Report: AI investment not driving enterprise performance
October 8, 2026



As AI adoption continues, enterprises are stumbling in their efforts to demonstrate a material return on investment, according to a report from WSJ Intelligence and Code and Theory, a Stagwell agency.

Enterprises now have an average of 183 AI tools. Yet the vast majority (85 per cent) don’t have the systems to connect their tech, despite 94 per cent of respondents saying that better orchestration of tools is essential to growth.


These are the key findings from a new study of 801 C-suite executives at US companies with at least $500 million (€447.5m) in annual revenue. The results point to what the report defines as “the orchestration gap,” a widening distance between deploying AI and operating as a connected, agentic enterprise.

While 85 per cent of the C-suite say AI must now deliver measurable ROI, the opposite appears to be occurring. Three in five executives say tool proliferation has left strategic execution stagnant. And two-thirds of organisations routinely uncover redundant AI investments.

As the report points out, a lack of clear ownership at the top is core to the issue. Nearly half (42 per cent) of CEOs believe they own AI orchestration. Meanwhile, 57 per cent of technology leaders believe the same, and one in four companies admit that no one is clearly accountable.

Executives say that the barriers to orchestration are cultural and structural rather than technical. The main culprits are siloed mindsets and corporate culture (61 per cent), fragmented data and incompatible data models (58 per cent), the absence of a centralised operating layer (56 per cent), skill set gaps (38 per cent) and budget (29 per cent).

Other takeaways include:

· Only 15 per cent of AI investments currently operate as a unified system with shared intelligence across the organisation.

· Yet more than two-thirds of companies have not issued an RFP for a centralised orchestration system.

· 78 per cent of executives report that customer-facing channels lack a unified data model and brand architecture.

· 18 per cent apply the same governance and accountability standards to AI agents that they apply to human leaders.

Dan Gardner, Co-Founder of Code and Theory, commented: “What business leaders are experiencing now feels very different from the early promise of AI. AI hasn’t proven it can autonomously achieve value on its own. Businesses are struggling to connect the people, systems and data around it. What they are missing is an orchestration layer. Once that layer is in place, the opportunity expands from individual efficiency to unlocking value across the entire business.”