"We talk to a lot of B2B leaders at The State of Brand. The story we hear repeatedly goes like this. Someone on the executive team, usually aligned with the CFO, builds a business case for AI that runs: here's what we spend on people in this function, here's how much of that work AI can absorb, here's the headcount reduction, here's the savings.Clean slide. Compelling narrative. And according to the data from 350 enterprises that actually tried it, incomplete at best.The companies achieving real returns from AI are not the ones eliminating people. They're the ones redirecting them. They upskill staff to work alongside AI. They redesign roles around what people do well and what AI does well. They build operating models where humans guide autonomous systems rather than getting replaced by them.Poitevin was pointed about this: "Those who only look to the workforce tend to be the 'laggards,' because they're not going after the broader set of value that they can get to." The companies fixated on headcount are optimizing for the smallest possible version of what AI can deliver. The ones going after revenue growth, time to market, and operational transformation are the ones seeing returns.The difference is between using AI to do the same work with fewer people and using AI to unlock work that was previously impossible. The first approach saves money on paper. The second compounds over time. And it is the second group that Gartner's data associates with stronger ROI."https://www.thestateofbrand.com/news/ai-job-cuts-not-improving-returns#AI #Automation #Productivity
