Is AI Actually Saving Companies Money? Here's What I've Seen
There's a lot of hype about AI transforming business. But when you actually talk to companies using it, the results are... mixed. Here's what seems to actually work versus what's mostly hot air.
The Wins That Are Real
Some use cases genuinely deliver. The pattern I've noticed: AI works best when it's handling high-volume, somewhat repetitive tasks where mistakes are easy to catch.
Things that seem to actually work:
- Customer support responses (drafting first versions that humans review)
- Code generation for common patterns
- Summarizing long documents
- First drafts of marketing content
The key word there is "first draft." AI gets you 70-80% of the way there. A human finishes it.
The Disappointments
Where companies seem to struggle:
- Fully automating things that need nuance or judgment
- Expecting AI to replace expertise rather than augment it
- Rolling out AI too fast without proper testing
I've heard way too many stories of companies deploying chatbots that embarrassed them publicly because nobody tested the edge cases.
What Actually Drives ROI
From what I've seen, the best results come from:
- Picking the right tasks - Boring, repetitive, high-volume work
- Keeping humans in the loop - AI drafts, humans review
- Measuring honestly - Are you actually faster, or just feel faster?
The companies getting real value aren't the ones buying the most expensive AI tools. They're the ones who carefully chose one specific problem and solved it well.
My Advice
If your company is exploring AI, start with one pain point. Something that wastes a lot of time and has clear right/wrong answers. See if AI can make a dent. Then expand from there.
Skip the grand "AI transformation" projects. They rarely work.