What is the return on investment (ROI)
of generative AI in business?

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly establishing itself in organizations. According to IBM, 77% of French companies have already adopted generative AI or plan to do so in the coming year. And for good reason, generative AI solutions such as ChatGPT, powered by machine learning algorithms trained on large datasets, can generate texts, images, and graphics in moments.

The potential use cases for this technology in business are numerous, offering productivity gains and competitive advantages. Generative AI software can accelerate content creation (communication materials, reports, training programs, metadata, etc.), streamline the management of IT requests (tickets), or facilitate HR processes (candidate profile analysis, automating onboarding, etc.).

While the deployment of AI in organizations seems inevitable, the associated costs raise concerns. Adopting generative AI tools involves various expenses: data structuring and preparation, solution development or acquisition, infrastructure setup and maintenance, system integration, employee training, maintenance and support, security and compliance, and testing.

So, how can generative AI adoption create value for businesses? What precautions should be taken to mitigate the risks associated with introducing generative AI? And above all, which use cases should be prioritized to make generative AI a profitable investment for your organization? In this article, Mozzaik answers these questions and provides the keys to anticipate and optimize the return on investment (ROI) of your AI projects.

How to calculate the ROI of AI in business?

Calculating the ROI of generative AI is essential to determine if adopting this technology is a profitable operation for your company.

What is ROI?

Return on Investment (ROI) is an indicator used to compare the amount invested in a project with its return. In other words, ROI tells you whether an initiative is profitable and generates revenue for the organization, for example, by reducing costs or increasing revenue. Calculating the ROI of a Digital Workplace or AI project thus allows you to determine if it benefits your business.

The formula for calculating AI ROI in business

To measure the ROI of an AI project, such as creating a chatbot to answer customer questions, you need to identify and track success indicators, such as cost savings or revenue growth.

Next, to calculate the ROI of your AI initiative, you should use the following formula: ROI = [(Investment Gains – Investment Costs) / Investment Costs] x 100. This will give you a percentage that reflects the return on investment for your project.

A positive percentage, 20% for example, means that the benefits generated by the project exceed the total investment. The project is therefore profitable. Conversely, a negative percentage—say, -5%—reveals that the funds invested in AI deployment were not offset by the resulting gains.

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Risks associated with AI adoption in business

Several factors can negatively impact the ROI of your generative AI projects. Here are the main ones:

Poorly framing your AI project

The first challenge that can cause the ROI of a generative AI initiative to melt away like snow in the sun is poor project scoping.

Before deploying AI in your organization, it is crucial to clearly identify the business needs this technology should address. For generative AI tools to be used by employees, they must solve a specific problem encountered by them. Without this, teams will not use the tools.

As an IT Manager, you must understand the expectations of employees. For example, if HR staff spend long hours answering employee questions about your company's compensation policy, implementing a chatbot that automatically handles employee inquiries could be a relevant solution.

To identify business needs and employee use cases, we encourage you to:

  • Survey the relevant employees via an internal poll;
  • Organize interviews and collaborative workshops with business teams;
  • Map out existing processes to identify opportunities for improvement.

Poorly structured database

Another risk threatening the ROI of your generative AI projects is a poorly structured data set before AI integration. Generative AI that accesses incomplete or disorganized data is likely to provide inaccurate or misleading responses.

To ensure the effectiveness of your AI solutions, you should establish a data collection and management strategy in line with your company’s security and confidentiality policies.

Untrained employees

The third mistake that can reduce the ROI of your generative AI projects is the lack of internal user skills.

An employee who writes imprecise prompts, for example, may obtain superficial results that do not allow them to improve productivity. Worse, an employee who fails to verify the answers provided by the generative AI may overlook instances of AI hallucination, potentially leading to errors that could harm the company.

Imagine a network analyst in the telecommunications sector. If they request recommendations to optimize traffic distribution on a mobile network but formulate a vague prompt without targeting a specific issue, they risk receiving irrelevant or even counterproductive suggestions. Without thorough verification, these recommendations could lead to incorrect adjustments, degrading service quality and causing an increase in customer complaints, with detrimental consequences for the employer.

To prevent the lack of employee skills from negatively impacting the ROI of your AI projects, you can implement various training initiatives:

  • Structured online or in-person training programs tailored to the employees' knowledge levels;
  • A mentorship program between internal experts and employees new to artificial intelligence;
  • Practical workshops where employees can work together on real use cases while being guided;
  • A learning community where employees can share knowledge about AI (questions, advice, news, etc.) and maintain a continuous learning dynamic;
  • Seminars and conferences led by experts to raise employee awareness of the challenges, opportunities, and innovations related to AI.

