What’s the Real ROI of AI?
AI is saving time and reducing risk, but measuring its true ROI is still a challenge. Plus, we’ll dive into how finance leaders shared how they’re navigating efficiency gains, risk reduction, and the complexities of putting AI’s value into dollars and cents.
Keep reading for the key takeaways 👇
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Measuring AI’s ROI is Still a Challenge for Finance Leaders
At the recent Workiva Amplify 2025 conference, AI dominated conversations, particularly its role in time savings, risk reduction, and innovation. Yet, finance leaders admitted they are still working to determine how to measure the return on investment.
“We are constantly looking at the return on investment and what the output is actually giving us in return. We’re really trying to figure out a way to measure, to be honest with you. It’s very hard to measure efficiency with the AI tools today, and that’s something we’re trying to get our heads around. But it’s something that you are all going to have to figure out.”
– Heather Holding (Chief Risk Officer, Best Egg)
Alexander Davis, Deputy CFO of Pie Insurance, echoed the concern. Unlike capital investments that increase production, the benefits of AI, such as reducing errors in financial reporting, are harder to assign a dollar value. Pie Insurance has not yet developed a mature framework for ROI measurement, though Davis said the value of reduced risk and time savings is evident. Despite these challenges, finance leaders see AI as a worthwhile investment.
A Workiva survey of 2,300 corporate reporting professionals found that 88% reported increases in ROI from AI usage in the last year, primarily through time savings and greater productivity.
“If I were a practitioner thinking about return on investment, I would be thinking about it in terms of hard dollar costs as well as time saved, and my opportunity cost there. I suspect that the answer to this, in terms of ROI, lies largely in opportunity cost and time savings.”
– Steve Soter (VP and Industry Principal, Workiva)
As organizations continue to test AI tools, many appear content to lean on the technology’s ability to make work faster and more efficient, even as frameworks for formal ROI measurement continue to evolve.
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