Survey: 63% of CIOs see cost-level AI returns at scale, up from 14% pre-production
BenBajarin · x · 2026-10-27
Creative Strategies analyst Ben Bajarin shares early findings from his CIO/CTO/CISO survey (n=200, September 2026): customer spend rises as AI projects scale, and so does ROI.
Key data from the exhibits:
- Full-cost ROI by production stage: 86% of CIOs with no recurring production haven't measured returns; in the scaled-with-controls stage (n=30), 17% hit full-cost returns and 20% exceeded full cost.
- Cost-level return rates climb with scale across all CIO workloads: 14% pre-production → 41% first production → 56% expanding → 63% scaled.
- By workload, software development shows the strongest signal at scale (83%, 10/12); IT support hit 100% while expanding (n=5); customer service and sales/marketing samples are small.
- Security operations (CISO survey, n=113) looks weaker, with 0% at the scaled stage.
Takeaway: AI returns correlate strongly with production maturity; almost no pre-production organization tracks full-cost returns.
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