Coupa has launch a new research demonstrating that a lack of executive AI fluency—not technology limits—is the main reason many enterprise AI projects fail to deliver a return on investment. The outcomes from the 2025 Coupa Clarity AI Impact Report, performed in partnership with Incisive Research and based on insights from more than 600 senior business leaders.
The report emphasize a increasing disconnect between executive leadership and technical teams, generating what Coupa describes as a strategic vacuum. While leadership teams hold to fund bold AI programs, many lack the hands-on understanding needed to guide execution, set realistic expectations, and scale initiatives beyond experimentation.
AI Ambition persists to Outpace Execution
According to the report, only 5% of executive decision-makers use AI daily, compared with 57% of technical teams. This proficiency gap hole has direct results. Executives often approve multimillion-dollar investments without a operating understanding of how AI systems operate, which limits their capability to align method, data readiness, and infrastructure.
The data discloses that 86% of corporations view AI as critical for long-term survival. However, simply 29% have set up a clear, organization-extensive AI strategy. As a end result, goals stays high even as execution lags behind operational reality.
This gap turn into more obvious when analyzing venture results. The study determined that 72% of AI projects continue to be stuck in pilot mode. In spite of this, nearly half of executives still anticipate meaningful business effect within 6 to 12 month.
Data quality problems and system combination challenge, which consist legacy IT environments, were cited by 77% of respondents as the main barriers to progress.
“This research is a wake-up call,” stated Dennis Bruder, Chief Product Officer of AI at Coupa. “The days of funding AI based on hypothetical outcomes or unproven potential are over. The bar for ROI on AI investments has been substantially increased.”
Unified Platforms Acquire Momentum as ROI Pressure Builds
As agencies reconsider their AI approaches, the report points to a clear market shift toward unified AI systems. 80% of corporations now choose shopping AI competencies from external platforms in preference to constructing custom internal solutions. Only 10% continue to prefer in-house development.
The research also determines orchestration as a essential blind spot. While 77% of leaders prioritize simple task automation, simply 2% of AI investment recently goes towards orchestration technologies. This imbalance limits enterprise-wide value by retaining AI constrained to remoted use cases.
Governance stays another unresolved challenge. Although 65% of executives prefer human-in-the-loop oversight to lessen the risk, 56% are unsure whether their organization has a formal AI governance policy. Without defined frameworks, oversight can become a constraint rather than an enabler, slowing automation efforts.
Bruder highlighted that platform choice now plays a central function in execution. To meet long-term automation expectations—69% by 2030 and 83% by 2035—leaders have to pair technical infrastructure with embedded governance and workforce adoption strategies.
The full Coupa Clarity AI Impact Report outlines a roadmap for shifting from AI experimentation to measurable enterprise ROI.
