The New Math Behind ROI In AI
by Ankush Das · Inc42SUMMARY
- The formula for AI ROI is changing as businesses measure productivity, trust, customer outcomes and enterprise value instead of adoption
- Added to Saved Stories in Login
The race to deploy AI is heating up, but organisations no longer want just deployment. They’re asking whether copilots, AI agents and automation systems are translating into measurable business value. Both enterprises and startups are under pressure to justify their investments.
The challenge? Unlike traditional software, AI rarely transforms just one part of the business, making its return on investment (ROI) far more complex to calculate. But the answer also varies from company to company.
We spoke with AI-native startups, enterprise giants and other scaled-up ventures to understand what ROI in AI actually looks like today.
Which metrics are being tracked and are factors like productivity and efficiency coming into play in a measurable way rather than remaining subjective? And what happens when businesses find that their AI investments are not delivering meaningful returns? Let’s unpack these questions because in the age of AI, pretty much every company has to grapple with them.