97% of companies struggle to prove AI's ROI - but these 5 expert tips can help (www.zdnet.com)

A Wakefield Research survey of 600 data leaders for Informatica found more than 97% of organizations struggle to prove the business value of generative AI. At Informatica’s World Tour in London, digital leaders offered five practical ways to make AI ROI tangible: start small and define stop/go criteria; win hearts and minds by aligning metrics with business language and enlisting finance; foster two‑way conversations between data teams and executives; link use cases to strategic outcomes; and tightly track roles, costs, timelines and dependencies across the project. The panel stressed that the barrier is often infrastructure and storytelling, not just model performance. Concrete technical advice included modernizing data platforms to the cloud and centralizing data hubs (examples: Informatica + Snowflake) so teams can iterate faster; using BI tools (e.g., Power BI) as the “cockpit” to convert data into insight; and creating pragmatic, stakeholder-specific metrics (CMO-focused churn reduction vs CFO-focused payback). The implication for AI/ML teams: invest in data foundations, co-create business cases with finance and product owners, instrument projects for early kill/scale decisions, and map each use case to broader corporate goals to sustain investment and adoption.