Shifting Gears: Businesses Move Towards Applied AI to Find ROI

The age of applied AI is here, and it’s moving fast. Every day there seems to be a new AI breakthrough, whether it’s multimodal AI, GPT-4o, or agentic AI. With federal policy shifting to allow for even more AI development, this wave of innovation isn’t slowing down – it’s just getting started. We’re entering a phase where AI is being built with real-world impact in mind.

But while the headlines still focus on AI’s potential to replace human jobs, the reality for the next few years ahead is far more practical: generative AI adoption will be driven by tools that assist humans, not replace them. These AI agents are poised to take on repetitive or data-heavy tasks, freeing up time for people to focus on higher-level thinking and decision-making.

So what can businesses do with applied AI? We are now witnessing a shift from theoretical development to practical deployment. Applied AI isn’t just about innovation, but about impact. The focus is no longer just on what AI can do, but on how it can be integrated into everyday systems to drive business value in a reliable and responsible way.

AI’s opportunity lies in data

AI has the potential to unlock one of the most underutilized assets in modern business: data. Organizations hold vast amounts of data – in fact, 64% manage at least one petabyte of data, and 41% surpass that with at least 500 petabytes of data. Rather than sitting on this information, AI can analyze and surface insights from it to help leaders make informed decisions, and stay ahead of the competition.

For example, a huge barrier in both sales and revenue forecasting is the manual entry of data. There are systems that tackled these time-consuming business operations in the past, but they are not equipped to handle the large volumes of data or the tools to accurately use the data they receive. They can’t scale with today’s data volumes or deliver actionable insights in real time. With AI, these tasks can be automated end-to-end, pulling from multiple sources, identifying trends, and generating accurate forecasts with minimal human oversight.

Automating these operations offers more benefits than just more time for employees to complete other tasks. It also centralizes business operations, data management, and removes the possibility of human error, ultimately leading to better-informed decisions and more reliable outcomes.

While many companies sit on vast amounts of information that could inform better decision-making, they often lack the infrastructure or tools to analyze it effectively. That’s because legacy systems weren’t built to support dynamic, AI-powered data environments and most teams aren’t equipped to bridge that gap alone. Applied AI offers a pathway to turn this untapped data into real strategic advantage.

Accuracy is the fundamental risk in businesses

For enterprises, the key challenge to true AI adoption is precision. Most business workflows, especially in industries like finance and sales, require extremely high accuracy. Today’s generative AI tools, while powerful, are not yet reliable enough to operate autonomously in high-stakes business environments. Even a small error can result in significant risk. That’s why humans remain essential for ensuring quality, accountability, and trust.

The stakes are clear: 97% of sales and finance leaders agree that the right data would make delivering accurate forecasts a lot easier. But AI is only as good as the data it’s trained on. Ensuring data quality and relevance is key to unlocking real ROI from AI systems. Garbage in, garbage out still holds true: especially in AI.

That said, AI can reduce human error in forecasting and surface insights that are difficult to spot manually. When integrated properly, AI can automate core forecasting functions, eliminate bias, and bring a level of consistency that manual processes can’t do.

The future of business success lies in the combination of human oversight and machine intelligence. AI can flag the signals that matter most, prioritize high-potential leads, and recommend the best next steps. But it’s human reps who build relationships, interpret the nuances, and ultimately close the deals. Businesses that strike this balance of leveraging AI to optimize strategy and free up human creativity will ultimately deliver more accurate forecasts, better customer experiences, and stronger sales outcomes.

Agentic AI’s future in business

As we look ahead, leaders should prioritize AI strategies that balance ambition with accountability that delivers real, measurable value. It’s not just about what AI can do, but how it integrates with human workflows to solve meaningful business problems at scale.

Agentic AI is one of the most powerful forms of applied AI. Practitioners today struggle with analyzing their data effectively to extract actionable insights that allows them to operate more efficiently. By autonomously identifying opportunities, adapting strategies, and executing tasks, agentic systems give teams the freedom to focus on high-impact work, without sacrificing oversight or precision.

This is where AI can make a significant impact for enterprises next year and beyond. Applied AI, especially when grounded in strong data and guided by expert judgement, can unlock new levels of efficiency, accuracy, and innovation. The real opportunity isn’t in the hype: it’s in building AI tools that are grounded, targeted, and designed to solve problems that matter.