Maximise Your AI ROI: 4 Tips from Industry Leaders

For businesses, the jury is still out on artificial intelligence—at least in terms of measuring a return on investment in the evolving technology.

The latest component of our CFO Insights Series, Solving the ROI Puzzle: How to Measure and Maximise AI Returns, incorporates research and input from finance leaders to provide perspective and insights for businesses seeking to gain and measure the benefits of AI technologies.

AI technologies have evolved significantly in recent years, and finance leaders are in an uncomfortable position of weighing proclamations of the benefits new tools will deliver. Still, the advantages that AI can bring in efficiency, forecasting, compliance, and growth are hard to ignore. It’s no wonder 51% of finance leaders report to us that they are investing in AI.¹

Those experienced with AI tools say measuring their ROI involves understanding the challenges of defining returns, examining best practices, using nontraditional performance indicators, and recognising the human benefits of a long-term approach.

The Challenges of Defining and Measuring ROI

With some tasks, such as report writing, the benefits in time and efficiency from an AI tool can be clear. But can a business be assured the hours saved will be well used? Will your team members be more engaged and creative with that time? And if so, will that lead to increased employee satisfaction and retention? That, in one way, sums up the measurement challenge.

Upfront investments in tech infrastructure and workforce training, paired with the costs of gathering, cleansing, and maintaining data, also can make assessing ROI difficult. Experts say quantifying returns requires committing to long-term metrics such as productivity gains while understanding that harder-to-measure, non-financial benefits still have business impact.

“We stick to clearly measurable productivity gains,” says Guy Melamed, CFO of software security provider Varonis. “This has led us to emphasise AI projects that reduce tedious tasks, help employees use their time better, and gain job satisfaction and engagement.”

Examining the best practices of top performers

Companies that are high achievers share common ground in that they ensure high-quality data, track performance results and adapt, and use strong security, privacy, and governance measures.² Other common factors separating overperformers from underperformers include creating standards and training on AI ethics, preparing AI platforms to manage data, and defining business cases and plans.³

Those organisations with more extensive AI expertise enjoy not just greater productivity and lower costs but also start realising deeper insights and innovation from AI projects. The most valuable applications of generative AI – estimated to drive 75% of its total value – are seen in customer operations, software engineering, R&D, and marketing and sales.⁴

Using nontraditional metrics, realising the human benefits

While you easily can tie the numbers to productivity and other financial gains, it’s important to adopt a wider view of returns that can take longer to unfold. Those measures can include quality improvement, fraud reduction, innovation, and improved compliance.

Other factors to consider in your ROI calculations revolve around people, such as trends in adoption rates from training programmes and change management strategies. You can also measure returns related to workforce retention and recruitment, as AI can make jobs more engaging for current employees and help attract younger professionals drawn to the career opportunities the technology offers.

Learn more about ROI and AI

More than four in five high-achieving AI-powered organisations have robust networks of ecosystem partners,⁵ illustrating the crucial role providers with AI expertise have in helping businesses successfully adopt the technology.

Check-out our latest content: 

• How to Measure and Maximise AI Returns
• SAP Concur Customer Interview: Unlocking the business value of AI
• What AI and ML Can Do in the World of Travel, Expense, and Invoice Management Today
• SAP Concur and the Future of AI

1. SAP Concur CFO Insights survey, 2024

2. Now Decides Next: Insights from the Leading Edge of Generative AI Adoption, Deloitte, January 2024.

3. Driving ROI through AI, ESI ThoughtLab, 2020.

4. The Economic Potential of Generative AI: The Next Productivity Frontier, McKinsey, June 2023

5. Becoming an AI-fueled Organization, Deloitte, 2021.