Skip to content
Marsanne Studio
← The AI watch

Data study ·

Enterprise AI: measured progress, uncertain economics

Original title, in French: “IA en entreprise : progrès mesurés, équilibre économique incertain”

Publication
Brief IA (France)
Author
Tom Levy
Published on
26 September 2026 · read in the page structured data

Summary

According to Azeem Azhar, about two thirds of nearly 160 IT vice presidents gathered at an event in Las Vegas say they are achieving measurable results from AI, but only about eight consider these gains strong enough. Boston Consulting Group reports that around 70% of CEOs worldwide believe that success with AI matters for how their role is perceived. Azhar outlines a pessimistic scenario in which the AI bubble could burst if revenues do not cover the cost of infrastructure. Many companies are moving away from costly frontier models in favour of open-weight models. The length of time AI chips remain in use, between four and eight years, weighs on the economic calculations, and there is no macroeconomic documentation of return on investment.

Summary based on the full text of the article.

Read the article on Brief IA →

Figures cited

  • 66 %

    share of IT leaders who stood up to indicate measurable results from AI

    around 160 IT vice presidents at an event in Las Vegas

    « il a constaté que deux tiers des personnes présentes restaient debout, un chiffre supérieur à ses attentes »

    Source: Azeem Azhar

  • 8 people

    number of executives who consider their AI results good enough

    discussion with IT leaders

    « environ huit personnes seulement ont déclaré obtenir des résultats suffisamment bons pour interrompre les vacances d’été de leur PDG »
  • 70 %

    share of CEOs worldwide who believe that success with AI is important to how their role is perceived

    CEOs worldwide

    « environ 70 % des PDG dans le monde estiment que la réussite en IA est importante pour la perception de leur rôle »

    Source: Boston Consulting Group

  • — years

    length of time AI chips remain in production use

    « La durée d’utilisation des puces d’IA en production, évoquée comme pouvant aller de quatre à huit ans, a un impact important sur les calculs économiques »

Classification

Country
Italy
Company size
Large companies, All sizes
Industries
All industries, or industry not specified · Software vendors, IT services companies, telecoms
Companies
Boston Consulting Group (study author)
Keywords
return on investment, AI adoption, IT leaders, open-weight models, AI bubble, data centres

Entry written by Marsanne Studio from the cited article, with the help of an AI model (claude-sonnet-5). The rights to the article and its illustrations belong to Brief IA and its author. Entry translated from French by Claude Sonnet 5.5.