90% firms increased AI spending but only 12% can prove revenue impact: Comviva survey
New Delhi, June 2
Despite a sharp rise in artificial intelligence spending by companies, only a small fraction is able to demonstrate a measurable impact on revenue, according to Comviva's Global CMO Survey Report 2026.
The report, titled "The AI Efficiency Divide: Measuring AI's Real Value Beyond the Hype", found that 90 per cent of organisations increased their AI marketing investments over the past two years, but only 12 per cent can quantify the revenue generated by those investments.
"90% of organisations increased AI marketing investment in the past two years. Yet only 12% can quantify the revenue it generates," the report said.
The report noted that AI adoption has moved beyond experimentation and is now becoming a mainstream business priority. However, many organisations continue to struggle to measure whether their investments are delivering tangible business outcomes.
According to the survey, 86 per cent of marketing leaders have been asked by their board or senior management to justify AI spending over the past year, while only 16 per cent said they were confident of defending their AI budgets with quantified business value.
"86% of marketing leaders have been asked by their board or C-suite to justify AI spending in the past 12 months," the report said.
The report added that 67 per cent of organisations cannot accurately determine the total cost of AI initiatives once infrastructure, talent and data-related expenses are included, while 79 per cent continue to rely on estimates rather than precise measurement.
Explaining the challenge, the report said that AI spending is often spread across software subscriptions, cloud infrastructure, hardware, talent and integration costs, making it difficult for companies to establish a clear picture of total investment and returns.
The study also identified key barriers preventing organisations from measuring AI's business impact effectively. According to the report, 62 per cent cited cost fragmentation as a major challenge, 58 per cent pointed to difficulties in attributing revenue directly to AI, while 55 per cent reported a disconnect between customer experience improvements and measurable revenue outcomes.
Commenting on the findings, Rajesh Chandiramani, Chief Executive Officer at Comviva, said the focus of AI adoption is shifting from experimentation to accountability.
"AI is rapidly moving from experimentation to enterprise-wide adoption, and the industry is entering a phase where accountability and outcomes will define success," Chandiramani said.
Despite the measurement challenges, the report found that certain AI applications are delivering stronger business outcomes than others. Customer segmentation and targeting emerged as the leading use case, cited by 57 per cent of respondents, followed by campaign automation and optimisation at 43 per cent and predictive personalisation and recommendations at 41 per cent.
The survey was conducted among more than 200 senior IT and business executives across the telecommunications, retail and e-commerce sectors globally.
The report said that as AI adoption becomes widespread, the ability to measure and prove business value, rather than simply invest in the technology, will increasingly determine which organisations gain a competitive advantage.
— ANI
Reader Comments
As someone working in Indian e-commerce, I can confirm this. We spent crores on AI-powered chatbots and recommendation engines, but tracking actual revenue attribution is a nightmare. The problem isn't the technology—it's the lack of proper data infrastructure and attribution models. 79% using estimates instead of precise measurement is scary.
Yaar, this survey is an eye-opener! Particularly relevant for Indian startups that are burning investor money on AI tools without clear metrics. The 62% cost fragmentation issue hits home—we've got software from OpenAI, Google Cloud, AWS, plus in-house talent costs, all jumbled up. Time for some real accountability! 📊
Respectfully, this is a classic case of 'shiny object syndrome'. 86% of marketing leaders being asked to justify AI spending by their boards? That's because they can't show numbers! In my experience working with Indian telecom firms, customer segmentation (57%) is indeed the easiest win, but campaign automation ROI is often inflated by vanity metrics. Need a reality check.
Honestly, this doesn't surprise me one bit. Our company spent lakhs on AI-powered CRM tools, but the analytics team still manually reconciles data because the AI dashboards give conflicting numbers. The 58% attribution problem is real—AI might improve customer experience, but proving it directly led to a sale? Impossible with current systems. 😅
This Comviva survey should be required reading for every Indian business school student. We're seeing a 'Jugaad' approach to AI—companies just want to
We welcome thoughtful discussions from our readers. Please keep comments respectful and on-topic.