The six-stage journey: Why 62% of organizations are stuck below the AI value line

Achieving value from AI requires more than robust technology

by · TechRadar

Opinion By Laks Srinivasan Published 3 August 2026

(Image credit: Getty Images)

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As we enter the latter half of 2026, the AI conversation has shifted from implementation to ROI. Ninety percent of organizations now report getting some value from AI tools. Only 45% are getting a great deal of it. That gap, which is the distance between “something” and “substantial,” is where the entire AI economy is currently parked.

Laks Srinivasan

Co-Founder & CEO at RoAI Institute.

In Harvard Business Review earlier this year, my team and I published findings from a survey (link 1) of 1,006 C-level executives across 32 industries and 11 countries. Several factors separate the organizations getting real returns from those merely getting by. Most prominently, 55% of executives cite unready data as an inhibitor, and 47% cite the absence of a repeatable value framework.

But one variable did more to predict high value than any other: how organizations measure and report what their AI is actually worth.

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We mapped that into a six-stage Economic Maturity Model. Stage 0 is unmeasured pilots. Stage 5 is formal reporting of AI value to boards, investors, and public markets. The share of organizations achieving high value climbs from 4% at Stage 0 to 85% at Stage 5, a 20x difference, and the single largest effect size in the entire study.

This is a financial measurement maturity model that measures not how well an organization builds AI, but how it measures what AI delivers.

Two cliffs, not a smooth climb

The journey between Stage 0 and Stage 5 is not linear. Plot high-value achievement against stage and two cliffs emerge, with plateaus in between.

The first cliff sits between Stage 2 and Stage 3, a 24-point jump. This is where organizations stop relying on pre-launch business cases alone and measure outcomes after deployment.

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