AI Spending Is Up. Value Capture Still Lags.
- Samuel
- Sep 3, 2024
- 1 min read
Updated: Jul 28
Everywhere you look, AI budgets are climbing. AIM Council say that "Global AI investment is projected to exceed $500 billion in 2024,” and shockingly, they're right. With the biggest bets in software, media, and financial services, the amount invested is a major opportunity. But for many teams, the spending isn’t translating into results. The dashboards are full, the demos are slick, but the core business looks the same. This isn’t a tech problem — it’s a strategy gap.
As investment pours in, the temptation is to chase the next proof of concept. New tools, new vendors, another pilot. But that cycle burns attention and budget fast.
Without clear alignment between AI spend and value creation, organisations risk fatigue, fragmentation, and falling into AI theatre — activity without transformation. The costs keep rising, but the impact plateaus.
The solution isn’t to spend less — it’s to spend smarter.
That means shifting from project thinking to platform thinking. Instead of evaluating tools in isolation, build toward systems that integrate with how your company already works. The strongest returns come when AI is tied directly to business KPIs and shared operational outcomes. If it doesn’t change behaviour or decision-making, it’s not value.
Real scale also requires coordination. Teams can’t adopt AI in silos and expect systemic results. Cross-functional orchestration — across data, product, ops, and leadership — is the difference between local success and durable advantage.
The money is already in motion. The next competitive edge comes from using it well.
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