95% Of AI Is Useless…or Are We Just Using It Wrong?

MIT's recent report on the State of AI in Business reported that 95% of GenAI deployments aren't delivering real value, which should be a clear sign for every executive to pay closer attention to their AI investments. But is this a crisis, or simply an inevitable sign of an emerging technology finding its footing?

While we could examine some of the report's finer details—and we acknowledge it is just one report among many—the research has clearly struck a chord with the business community. We agree with many of the conclusions and themes based on our own client work, and see the conversation as an important one for the industry. At AlixPartners, our experience across industries validates several key MIT findings. The "95% failure rate" MIT found is directionally correct with what we've seen, although it's not a challenge unique to GenAI. While creating Practical AI for CEOs, we found that 80%+ of all AI projects (encompassing all ML, and therefore GenAI too)