A new survey finds that most U.S. ecommerce companies rate their artificial intelligence ROI as good, even if the impact today is minimal.
About a quarter of U.S. ecommerce companies that have invested in artificial intelligence say it has made a “slight improvement” to their customers’ digital experience. Yet, 97% say that this ROI is “good,” according to a survey of 300 global business leaders in March conducted by content management system Storyblok. One third of respondents were from the U.S., and the remainder in the U.K. and Germany.
This means that leaders are taking a long-term view for AI to transform their business, said Storyblok CEO Dominik Angerer.
“The transformative potential of AI for the digital experience is enormous, but our research highlights a clear gap between expectation and reality,” Angerer said. “While U.S. businesses are seeing some improvements, these remain incremental rather than truly transformative.”
For the full breakdown of the return on the investment of AI:
- 39% said it delivered a very good ROI
- 56% said it delivered a good ROI
- 2% said it delivered a poor ROI
- 2% were not sure
On average, U.S. businesses spent $403,000 within the past year (March 2024-March 2025) developing or implementing artificial intelligence into their businesses, and 30% of companies spent more than $500,000.
The most popular applications for artificial intelligence were:
- Customer service (61%)
- Marketing analysis (60%)
- Automating administration tasks (42%)
- Translation services (41%)
- Content creation (40%)
Angerer recommends for businesses to go beyond surface-level improvements, and to use the technology to try to scale systems with each.
“From hyper-personalization to seamless localization, nearly every possible AI use case could be implemented more effectively, and to a higher standard if businesses raised the digital bar and embraced modern marketing technology,” he said.
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