Their companies already invested significantly in AI, but more than half of chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) polled said they are unclear on its return on investment.
That’s according to a survey of companies that make $250 million annually conducted by Gartner, Inc. The business and technology insights company surveyed 394 supply chain professionals from November 2025 to February 2026 to gauge how much their companies allocate for AI investments. Then to understand the ROI of these investments, it surveyed 135 senior supply chain leaders from January through April 2026.
The research found that 55 percent of CSCOs are not sure about the ROI of their companies’ AI investments, even as 67 percent of supply chain digital investments have already been allotted for AI.
“Organizations are getting better at executing change for individual initiatives,” said Lorraine Gavin, senior principal analyst in Gartner’s supply chain practice.
“The bigger challenge today is deciding where to invest limited change management resources so that they support the business outcomes that matter most. AI is making that decision more important than ever,” she said.
Other surveys have reached similar conclusions. Last year, an MIT report found despite up to $40 billion in enterprise investment into Generative AI, 95 percent of companies were “getting zero return,” based on 150 interviews with leaders, a survey of 350 employees, and an analysis of 300 public AI developments.
The few success stories in the research— pilots of large companies and startups led by 19-or 20-year-olds—saw their revenues jump from zero to $20 million in a year. “It’s because they pick one pain point, execute well, and partner smartly with companies who use their tools,” Aditya Challapally, the lead author of the report, told Fortune.
It’s not that the workers or the leaders don’t use AI. Earlier this year, AI platform Writer released a multi-country survey it did with research firm Workplace Intelligence to study AI adoption across enterprises. After polling 2,400 employees, half of whom were c-suite executives, they found that 70 percent of employees and 94 percent of C-suite respondents use AI tools for at least half an hour per day, with 64 percent of executives even using these tools for at least two hours every day.
Despite that, 66 percent of leaders say the executives at their company “talk a big game about AI but can’t deliver,” the report said, with nearly half of respondents saying they think they are burning cash on AI. Only a few saw any significant ROI: 29 percent in their GenAI tools, and 23 percent in AI agents.
“AI adoption at scale is no longer a technology challenge—it’s a leadership one. To move from ambition to impact, organizations must address the structural, cultural, and governance gaps slowing progress, the Writer report read.
