By Val Thomas • April 22, 2026
Two months ago, Gene Barskiy, Dutt Kalluri, and I stood in front of the Society for Information Management (SIM) New Jersey Chapter and argued something the market is catching up to.
The session was called “Real AI, Real ROI: What’s Actually Working Today.” Our argument was simple: the AI conversation had drifted into theater, tools, and demos. The CEOs and boards getting value out of AI are the ones asking different questions.
We presented three cases.
Mine was the ability for AI to deliver academic test reviews 24/7 to thousands of students. Results: friction reports showing which concepts students stumble on most, measurable lifts in retention and graduation, and faculty freed up for the work that actually needs them.
Dutt presented an agentic support system for veteran mental health. It handles most of the emotional care load and escalates to clinicians only when it needs to.
Gene’s case: substantial annualized efficiency from a portfolio of assistants and workflows deployed across his workforce.
Then this week. Infor surveyed 1,000 enterprise decision-makers and found more than half are struggling to scale AI, even though 80 percent say they have the internal capability. Deloitte’s 2026 State of AI report surveyed 3,235 leaders: 66 percent are seeing productivity gains. Only 34 percent say they’re actually reimagining the business.
Productivity gains are the easy answer. They give a CEO something to report at the next board meeting. But the 34 percent number is the one that should bother you.
Here’s the question to bring to your next board meeting: are you using AI just to do the same things faster, or to do those things better?
Originally published on LinkedIn, April 22, 2026.
