated.""

A recent MIT report found that despite billions spent on AI initiatives, 95% of companies see no measurable impact on their bottom lines. Measuring immediate monetary ROI from early AI investments is often misleading during initial adoption phases. AI should be treated as an enabler whose benefits emerge across retention, employee skill development, and, over time, revenue growth. Organizations need to reimagine work design and idea generation rather than simply overlaying AI onto existing structures. Leaders must decide whether they are willing and ready to challenge the status quo and empower employees to change ways of working.

Read at Fortune