Dive Brief:
- As enterprises rapidly adopt and deploy AI, 43% are concerned the tools will create new technical debt within their organizations, according to a report from HFS Research and Unqork published Tuesday. The report is based on a Sept. 2025 survey of executives at Global 2000-scale organizations conducted by HFS Research.
- AI’s long-term effect on tech debt is still up for debate, the report found, with 55% anticipating an overall reduction while another 45% fear an increase.
- “AI is not a silver bullet, it’s an amplifier of whatever already exists in your enterprise stack,” Phil Fersht, CEO and chief analyst at HFS Research, said in a release accompanying the report.
Dive Insight:
Enterprises are betting on AI to reduce costs – eventually.
Returns on AI investments remain elusive for businesses, with nearly two-thirds of IT leaders and decision-makers estimating AI ROI rates of 50% or less, according to a CDW report published earlier this year. While nearly every organization surveyed for the CDW report had an AI project in the works, IT leaders indicated they had yet to see break-even returns on their investments.
Lagging ROI isn’t stopping businesses from advancing AI plans as companies look to the future of what the technology could bring. A majority of survey takers – 84% – are expecting AI to reduce costs, and 80% anticipate the technology will bring productivity gains, the HFS Research report found.
Vendors are capitalizing on the enterprise push. Nvidia reported $57 billion in revenue for its third quarter, 62% growth year over year, demonstrating how hyperscalers are pouring money into building out infrastructure to meet rising AI demand from companies across vertical industries.
Walmart, BNY and Levi’s are among a handful of the companies developing or deploying AI projects to meet business goals. Apparel giant Levi’s is planning to build an agentic AI framework with Microsoft to simplify and automate certain tasks, the company said in an announcement earlier this month.
Still, mounting AI adoption brings with it different stressors for IT leaders, including the potential for AI to add to existing tech debt, according to HFS Research.
Of those surveyed, 59% reported that they’re concerned about security vulnerabilities, while another 50% expressed fears about integration complexity. Black-box behavior as AI is scaled across tech is an added concern, with 42% fearing the loss of visibility into the technology.
“Our research shows that enterprises are waking up to the economic reality of transformation – the real cost isn’t in buying software, it’s in maintaining and integrating it,” Hansa Iyengar, HFS Research practice leader and report author, said in a press release.
