Imagine if a study found that only 25% of sustainability investments paid off.
It would be a scandal with extensive media coverage about how sustainability is bad for business.
Well…an IBM survey of 2,000 global CEOs found that…
*Only 25% of AI initiatives have delivered expected ROI
*Just 52% say they’re realizing value from generative AI beyond cost savings
And yet…no scandal.
This isn’t an argument against investing in AI. It’s a reminder that companies regularly make investment decisions with vague ROI. And yet, everything called “sustainability” must justify its ROI relentlessly — and especially now in the U.S.
Here’s another revealing stat from the survey:
* 64% of CEOs say that the risk of falling behind drives investment in some technologies before they have a clear understanding of the value they bring.
Nobody, even CEOs, wants to miss out on what the cool kids are doing.
This mindset should apply to sustainability. We’re in a quasi-retreat as some companies give in to pressure to do less. But that’s a mistake.
The drivers of sustainability remain. Climate change is real. The world is more diverse. Trillion-dollar markets for clean and sustainable products are in play. Leading companies and countries are still moving to, for example, decarbonize.
If you’re company isn’t building the environmental and social capabilities the future demands, it’s getting less resilient…and less relevant.
That’s not a recipe for success.
[See the discussion on this post on LinkedIn]
[Photo: iStock, Javier Dall]
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