AI spending grows and organizations say value outweighs cost, despite many lacking ROI data

New end-user survey of 600 tech leaders tracks spending, perceived value, and ROI across dozens of AI products and features.

NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, February 12, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- AI spending will grow an average of 18.7% over the next twelve months, and most feel the value of AI outweighs its cost, according to new end-user data from Enterprise Technology Research (ETR). Based on responses from 600 technology leaders, the second iteration of ETR’s AI Product Series survey tracked AI spending plans, perceived value of AI investments, and evaluations of dozens of enterprise AI products and features.

On an equal-weighted basis, seat-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) products comprise the largest spending category for AI (31%), followed by consumption-based SaaS (25%) and infrastructure-as-a-service/platform-as-a-service (IaaS/PaaS) (21%). On a spend-weighted based, however, consumption-based SaaS and IaaS/PaaS-based AI products both lead with 25%, followed by seat-based SaaS (20%). The spend-weighted data suggests that larger enterprises leverage significantly greater internal resources to build and customize on consumption- and IaaS/PaaS-based products, leading to outsized spending relative to equal-weighted analyses.

Though most respondents (53%) felt the value created by AI outweighed its cost, which validates much of the hype around AI, measuring return on investment (ROI) for AI has been more hit-and-miss for organizations. More than a quarter (27%) said they had not yet seen a return on their AI investments, up from 22% in the November 2024 survey. Another quarter (26%) said they were not even currently measuring ROI for AI investments and 5% were unsure. Of those who had realized ROI, a third (33%) said ROI was between 1% and 25%, with just 9% reporting higher rates of return.

Respondents largely disagree that AI spending and initiatives will slow hiring or reduce headcount, with around a tenth of respondents strongly disagreeing with these assertions. This rebuts some widespread concerns that AI will displace jobs. More than half of respondents (54%) agreed to some extent that AI spending has improved their competitive advantage, and respondents largely agreed that they would be more likely to adopt a new vendor or renew with an existing vendor if it had AI features.

The ETR AI Product Series is a syndicated research product conducted six times per year, covering three tranches of vendors every six months. The survey is unique in the tech landscape, covering product-level detail on dozens of AI products and features from enterprise tech vendors. AI products included in the survey include Adobe Firefly, Canva Magic Studio, CrowdStrike Charlotte AI, Google Gemini Code Assist, New Relic AI, SentinelOne Purple AI, Tableau Pulse, and many more.

To read more analysis of the findings from this ETR AI Product Series survey, download findings here: https://etr.ai/featured-research/aiproductseries/

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Enterprise Technology Research (ETR) knows the truth: opinions can’t tell you what the market is saying - only the data can. That is why they are committed to delivering data-driven market research to technology companies, institutional investors, and a trusted community of technology leaders, empowering them with actionable, transparent, and unbiased insights to make more confident business decisions. ETR’s proprietary approach is grounded in their vision to reinvent technology market research so that business leaders can strategically position their organizations to outperform the competition. No other firm harnesses the same scale and makeup of their vetted community of technology leaders to quickly deliver the unbiased data, analysis, and guidance organizations need to make smarter, faster decisions. Bottom line: ETR ensures you access the data and gain the edge. Visit https://etr.ai/  to learn more.

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ETR AI Product Series