Three-quarters of corporate board members expect AI to deliver productivity gains and cut costs, yet only three percent of organisations have hit their targets, according to researchers at Gartner.

The figures came out of the analyst’s HR Symposium, where it also reported that 38 percent of companies are over budget on AI spending, and 85 percent still plan to spend even more next year.

“Ultimately, organisations will not generate cost savings from AI at this point,” said CV Viverito, senior director analyst for Gartner’s HR practice. “The greater opportunity is to use AI to do things that weren’t possible before, such as shifting employee time into new capabilities, outcomes, and sources of growth.”

Gartner claims that at least 75 percent of biz leaders are out of step with the broader organisation on where AI creates value, which stalls transformation efforts and muddies how to position the workforce and bag those returns.

Organisations should concentrate AI on the work that matters most to the business, with HR helping execs to agree on the top bets based on strategy, Gartner advises. Companies should also spread existing AI expertise across the business rather than wait to hire scarce specialists, and give managers room to redesign the work around the technology, it adds.

Only about one in five employees’ time is freed-up by AI, letting them redirect toward more innovative work, the HR Symposium heard.

“There isn’t a struggle to create capacity, that’s happening already as organisations redesign work,” claimed Viverito. “What organisations are struggling with is how to make that capacity usable and redirecting it to what is valuable.”

That starts – or so we’re told – by giving employees the skills to take on higher-value, AI-enabled work, which, of course, means spending more on training.

The takeaway is that getting a return on AI projects is harder than expected, and companies are going to have to stick with it and be prepared to institute changes in the way they and their staff work before they see any tangible benefits.

A recent Forrester report concluded that AI will likely account for 20 percent of all business technology spend next year, yet more than half of CIOs are likely to miss their ROI targets for the technology

Another piece of research from KPMG earlier this year found that most UK business leaders aim to keep AI at the top of their spending priorities even if it isn’t working, with 65 percent planning to maintain investment whether they see immediate measurable returns or not.

How long that resolve lasts is an open question. Private equity giant Apollo Global Management is the latest to raise doubts, noting this week that the “Magnificent Seven” tech giants are reaping the rewards of all that AI spending, while the rest of the S&P 500 has seen no sign of AI boosting productivity growth.