A new report from MIT has sent shockwaves through the enterprise AI world: 95% of generative AI pilots deliver zero return on investment.
The findings, based on 300 public deployments, more than 150 executive interviews, and $30 to $40 billion invested in these pilots, suggest that billions of dollars have been spent on AI experiments that never scale — and that most organizations are stuck on what MIT researchers call the “GenAI Divide.”
The numbers in the “State of AI in Business 2025” are stark: 40% of organizations said they’ve deployed AI tools, but only 5% have managed to integrate them into workflows at scale. Most projects die in pilot purgatory. Meanwhile, headlines are warning of an “AI bubble,” and some investors are shorting AI stocks on the idea that generative AI’s big enterprise moment is already stalling out. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jaimecatmull/2025/08/22/mit-says-95-of-enterprise-ai-failsheres-what-the-5-are-doing-right/
