Enterprise AI spending is expected to soar in 2025, but ROI remains elusive

Enterprise leaders are making substantial investments in generative AI, with 68% planning to spend between $50-250 million in the next year, while grappling with ROI measurement challenges and adoption disparities.

Investment landscape and executive outlook: KPMG‘s AI Quarterly Pulse Survey reveals significant financial commitments to generative AI among large enterprises.

• 67% of business leaders expect generative AI to transform their organizations by 2025
• The survey focused on 100 C-suite leaders from companies with annual revenues exceeding $1 billion
• No organizations reported reaching full maturity in their generative AI implementations

Implementation challenges and ROI concerns: Organizations face multiple hurdles in realizing value from their AI investments.

• Only 31% of organizations expect to measure generative AI ROI within six months
• Data quality emerges as the primary challenge, cited by 85% of respondents
• Privacy, cybersecurity (71%), and employee adoption (46%) represent significant barriers

AI agents and enterprise adoption: Autonomous AI tools are gaining traction as key enablers for scaling AI implementation.

• 51% of organizations are exploring AI agents for various applications
• Popular use cases include administrative tasks (60%), customer service (54%), and content creation (53%)
• Only 12% have deployed AI agents thus far

Adoption disparities across organizational levels: A significant gap exists between leadership and employee engagement with AI tools.

• 71% of C-suite executives actively use generative AI tools
• Only 26% of middle managers and 15% of entry-level employees utilize these technologies
• 80% of organizations plan to integrate AI tools into formal performance development programs

Evolving success metrics: Productivity has emerged as the primary measure of AI investment success.

• 79% of organizations now prioritize productivity as the leading ROI metric
• Profitability consideration has increased from 35% to 73% since early 2024
• 54% of organizations use AI productivity tools at least weekly
• 24% engage with AI tools embedded in existing workflows weekly

Implementation strategy and vendor selection: Organizations are prioritizing scalable solutions and technical expertise.

• 66% of leaders prioritize scalability when selecting AI vendors
• 61% emphasize technological expertise in vendor selection
• 88% of leaders cite external factors as key influencers of AI strategy

Future trajectory and implications: While enterprise leaders demonstrate strong commitment to AI transformation, success will depend on addressing the disconnect between executive enthusiasm and broader organizational adoption while establishing clear ROI metrics that align with business objectives.