According to Comviva’s Global CMO Survey Report 2026, just a tiny percentage of businesses are able to show a quantifiable impact on revenue despite a sharp increase in AI spending.

According to the study “The AI Efficiency Divide: Measuring AI’s Real Value Beyond the Hype,” 90% of businesses have raised their AI marketing expenditures over the previous two years, but only 12% are able to measure the income these investments have produced.

“90% of organisations increased AI marketing investment in the past two years. Yet only 12% can quantify the revenue it generates,” the report said.

The report noted that AI adoption has moved beyond experimentation and is now becoming a mainstream business priority. However, many organisations continue to struggle to measure whether their investments are delivering tangible business outcomes.

According to the survey, 86 per cent of marketing leaders have been asked by their board or senior management to justify AI spending over the past year, while only 16 per cent said they were confident of defending their AI budgets with quantified business value.

“86% of marketing leaders have been asked by their board or C-suite to justify AI spending in the past 12 months,” the report said.

The report added that 67 per cent of organisations cannot accurately determine the total cost of AI initiatives once infrastructure, talent and data- expenses are included, while 79 per cent continue to rely on estimates rather than precise measurement.

Explaining the challenge, the report said that AI spending is often spread across software subscriptions, cloud infrastructure, hardware, talent and integration costs, making it difficult for companies to establish a clear picture of total investment and returns.

The study also identified key barriers preventing organisations from measuring AI’s business impact effectively. According to the report, 62 per cent cited cost fragmentation as a major challenge, 58 per cent pointed to difficulties in attributing revenue directly to AI, while 55 per cent reported a disconnect between customer experience improvements and measurable revenue outcomes.

Commenting on the findings, Rajesh Chandiramani, Chief Executive Officer at Comvivasaid the focus of AI adoption is shifting from experimentation to accountability.

“AI is rapidly moving from experimentation to enterprise-wide adoption, and the industry is entering a phase where accountability and outcomes will define success,” Chandiramani said.

Despite the measurement challenges, the report found that certain AI applications are delivering stronger business outcomes than others. Customer segmentation and targeting emerged as the leading use case, cited by 57 per cent of respondents, followed by campaign automation and optimisation at 43 per cent and predictive personalisation and recommendations at 41 per cent.

The survey was conducted among more than 200 senior IT and business executives across the telecommunications, retail and e-commerce sectors globally.

The report said that as AI adoption becomes widespread, the ability to measure and prove business value, rather than simply invest in the technologywill increasingly determine which organisations gain a competitive advantage.

(YEAR)

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