Unraveling the Secret: How Fortune 500 Companies Successfully Convert AI Experiments to Profitable Business Assets

Dubbed the generative AI era since it’s launch three years ago, ChatGPT remains a largely untapped resource, thrusting many businesses into a state widely described as ‘pilot purgatory’. Despite pouring billions into AI investment, most corporations struggle to navigate beyond the proof-of-concept phase, leaving impressive potential returns on investment unattained. However, a select subset of Fortune 500 companies—among them Walmart, JPMorgan Chase, Novartis, General Electric, McKinsey, and Uber—have successfully decoded the enigma. Each entity has achieved the transition of moving AI from ‘innovation theatre’ to efficient, production-grade systems generating sizable ROI, in some instances, over $1 billion in annual business value. And it’s no accident.

However, the wider corporate landscape presents a bleak reality. Current industry research highlights that a whopping 85% of AI projects never make it to production, with less than half of those actually generating meaningful business returns. The underlying issue is far from technical, but more organizational, since many companies approach AI as a scientific experiment instead of a potentially transformative business capability.

Among common failure patterns are disparate initiatives across business units, unintelligible success metrics, inadequate data infrastructure, and the absence of an overarching governance framework equipped to manage AI at the enterprise scale. Emphasizing the importance of initial evaluation and an evaluation infrastructure, Sendbird head of product Shailesh Nalawadi posited that AI’s undertaking shouldn’t differ from standard software protocols, where production deployment doesn’t proceed without running unit tests.

Experience shows that achieving systematic AI deployment directly contributes to business growth, productivity, and efficiency. It’s not just about the investment, but strategic deployment that is key to reaping significant returns on the investment.