This practical ROI guide addresses the pressing challenge for CIOs: moving agentic AI from experimentation to tangible business value. While 76% of executives are developing autonomous agents, only 25% of AI initiatives currently deliver expected ROI.
The IBM report identifies three critical barriers—unstructured data, poor governance, and mistaking task automation for true workflow transformation.
For CIOs, the remedy lies in four measurable ROI pillars: productivity gains, revenue growth, cost reduction, and enhanced employee/customer satisfaction. Crucially, success demands robust governance (56% of CEOs are delaying investment without clarity) and a strategic orchestration layer to unify agents, assistants, and automations across silos.
IBM cites internal examples: AskHR delivered a 75% reduction in support tickets and 40% cost savings, while Dun & Bradstreet saved 26,000 work hours annually.
The IBM guide emphasises that CIOs must define clear KPIs aligned to business outcomes, prioritise data maturity, and turn employees into ambassadors to overcome scepticism. Agentic AI is framed not as a technology project but as an enterprise-wide transformation imperative requiring orchestrated, governed, and people-centric execution.
Click on link to download your copy of the IBM paper: Start realizing ROI: A practical guide to agentic AI for tech leaders
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