bundle IQ ®
bundleIQ Research — February 2026

Where AI Is Delivering ROI
and Where the Money Is Going

A data-driven look at which AI use cases are producing measurable returns, where venture capital is concentrating, and what separates the 6% of enterprises seeing transformative value from everyone else.

AI Share of VC
52.7%
First time >50% of all VC [15]
Total AI VC (2025)
$270B
Up from ~$114B in 2024 [11]
Enterprise AI Rev
$37B
3x year over year [4]
Seeing Real ROI
~6%
Of enterprises (McKinsey) [1]
1

Where AI Is Delivering Real ROI

After three years of experimentation, clear patterns are emerging. MIT's 2025 research found a 95% failure rate for enterprise GenAI projects [7], and only ~6% of organizations qualify as AI high performers with measurable EBIT impact [1]. But for the companies getting it right, the returns are significant. Here's where the evidence is strongest. Hover each row for detail.

Tier 1: Proven, measurable ROI today
Tier 2: Strong evidence, scaling in 2026
Tier 3: High potential, longer payback horizon
Evidence Strength | 1 = early pilots, anecdotal → 10 = large-scale data, multiple independent sources confirming measurable returns
AI Coding Tools
50% of developers use AI coding tools daily. Market grew from $550M to $4B. Teams report 15%+ velocity gains. [4]
9.5
IT Ops Automation
Documented case: automated IT ops from 12% to 75% coverage, cutting operations costs by 50%. [24]
9.0
Financial Services AI
Highest-ROI vertical. Financial services companies report 4.2x returns on GenAI investments. [32]
8.8
Customer Service AI
Bank of America's Erica surpassed 3B+ interactions. 70% of CX leaders integrating GenAI by 2026. [34][32]
8.5
Process Automation
66% of organizations report productivity gains from AI. Insurance sector: 325% adoption increase in one year. [2][33]
7.2
Knowledge Management
#1 most-reported agent use case across enterprises. The broader AI analytics market is projected from $29B to $98B by 2030. [1][35]
6.8
Marketing & Content
Top 3 enterprise use case. Horizontal copilot market at $7.2B, led by ChatGPT Enterprise, Claude, and Microsoft Copilot. [4][1]
6.5
Supply Chain / Logistics
UPS reports saving millions of gallons of fuel annually through AI-optimized routes. Advanced physical AI adoption. [28]
6.3
Healthcare / Life Sciences
100% of pharma and medtech leaders are experimenting with AI. Regulatory timelines extend the payback horizon. [21]
5.0
Revenue Transformation
Only 20% of organizations report revenue growth from AI today, though 74% aspire to it. Requires full workflow redesign. [2]
4.0
bundleIQ Signal
Knowledge management is a Tier 2 category with the fastest path to Tier 1. It's already the #1 most-reported agent use case in enterprises [1], with a broader AI analytics market projected to grow from $29B to $98B by 2030 [35]. As agentic AI matures, the organizations that can turn scattered information into collective intelligence will be the ones that move from experimentation to measurable ROI fastest.
2

Where Venture Capital Is Concentrating

AI startups attracted more venture capital than every other sector combined in 2025 [15]. Capital is concentrating into fewer, larger bets: 58% of AI funding went to megarounds of $500M+ [11]. Here's where the dollars are going, ranked by relative investment weight.

01
Infrastructure & Compute
$50B+ in 2025
Data centers, GPU clusters, energy optimization, custom chips. Hyperscalers committed $300B+ in capex. [36][11]
02
Foundation Models
40%+ of AI deals
OpenAI ($40B round), Anthropic ($13B), xAI ($20B). The top three valued at ~$1.1T combined. [11][15][29][25]
03
Coding & Dev Tools
$4B (627% YoY)
Fastest-growing application category. Lovable reached unicorn status in 8 months. [4][27]
04
Robotics & Physical AI
$22.2B (69% YoY)
Figure, Physical Intelligence, Zipline ($600M raise). Morgan Stanley projects $5T humanoid TAM by 2050. [25][39]
05
Agentic AI & Workflow
~$6.7B projected (2025)
Gartner projects 40% of enterprise apps will embed agent capabilities by 2026, up from under 5% in 2025. [36][4]
06
Vertical AI
#2 in deal volume
Healthcare, fintech, and manufacturing lead. AI drug discovery, medical imaging, and clinical intelligence draw the most capital. [21][36]
07
Voice / Video / Multimodal
$200M+ ARR companies
ElevenLabs doubled revenue to $200M in 9 months. Synthesia surpassed $100M ARR with 70% of the Fortune 100 as clients. [27]
08
Defense Tech
Rising fast
Government procurement focus driving near-term contract wins. Heavy cross-pollination with AI and robotics. [12]
What This Means
Infrastructure and foundation models capture the largest check sizes, but the application layer is where the fastest revenue growth is happening. 60+ AI-native products have reached $100M+ ARR [25], and the agentic AI category is on track to reshape how enterprise software works by the end of 2026. The winners will be the companies that bridge the gap between raw model capability and measurable business outcomes.
3

AI's Takeover of Global Venture Capital

AI crossed the majority threshold in 2025. Depending on the methodology, AI captured between 50% and 53% of all venture capital deployed globally. [15][11] This is a structural shift, not a cyclical blip.

