Bursting the balloon of AI mania seeing as a panacea for all problems, a new study by MIT Institute has revealed that 95 per cent of organizations are getting zero return despite making heavy investments
in the emerging technology. Calling it a ‘GenAI Divide’, the study said ‘just 5 per cent of integrated AI pilots are extracting millions in value, while the vast majority remain stuck with no measurable P&L impact’.
The MIT study ‘The GenAI Divide: State of AI In Business 2025’, said that over 80 per cent of organizations have explored or piloted Gen AI tools like ChatGPT and Copilot, and nearly 40 per cent report deployment. “But these tools primarily enhance individual productivity, not P&L performance,” the MIT study mentioned.
Brittle workflows, lack of contextual learning, and misalignment with day-to-day operations are the key reasons behind the failure, as underlined by the MIT study.
Four patterns, as MIT study pointed out, emerged that define the GenAI Divide:
• Limited disruption: Only 2 of 8 major sectors show meaningful structural change
• Enterprise paradox: Big firms lead in pilot volume but lag in scale-up
• Investment bias: Budgets favor visible, top-line functions over high-ROI back office
• Implementation advantage: External partnerships see twice the success rate of internal builds
“The core barrier to scaling is not infrastructure, regulation, or talent. It is learning. Most GenAI systems do not retain feedback, adapt to context, or improve over time,” the MIT study concluded.
The adoption of GenAI hasn’t directly reduced the headcount of organizations, but those who are crossing the GenAI divide are beginning to see selective workforce impacts in customer support, software engineering, and administrative functions. “In addition, the highest performing organizations report measurable savings from reduced BPO spending and external agency use, particularly in back-office operations,” the report added.
