Horváth: 66% of companies say AI solutions are not mature enough, although investments are growing massively

• 66% of companies believe that artificial intelligence is not mature enough, and 70% say that AI solutions are overvalued
• Despite skepticism, 68% indicate greater pressure to invest in AI than in other technologies

Companies are accelerating investments in artificial intelligence (AI), but trust in these technologies remains limited. Organizations are facing an increasingly visible paradox: AI is considered a strategic priority, but at the same time it is viewed with skepticism regarding its maturity and real value, shows the study “Digital Value: How AI and Digital Transformation Finally Pay Off”, conducted by Horváth, an international management consulting company, present on the Romanian market for 20 years.

Skepticism dominates the perception of AI, the study data shows:

• 66% of companies believe that artificial intelligence is not mature or functional enough;
• 70% of executives surveyed believe that it is overvalued and does not provide a fair price-value ratio;
• 73% of respondents believe that due to the increased use of AI tools (such as ChatGPT), employees are losing their ability to think independently;
• 70% of those surveyed believe that a significant proportion of company managers have difficulty understanding new AI technologies.

These results indicate a significant gap between technological promises and the actual experience of organizations, as Daniel Costache, Senior Project Manager, Horváth Romania, concludes: “We see an obvious paradox: companies are accelerating their investments in AI under strategic pressure, but trust in these solutions remains limited. The perception of low maturity, together with integration difficulties and lack of control over usage, indicates a reactive rather than strategic adoption.”

High pressure for investment, but implementation difficulties

Despite reservations, 68% of respondents say that management’s appetite for investing in AI is higher than for other technologies.

However, implementation remains difficult, as 69% of executives fear that AI is not compatible with existing systems (e.g. ERP), and 62% do not have clear visibility into the AI ​​applications used in the organization. These results suggest that many companies are adopting AI in a fragmented manner, without a unified strategy and without clear governance.

An investment wave without a solid foundation

The gap between the pressure to invest and the actual implementation capacity indicates a major risk: organizations can end up investing significantly in technologies that they cannot integrate or capitalize on effectively.

Artificial intelligence has quickly become a priority on the management agenda, but the maturity of the solutions and the ability of organizations to use them effectively have not yet kept pace. For companies, the challenge is no longer whether to invest in AI, but how to turn these investments into a real advantage, in a context marked by uncertainty and skepticism.

The Horváth “Digital Value” study analyzed how companies adopt and capitalize on digital technologies and artificial intelligence, highlighting the main trends and challenges in digital transformation, and was conducted by interviewing top representatives (board members, senior managers and heads of departments) of 213 companies in Europe and the US.