AI was easy to buy when everyone was experimenting. Now the harder questions are arriving: What did it improve? What did it save? And was it worth the risk? New Dell research suggests the age of AI experimentation is giving way to the age of accountability.
For a while, almost any AI experiment sounded like progress.
Give the team a copilot. Add generative AI to the MarTech stack. Test an agent. Automate some content. See what happens.
But eventually someone walks into the room and asks the question every marketer knows is coming:
What did we actually get for the money?
That moment appears to have arrived.
Dell Technologies’ Modern Enterprise Readiness Study 2026 found that 79% of surveyed organizations in Singapore will not move forward with new AI initiatives without proven business outcomes and a defined risk-management plan.
That is more than another AI statistic. It signals a change in mood.
AI no longer gets a free pass because it is AI.
The demo was the easy part
Marketing has accumulated AI tools at remarkable speed. Copywriting, image generation, personalization, analytics, media optimization and customer service can all now come with an AI layer.
The problem is that adding AI is much easier than proving its value.
Dell found that 93% of Singapore respondents are becoming more selective and outcome-driven in their technology investments. Yet 60% still lack an actionable roadmap spanning AI, data and security.
That gap will sound familiar to many marketing departments.
Teams may be using ten AI tools before anyone has decided how success should actually be measured.
Did the technology increase conversion? Lower acquisition costs? Improve retention? Produce more valuable customers? Or did it simply help the team produce more things, faster?
Speed is useful. It is not automatically ROI.
While management writes the...
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