~$304B
~$56B
2023
~18%
AI share
~$314B
~$114B
2024
~34%
AI share
~$405B
~$202B
2025
~50%
AI share
~$450B
~$248B
2026E
~55%
AI share (est.)
Total Global VC
AI VC
Timeline based on Crunchbase data [11][16]. Broader aggregations (PitchBook + CB Insights) estimate AI VC as high as $270B [15].
↓ Losing Share
Climate tech (long cycles)
Crypto (price decline)
Non-AI SaaS
Vertical SaaS without AI [12]
→ Holding / Growing
Defense tech
Biotech (AI-adjacent)
Fintech
Enterprise productivity [12][20]
↑ Gaining Fast
AI Infrastructure
Coding tools
Robotics / Physical AI
Agentic AI
Voice / Video [25][4]
4

What Separates the 6% Seeing Transformative Value

Research from McKinsey, PwC, and Deloitte converges on consistent patterns among the small group of organizations achieving 5%+ EBIT impact from AI. [1][3][2] The difference isn't which tools they chose. It's how they deployed them.

1
Focused investment, not spray-and-pray. Senior leadership picks a few key workflows where AI can deliver wholesale transformation, then applies enterprise muscle: talent, resources, and change management. [3]
2
Workflow redesign, not just tool deployment. Technology delivers only about 20% of an initiative's value. The other 80% comes from redesigning how work actually gets done. [3]
3
A centralized AI platform. PwC calls it an "AI studio": reusable components, frameworks for assessing use cases, testing sandboxes, deployment protocols, and skilled people, all connected to business goals. [3]
4
Committed budget at scale. More than one-third of high performers dedicate 20%+ of their digital budgets to AI. Three-quarters of them are scaling or have already scaled AI enterprise-wide. [1]
5
Growth ambition beyond cost cutting. High performers are 3x more likely to use AI for transformative business change rather than just efficiency. The organizations treating AI as a cost-reduction tool are the ones stuck in experimentation. [1]
6
The "boring middle" is the biggest opportunity. Taking proven AI capabilities and embedding them into specific industry workflows where the value is concrete and measurable produces better results than chasing frontier model breakthroughs. [12][26]
bundleIQ Signal
The pattern is consistent: the companies seeing real AI ROI are the ones that invested in their data and knowledge infrastructure first. Strategic data management, modernized computing, and unified knowledge systems are the prerequisite, not the afterthought. As one CIO put it: "We built a foundation, and that put us in a good position to capitalize on AI." [24]
§

Citations & Bibliography

This report draws from 40 sources across primary research surveys, venture capital data, industry analysis, and analyst forecasts.

Primary Research Reports

Venture Capital & Funding Data

Industry Analysis & Commentary

Analyst Forecasts Referenced

  • [36]
    Gartner. AI app software spending to reach ~$270B in 2026. 40% of enterprise apps to embed agents by 2026. By 2027, 70% of multiagent systems will have narrow, focused roles.
  • [37]
    Forrester. 25% of planned AI spend projected to be deferred by 2027 due to ROI concerns.
  • [38]
    IDC. By 2030, 45% of organizations will orchestrate AI agents at scale.
  • [39]
    Morgan Stanley. $5T humanoid robotics TAM estimated by 2050.
  • [40]
    Teneo. "Vision 2026 CEO and Investor Outlook Survey." 53% of investors expect positive AI ROI in six months or less.

Key Statistics Quick Reference

StatisticValueSourceCite
Enterprise GenAI failure rate95%MIT[7]
AI's share of global VC (2025)~50%Crunchbase[11]
Total AI VC funding (2025)$202BCrunchbase[11]
Total global VC (2025)~$405BCrunchbase[11]
Enterprise AI revenue (3x YoY)$37BMenlo Ventures[4]
AI high performers (5%+ EBIT)~6%McKinsey[1]
CEOs feeling ROI pressure61%Kyndryl[6]
Financial services GenAI returns4.2xAmplifAI[32]
Orgs reporting productivity gains66%Deloitte[2]
Developers using AI coding daily50%Menlo Ventures[4]
AI coding market (from $550M)$4BMenlo Ventures[4]
BofA Erica interactions3B+ScrumLaunch[34]
Robotics VC (69% YoY)$22.2BSapphire Ventures[25]
AI products at $100M+ ARR60+Sapphire Ventures[25]
Hyperscaler capex (2025)$300B+Crunchbase[11]
OpenAI + Anthropic share of VC14%Crunchbase[11]
Insurance AI adoption growth325%Multimodal.dev[33]