Dive Brief:
- Executives and AI practitioners believe generative AI tools and capabilities have a significant impact on user productivity, according to a report from HFS Research and Ascendion.
- If Fortune 500 companies were 10% more productive due to generative AI, and valuation also increased 10%, it would result in a financial impact on the U.S. economy of more than $2.25 trillion, according to the HFS report.
- Nearly half of AI decision-makers expect an increase of 10% or more in employee productivity, according to the survey published as part of HFS’ generative AI playbook.
Dive Insight:
Despite generative AI’s potential impact on the economy, enterprises are struggling to quantify its ROI today.
Instant anecdotal benefits, like employees locating information faster, are common in recent enterprise deployments. Transformational change is much harder to come by.
Even as CEOs prioritize generative AI investments, they aren’t expecting a quick ROI. The majority of CEOs are planning for ROI on the technology to take three to five years, according to a KPMG survey. Less than one-third anticipate a return in one to three years.
Walmart was an early adopter of generative AI, initially casting a wide net to identify potential use cases. The retailer is now pursuing a more strategic focus by going deeper on only a few ideas.
The company rolled out an internal generative AI tool called My Assistant in August to 50,000 employees and laid out plans to expand access in the coming year to 25,000 more employees in January.
“We've got a very clear plan as it relates to [AI and] what we want to build versus what we want to leverage from others, and we've got good partnerships and good advisors and we've got a strong tech team that knows what they're doing in this area, so I do expect that it'll have benefits,” Doug McMillon, CEO at Walmart, said during the company’s Q4 2024 earnings call this week.
But McMillon said it was too early to try to quantify specific benefits.
