AI Can Cut Costs. Can It Create New Sources Of Revenue?

Companies are adopting AI for different reasons, but their disclosed AI use cases largely fall into three categories: cost, revenue, and customer impact. Among S&P 500 companies, 70% cite cost-related benefits as a reason for adopting AI, including increased labor productivity, cost savings, and faster execution. 22% cite revenue opportunities, such as revenue growth, pricing improvements, and the launch of new AI-powered products. The remaining 8% focus on customers, citing goals such as improving client retention, conversion, and satisfaction. The big AI opportunity may be on the cost side, but costs have a ceiling. Productivity gains and cost savings can meaningfully improve margins, but they are ultimately finite. The bigger question is whether AI can eventually move beyond cutting costs to creating entirely new sources of revenue.