Pilots aren’t paying off

Companies are pouring money into artificial intelligence, but PwC says most are still not turning those experiments into real financial gains. (pwc.com) PwC’s study, published April 13, 2026, surveyed 1,217 senior executives at mostly large listed companies across 25 sectors. It found 74 percent of artificial intelligence’s economic value is being captured by just 20 percent of organizations. (pwc.com) In Ireland, the gap looks wider. The Irish Times reported that 17 percent of Irish chief executives said artificial intelligence increased revenue in the past 12 months, compared with 29 percent globally. (irishtimes.com) The split is not mainly about who has the most tools. PwC said the companies getting returns are about two to three times more likely to use artificial intelligence to pursue new growth opportunities and 2.6 times more likely to say it helps reinvent their business model. (pwc.ie) The firms ahead are also changing how work gets done, not just layering software on top of old processes. PwC said they are twice as likely to redesign workflows around artificial intelligence and 2.8 times more likely to increase decisions made without human intervention, while also putting more governance in place. (pwc.ie) That helps explain why so many pilots stall. Deloitte said in an October 2025 survey of 1,854 executives that most organizations expect a technology payback in seven to 12 months, but satisfactory returns on a typical artificial intelligence use case usually take two to four years. (deloitte.com) Deloitte found only 6 percent of organizations reported payback in under a year, and even among the most successful projects only 13 percent saw returns within 12 months. At the same time, 85 percent said they had increased artificial intelligence investment in the previous year. (deloitte.com) PwC has been warning for months that Irish businesses are behind on turning artificial intelligence use into business results. In its 2025 Ireland chief executive survey, 44 percent of respondents reported efficiency gains from artificial intelligence, but only 24 percent said it had lifted profits. (pwc.ie) The same pattern shows up at the worker level. PwC’s 2025 workforce survey found 67 percent of Irish workers who used artificial intelligence said it raised productivity, but only 10 percent said they used those tools daily at work. (pwc.ie) PwC’s conclusion is that the winners are treating artificial intelligence less like a trial run and more like a business overhaul. The companies still stuck in pilot mode are generating activity; the leaders are generating revenue. (pwc.com)