- CIOsurge
- Posts
- Only 16% of enterprises are seeing real AI value
Only 16% of enterprises are seeing real AI value
This week, a new Harvard Business Review study put hard numbers on the AI execution gap: only 16% of enterprises are seeing real value. Meanwhile, AI regulation shifted from guidelines to hard deadlines, and the capital pouring into AI infrastructure hit new highs.
Zack Tembi
May 11, 2026
Only 16% of enterprises are seeing real AI value
Powered by Single Fin
Welcome to this week’s edition of CIOsurge!
This week:
Guest Insights: Kill Your "Zombie Tasks" Before You Deploy AI
Only 16% of Enterprises Are Seeing Real Value from AI. Here Is What the Other 84% Are Getting Wrong.
The moment AI regulation moved from a policy exercise to a full operating model
Let’s make this week a game-changer.
Stay sharp. Stay ahead.
💡 Guest Expert Insights: Kill Your "Zombie Tasks" Before You Deploy AI
When I asked Anthony Enoh, CEO of Enbros Technologies, how he gets legacy organizations to buy into AI, his answer surprised me. He does not lead with technology at all.
"Our conversation is all about business process," Anthony said. "We've coined the term zombie tasks. Those are low-value, repetitive, copy-and-paste type robotic activities that are the fundamentals of most businesses we talk to."
Anthony spent years in UK defence and intelligence before leading cyber transformation programs at PA Consulting and Atos across Northern Europe. He referenced a Microsoft study showing that 60% of knowledge workers spend their day on communication overhead rather than actual production work. "Majority of people were talking about work, talking about doing work. Can you send me the link to that file? Rather than doing the work."
His workshop technique is effective. He asks leaders: "If you could take 40% of your time back, what would you do?" Then: "What was that project you wished you had started last year but couldn't because of resource constraints?" The reaction is always the same. "There's a massive long list. And they gently make the connection."
The lesson for CIOs: stop selling technology and start mapping zombie tasks. Walk in talking about the 40% of your workforce's time being wasted on robotic busywork, and you have their full attention.
"Get the robots to do the zombie tasks and get the humans to do the strategic flow. It's a match made in heaven."
— Zack Tembi, CEO, SingleFin
Only 16% of Enterprises Are Seeing Real Value from AI
A Harvard Business Review Analytic Services survey of 385 business decision makers reveals the AI execution gap. While 59% of organizations have AI in production, only 16% report high measurable value. The gap comes down to integration: only 18% have AI primarily embedded in workflows, but those that do report 71% moderate or substantial value. Legacy systems are a drag, with 69% saying they limit AI scaling. Agentic AI clusters in software development (35%) and IT ops (31%), while supply chain (11%) and manufacturing (10%) remain untouched. Most concerning: 92% agree AI agents need guardrails, but only 48% have defined them.
Integration separates the 71% from the 16%. If you are running AI alongside your processes instead of inside them, you are measuring the wrong thing. And you cannot scale what you cannot govern.
- Zack Tembi
AI Regulation Is Now an Operating Model
Adnan Masood, chief AI architect at UST, argues that AI governance has shifted from a policy exercise to an operational discipline. The EU AI Act is in force with staged enforcement dates reshaping procurement and product strategy. U.S. state laws have created a patchwork of enforceable requirements. Most organizations treated responsible AI as a policy and training program. That approach is insufficient when regulators require empirically verifiable controls and customers embed governance clauses in contracts. CIOs must integrate compliance directly into AI development pipelines and vendor management.
Governance is infrastructure now. If your AI governance consists of a policy document and an annual training session, you are already behind. Treat compliance the same way you treat security: continuous, automated, embedded.
- Zack Tembi
💡 CIO Spotlights
HCLTech has appointed Avishek Chattopadhyay as its new Global CIO
- Nearly 20-year HCLTech veteran, joining in 2005 as a Project Manager in SAP
Most recently EVP and Head of Global Delivery, Digital Process Operations
Will lead AI-driven transformation of HCLTech's enterprise IT ecosystem, reporting to COO Rahul Singh
Succeeds Ajit Kumar, who retired from the role
Reply