News and Insights from Volant and the industries we serve
Written by
MIT NANDA
Executive Summary:
Despite $30–40 billion in enterprise investment into GenAI, this report uncovers a surprising result in that 95% of organizations are getting zero return. The outcomes are so starkly divided across both buyers (enterprises, mid-market, SMBs) and builders (startups, vendors, consultancies) that we call it the GenAI Divide. Just 5% of integrated AI pilots are extracting millions in value, while the vast majority remain stuck with no measurable P&L impact. This divide does not seem to be driven by model quality or regulation, but seems to be determined by approach.
Tools like ChatGPT and Copilot are widely adopted. Over 80 percent of organizations have explored or piloted them, and nearly 40 percent report deployment. But these tools primarily enhance individual productivity, not P&L performance. Meanwhile, enterprisegrade systems, custom or vendor-sold, are being quietly rejected. Sixty percent of organizations evaluated such tools, but only 20 percent reached pilot stage and just 5 percent reached production. Most fail due to brittle workflows, lack of contextual learning, and misalignment with day-to-day operations.
From our interviews, surveys, and analysis of 300 public implementations, four patterns emerged that define the GenAI Divide:
Limited disruption: Only 2 of 8 major sectors show meaningful structural change
Enterprise paradox: Big firms lead in pilot volume but lag in scale-up
Investment bias: Budgets favor visible, top-line functions over high-ROI back office
Implementation advantage: External partnerships see twice the success rate of internal builds
The core barrier to scaling is not infrastructure, regulation, or talent. It is learning. Most GenAI systems do not retain feedback, adapt to context, or improve over time.
A small group of vendors and buyers are achieving faster progress by addressing these limitations directly. Buyers who succeed demand process-specific customization and evaluate tools based on business outcomes rather than software benchmarks. They expect systems that integrate with existing processes and improve over time. Vendors meeting these expectations are securing multi-million-dollar deployments within months.
While most implementations don't drive headcount reduction, organizations that have crossed the GenAI Divide are beginning to see selective workforce impacts in customer support, software engineering, and administrative functions. In addition, the highestperforming organizations report measurable savings from reduced BPO spending and external agency use, particularly in back-office operations. Others cite improved customer retention and sales conversion through automated outreach and intelligent follow-up systems. These early results suggest that learning-capable systems, when targeted at specific processes, can deliver real value, even without major organizational restructuring.
