It’s time for AI to start making money for businesses. Can it?

livemint.com:

Corporate technology leaders across industries have been spending big on generative artificial intelligence over the past year. Now, they’re looking for returns to go beyond efficiency gains to actual dollars and cents, even as many admit it isn’t clear if and when they’ll start seeing them. A survey released today by professional-services firm KPMG shows that revenue generation has overtaken productivity as the primary gauge businesses use to measure AI’s return on investment.

KPMG surveyed 100 U.S.-based C-suite and business leaders representing organizations with an annual revenue of $1 billion or more. The shift in focus comes amid a period of AI-generated turbulence within IT organizations worldwide, marked by hiring slowdowns in some areas, shifting C-suite dynamics and investment in a technology that many CIOs are finding to be a heavy lift to implement. Organizations are expected to spend $38.8 billion on generative AI in 2024, according to market research firm International Data Corp.

CIOs have extolled AI’s efficiency savings, such as a 20% boost in productivity for software developers that use an AI coding tool. But as companies increasingly move from pilot to production with the pricey technology, they’re putting a bigger and bigger spotlight on where it will have a financial impact. “I really want to start driving use of AI at scale," said Luke Gee, head of analytics and AI at TD Bank.

“I think now is the time." For technology companies that can either integrate generative AI into their products and services or offer stand-alone AI products, the trajectory is simpler. “Because we sell software with AI in it, it by definition is driving revenue," said Aaron Levie, chief executive of cloud company Box. For