Photo By: Eyestetix Studio
Companies are spending more on technology, but spending alone is no longer enough. As technology budgets grow and artificial intelligence becomes a larger part of those investments, business leaders are asking a simple question: What are we getting in return?
According to Gartner, worldwide IT spending is expected to reach $6.37 trillion in 2026, up 14.2% from 2025. The research firm says the growth is being driven in part by increased investment in AI infrastructure, cloud services and software. At the same time, Gartner says technology budgets are being strained by rising costs, AI funding and shifting priorities.
That is putting more attention on the value companies receive from their technology investments.
For years, a technology project could be considered successful if it was delivered on time, stayed within budget and met its technical requirements. Today, companies are increasingly looking beyond the implementation itself. They want to know whether the technology is helping employees work more efficiently, reducing costs, improving customer experiences or creating new business opportunities.
The shift is changing the way executives think about technology spending. A new platform may offer dozens of features, but those features have little value if employees do not use them or if they do not address an important business problem.
Artificial intelligence is making that conversation even more important.
Companies have moved quickly to adopt AI, but measuring the financial impact of those investments can be difficult. Gartner found that 55% of surveyed chief supply chain officers were unclear about the return on their AI investments. The research involved 135 senior supply chain leaders surveyed between January and April 2026. Gartner also found that 67% of supply chain digital investments were being allocated to AI.
The findings point to a larger challenge for businesses. Investing in new technology does not automatically mean the business will see a clear return.
Kevin Connolly, Chief Revenue Officer of NewRocket, is among the enterprise technology leaders focused on helping organizations get greater value from their technology investments.
The challenge is that ROI is not always easy to measure.
A technology investment may create value in several ways at once. An automation project, for example, could reduce the time employees spend on repetitive work while also reducing errors and allowing employees to focus on higher-value tasks. A customer service system could improve response times and customer satisfaction without producing one simple revenue figure that captures its full impact.
Some benefits may also take time to appear.
A company that invests in a new employee platform may not see an immediate financial return. The value could come gradually through faster processes, better employee adoption, fewer manual tasks and improved access to information. Similarly, a new customer experience system may take time to influence customer satisfaction, retention or revenue.
This makes it important for companies to define what success should look like before a technology project begins.
Leaders need to identify the business problem they are trying to solve and determine how progress will be measured. That could involve productivity, operating costs, customer satisfaction, employee experience, response times or other metrics that matter to the organization.
Without clear goals, it can be difficult to determine whether a technology investment is actually delivering value.
Another challenge is the technology that companies already have.
Large organizations often operate with years of accumulated software, applications and systems. Some may be critical to the business, while others may be outdated or difficult to maintain. Adding another platform to that environment can create additional complexity.
McKinsey research reinforces the challenge. An analysis of technology spending at 17 global companies found that technology leaders are balancing spending needed to keep existing systems running with spending designed to create new capabilities. McKinsey says AI is making that balance more difficult because it can require significant new investment while also increasing technology operating costs.
That means businesses have to consider more than the price of a new technology when evaluating an investment. They also need to consider the cost of maintaining existing systems, connecting new platforms and training employees to use them.
In some cases, the best technology investment may not be the addition of another tool. It could be simplifying an existing technology environment or replacing systems that are no longer delivering enough value.
McKinsey’s research suggests that companies need to make deliberate choices about which systems to modernize, simplify or replace if they want to capture more value from new investments.
For business leaders, this changes the conversation around technology.
The goal is not simply to buy the newest platform or adopt the latest AI tool. The bigger question is whether the investment supports a clear business objective and whether the organization has a way to measure the result.
That also means technology leaders may need to work more closely with other parts of the business. Finance teams can help define financial measures. Operations teams can identify productivity improvements. Customer teams can measure changes in satisfaction and service. Human resources can help evaluate the effect on employees.
The more closely technology decisions are connected to business goals, the easier it becomes to understand whether an investment is working.
This does not mean every technology project needs to produce an immediate financial return. Some investments are made to meet regulatory requirements, improve security, modernize aging infrastructure or prepare a company for future growth. Those objectives still need to be clearly defined, even when the return is not measured in direct revenue.
As technology spending continues to rise, those distinctions will become more important.
The companies investing in technology are not necessarily looking for more technology for its own sake. They are looking for technology that solves a problem, supports a business goal and produces a result that can be understood and measured.
Artificial intelligence will likely add another layer to that challenge as businesses continue experimenting with new applications and deciding where the technology can create the most value.
In the years ahead, the question for technology leaders may be less about how much they are willing to spend and more about how clearly they can connect that spending to business value.
For companies making billions of dollars in technology investments across the global economy, proving that connection may become one of the most important measures of success.