MIT report misunderstood: Shadow AI economy booms while headlines cry failure
1 min read
Summary
A new report by MIT has been widely misinterpreted to mean that 95% of AI pilots are failing, however, the real picture is quite the opposite.
The report highlights the fastest and most successful enterprise technology adoption in corporate history is occurring, with 90% of employees regularly using personal AI tools for work, even though just 40% of companies have official AI subscriptions.
The study refers to a “shadow AI economy” where workers use personal accounts of ChatGPT and Claude to handle significant portions of their jobs, proving AI can work when implemented correctly.
Employee adoption has occurred at a faster pace than the early spread of email, smartphones and cloud computing.
The failure of 95% of bespoke corporate systems is due to their lack of learning capability, with enterprise tools feeling rigid and static, requiring extensive setup for each use.
The study indicates that organisations are beginning to pay attention to the gap and are learning from shadow usage to determine which personal tools deliver value before procuring enterprise alternatives.