Ultimately, this learning journey should enable staff to craft effective prompts and challenge AI to mitigate the risks of AI hallucinations. But that’s not all. These initiatives should also reduce resistance to change and help teams understand the opportunities and risks (data security, ethics, etc.) associated with AI.

Use cases to maximize AI ROI

Given the costs of generative AI solutions, it's crucial to identify the right areas to enhance performance. Mozzaik offers several use case examples of generative AI in business that can deliver a solid ROI.

Streamlining IT ticket management with a chatbot

Generative AI improves the handling of IT support requests, a use case that can deliver good ROI. For example, if your organization uses a Microsoft-based intranet, you can implement an AI-powered, pre-prompted chatbot to instantly respond to employees’ IT issues.

In other words, to streamline IT ticket management in your company, you can deploy an internal AI-powered chatbot that will automatically respond to employees by leveraging your organization’s technical documentation. The result, according to a study conducted by Mozzaik with its clients, is a 50% reduction in the tickets handled by the IT team.

The outcome? Your IT team can focus its efforts on resolving more complex technical issues. Even better, with the faster resolution of system failures and bugs, all employees across the organization become more productive, and the overall employee experience is significantly improved.

Improving decision-making through data analysis

Improving decision-making processes is also a use case for generative AI that can provide a strong return on investment.

Generative AI solutions can leverage the company’s internal database and external data to anticipate market trends, forecast customer needs, and formulate strategic recommendations with a reduced error rate. In doing so, AI enables decision-makers and managers to make more informed decisions, seize opportunities quickly, anticipate risks, and ultimately gain a competitive advantage over their competitors.

In the industrial sector, for example, artificial intelligence can enhance decisions related to supply chain optimization. By analyzing real-time data on production, sales, suppliers, and the market, generative AI can estimate future demand, optimize order volumes and delivery times, and even anticipate issues in the logistics network before they arise. By basing their decisions on AI-generated predictions, leaders and managers can thus manage more accurately, improve operational efficiency, and reduce costs.

Facilitating document searches with RAG

According to a study conducted by ABBYY, 57% of French employees struggle to access the information they need to work when it is contained in documents. Additionally, 95% of employees report losing up to 8 hours per week searching for information. Unsurprisingly, using generative artificial intelligence to improve document search offers significant profitability.

This use case for generative AI in companies is based on RAG, or Retrieval-Augmented Generation. This technique combines two AI approaches: information retrieval from a database and text generation. In practical terms, RAG allows a language model like ChatGPT to search for information in documents and then generate a natural language response based on the retrieved information. The major advantage of RAG is that it delivers precise and reliable results. Why? Because it relies on specific sources rather than solely on data generated from the model’s training.

For companies, RAG represents a small revolution. It enables employees to spend less time searching for information within their organization’s documentation (reports, archives, technical documentation, etc.). With RAG, employees can "query" a document using natural language and receive responses that are also formulated in everyday language. No more reading through documents one by one—just ask their research assistant a question, and they’ll instantly access the relevant information.

Does this sound a bit abstract? Imagine a consultant who needs to quickly verify some information to finalize a client presentation but isn’t sure exactly where to find it in the company’s documentation. This employee can use Genius by Mozzaik, their work assistant integrated into their Digital Workplace and powered by ChatGPT-4, to obtain the desired information instantly. All they need to do is ask their chatbot. The chatbot will then provide a precise and reliable response based on internal sources. And if our professional wants to review a lengthy study of several dozen pages just before a meeting, that’s also possible. RAG technology can summarize a document or extract its key themes in just a few moments. The result? A significant productivity boost and an improved employee experience.

Accelerating document creation

Content production is one of the use cases where generative AI offers the best return on investment for companies.

With generative artificial intelligence, employees can accelerate their creative process and even produce better content. Solutions like Genius by Mozzaik, for example, help them find new sources of inspiration by suggesting fresh ideas based on their previous projects. Genius by Mozzaik enables employees to challenge their ideas, pushing them to continually innovate and exceed expectations.

This use case applies to all teams that create documents such as reports, presentations, creative briefs, training programs, articles, or social media posts. The marketing department, for instance, can leverage AI to reduce the time spent on producing product descriptions for the company's website. They can ask the generative AI to analyze images of these products and generate relevant metadata.

What is the ROI of generative AI in business? Conclusion.

Generative AI models offer advanced technology with a wide range of use cases, from content creation to enhanced decision-making. However, to achieve a good ROI, businesses must minimize risks (poor project framing, disorganized data, lack of skills) and focus on verticalized solutions tailored to specific tasks.

FAQ

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What is the return on investment (ROI) of generative AI in business?

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