By Purna Virji
Publication Date: 2026-01-26 12:00:00
Every pitch from an AI vendor follows the same script: “Our tool will save your team 40% of their time on X tasks.”
The demo looks impressive. The return on investment (ROI) calculator proves this and shows labor cost savings in the millions. You receive budget approval. They provide.
Six months later, your CFO asks, “Where is the 40% increase in productivity in our sales?”
They realize that the time saved was spent on emails and meetings and not on strategic work that moves the company forward.
This is the AI measurement crisis currently unfolding in companies.
According to the December 2025 Fortune report, 61% of CEOs report increasing pressure to generate returns on AI investments. Yet most organizations measure the wrong things.
There’s a problem with how we track the value of AI.
Why “time saved” is a vanity metric
Saving time sounds convincing in a business case. It is concrete, measurable and easy to calculate.
But the time saved is not the same as the added value.
Anthropics November 2025…
