Disclaimer!
This presentation isbased on my
doctoral research titled “Cognitive
Chasms: A Grounded Theory of
GenAI Adoption”.
You are free to refer to my work and
use as appropriate, so long as you cite
it ☺
AI/GenAI/AgenticAI Failure Rates
CategoryFailure Rate Details & Examples
GenAI Pilots 95% fail
• MIT: 95% enterprise GenAI pilots yield zero measurable business
return despite $30-40B spend. Core issue: "GenAI Divide" (no
workflow redesign).
Enterprise AI
Overall
42-80%
abandoned
• S&P: 42% companies scrapped most AI initiatives (up from 17% in
2024).
• RAND: 80%+ never reach production.
• Gartner: 40% agentic canceled by 2027.
Agentic AI 90-95% fail
• Beam.ai: 90% implementations fail (edge cases, no metrics).
• MIT: Agentic subset of 95% GenAI failures.
• NTT: 70-85% miss ROI.
AI Companies
Financial
Success
<5-26%
profitable
• MIT: Only 5% pilots succeed.
• BCG: 26% move beyond PoC, 4% generate "significant value".
• Epoch: Leading labs (OpenAI/Anthropic) unprofitable ($5-15B
losses despite $10-20B rev).
8.
Productivity Gains ByArea
Area
Productivity
Gain
Specific Stats & Caveats
Coding
(General)
12-21% net gain
• Developers write 12-15% more code (+21% self-reported
productivity).
• GitHub Copilot: 126% more projects/week.
• But: METR RCT (experienced devs): +19%slower completion
time despite 24% expected gain.
AI-Assisted
Software Dev
21-36% time
savings
• Google: 21% of code AI-assisted. Enterprises: 33-36% less dev
time.
• M365 Copilot: 30 min/week saved, 12% faster docs.
• Security risk: 48% AI code has vulnerabilities (needs review).
• Small firms: 50% faster testing/debugging.
Overall
Enterprise
<10% typical
• McKinsey/Stanford: Most report <10% cost savings, <5%
revenue gains (marketing/sales: 71% see gains, but low
magnitude).
• Leaders: 1.5x revenue growth.
9.
Reality Check
• Hypevs. Reality: Devs expect 24% speed-up but get
slowdowns in RCTs (over-reliance). 41% code AI-generated
(2025), but 80% needs human fixes.
• Success Factors: Winners (5%) define metrics upfront, build
for failure, iterate like "employee onboarding" (93% ROI
possible).
• Financial Reality: AI labs burn $5-20B/year despite rev
growth; hyperscalers profitable overall but AI is capex drag.
10.
So, what are
thebig
questions?
Why: Why does AI
fail every so often?
What: What does
adoption mean?
How: How do we
measure success?
Cognitive Chasms (§7.2)
GenAIAdoption Failure
Modes
Represent the potential
discontinuities in adoption
4 distinct chasms represent
exponential risks and rewards
14.
Hype / Reality
(H/R)Chasm
• "Expectations
Gap"
• Right
technology
must work
Pilot / Production
(P/P) Chasm
• “Scaling Gap”
• Pilots must be
scalable
Technology /
Business (T/B)
Chasm
• “Value Gap”
• Business need
must exist
Business / Social
(B/S) Chasm
• “Safety Gap”
• Societal
interests
sacrosanct
Cognitive Chasms (§7.2)
Bridging The Chasm:Multistage Scaling,
Cognitive Chasms and Cognitive Mindsets
Human Mindset
Decision Mindset
Purpose Mindset
Learning Mindset
19.
More details
• Theoryof Cognitive Chasms: A Grounded Theory of GenAI Adoption: My doctoral dissertation at Indian School of Business
(ISB): https://eprints.exchange.isb.edu/id/eprint/2340/
• GenAI in Business: Invited talk for Emerging Leaders Program at ISB, May 2025:-
https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/generative-artificial-intelligence-genai-in-business/278708699
• Theory of Cognitive Chasms: Failure Modes of GenAI Adoption: Lecture for Executive MBA students at Walton School of
Business, Apr 2025: - https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/theory-of-cognitive-chasms-failure-modes-of-genai-
adoption/278463456
• PhD Colloquium at Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB), Dec 2024:
https://www.youtube.com/live/UBmkl7Vpr0Q?si=lqw2JJUVhUI8cWL7
• GenAI Value Spectrum – delivering the “true value” from GenAI initiatives: Keynote at IEEE Bangalore Technology
Conference (BTC) 2024: https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/genai-value-spectrum-delivering-the-true-value-from-genai-
initiatives/273734671
• The role of Cognitive Mindset in GenAI Adoption: Invited talk at Project Management Institute (PMI) Bangalore Chapter
Footprints: https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/the-role-of-cognitive-mindset-in-genai-adoption-pdf/274055306
• Managing Fast-Evolving GenAI Adoptions: Invited Keynote at Siemens Agile Conference
2024: https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/managing-fast-evolving-genai-technology-adoptions/273470070