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Workflows deserve closer attention as businesses seek AI returns

Businesses seeking AI returns may benefit from focused automation, better workflows, and concrete measures of time saved and operational improvements.

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Businesses investing in artificial intelligence face a practical question: What improvement should count as a return? In McKinsey’s August 2026 global survey, 80% of respondents said AI had improved their individual productivity, while 37% attributed some impact on company earnings before interest and taxes to AI. The gap suggests that making individual tasks easier and improving financial performance are different achievements. 

Those findings do not establish that businesses are measuring the wrong things. They do raise a useful question about how organizations connect everyday improvements with wider results. Less time spent assembling documents or coordinating appointments may matter, even when the benefit does not immediately appear as additional revenue.

The work surrounding the technology deserves attention, too. McKinsey’s March 2025 research found that redesigning workflows was the factor most strongly associated with........

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