The AI Executive Brief

The Agentic ROI Collision


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The conflicting AI ROI headlines are both correct — they are measuring two entirely different things. This episode breaks down why companies deploying agentic AI are averaging 171% ROI while others report zero return, and why Microsoft's 2026 product roadmap is about to make the second half of this year the most consequential period for enterprise AI adoption.

What we cover:

  • Why the "no ROI" studies and the "171% ROI" studies are both right — they measured different things
  • Where the returns in agentic AI are actually coming from: PepsiCo, Clinomic, and the HBR maturity model
  • Microsoft's 2026 Release Wave 1 — Copilot Studio, Dynamics 365, and multi-agent orchestration shipping April through September
  • Why 90% of the Fortune 500 already being on Microsoft makes H2 2026 a potential inflection point for enterprise agents

  • The question for your business: Ask your technology lead two things. Are we measuring AI outcomes at the workflow level, not just the tool level? And as Microsoft's agentic features ship this year, do we have the data governance in place to capture the returns before competitors do?

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    The AI Executive BriefBy Stephen Forte