Updated
Updated · ZDNet · Aug 28
91% of Professionals Say Firms Miss AI Value as 41% Lack Quality Tools
Updated
Updated · ZDNet · Aug 28

91% of Professionals Say Firms Miss AI Value as 41% Lack Quality Tools

3 articles · Updated · ZDNet · Aug 28

Summary

  • A Thomson Reuters survey of 1,800 professionals found 91% say their organizations still fall short of capturing AI’s value, underscoring a widening gap between AI ambition and day-to-day results.
  • Rising IT bills and weak returns are driving the disappointment: 41% of workplace AI users said they lack high-quality tools, and 35% at firms with a formal AI strategy said it is not visible in daily work.
  • Thomson Reuters COO Kirsty Roth blamed “tool blast” — broad AI rollouts without clear business outcomes — and said firms should let teams test tools briefly, measure results, and shut down weak experiments fast.
  • Roth said stronger performers turn exploration into a few production use cases with process changes, while many companies remain stuck in pilots; Gartner has predicted 40% of enterprises will demote or decommission autonomous agents by 2027.
  • At Thomson Reuters, 87% of employees use AI daily across five priority functions, offering a model the company says depends on trusted outputs, data safeguards, and explainable results.

Insights

Why are expensive enterprise AI pilots quietly failing to deliver real business value once they leave the demo stage?
Could your company's new autonomous AI agents be secretly exposing broken workflows and creating massive security risks?