Enterprise AI is hitting an ROI wall

The week's strongest executive signal was the shift from AI enthusiasm to AI accountability. Genpact and HFS Research framed large amounts of AI value as trapped behind enterprise debt; CIO Dive reported that process gaps and technical debt are keeping firms in pilot purgatory; and investor/operator commentary points to companies scrutinizing tool spend more closely. The story is not that AI value is gone. It is that vague pilots, weak operating models, and unmeasured licenses are now running into CFO scrutiny.