American companies have invested billions in AI initiatives - but have basically nothing to show for it

• Report claims 95% of companies have nothing to show for their AI investments
• Only 5% have successfully deployed AI tools at scale
• Workers prefer ChatGPT to custom AI

New data from MIT's NANDA (Networked Agents and Decentralized AI) initiative has claimed that although US companies have invested $35-40 billion in generative AI tools, an overwhelming majority (95%) of them have nothing to show for it.

This leaves only 5% of companies having successfully deployed AI tools at scale, with failures blamed on AI's inability to retain data, adapt and learn over time – not the shortage of infrastructure and talent that often reaches the headlines.

Exploring a range of deployments, from off-the-shelf to specially-designed systems, MIT found only 5% of custom AI tools ever reach production.