Is your AI strategy built for margins, or optics?

Your AI pilot might dazzle investors -
but will it disappoint your CFO a year from now?

Most organisations lead their AI rollout with the front office.

It’s visible, easy to demo, and great for investor decks.

Yet MIT research finds that often fails to deliver lasting ROI.

Measurable wins often come from less glamorous territory:

The back office,
Where automation delivers faster ROI and clearer cost reductions.

(All without mass internal layoffs).

The report also highlights three key ways back-office AI is drastically reshaping P&L’s:

1. Business Process Automation

AI can automate high-volume routine processes:
Notably customer service workflows, expense management, and admin tasks.

→ MIT research: Companies are now saving $2M-$10M annually by automating business processes.

→ Example: Beam.ai integrated agents into the support-email workflow of a global chemical company - cutting costs by 63%.

2. Agency and contractor spend reduction

AI can now handle localisation, routine market research, and reporting once done by external agencies and freelancers.

→ MIT research: Firms report up to 30% lower external agency costs through back-office AI.

→ Example: Klarna saved $1.5M in one quarter using AI image-generation tools like Midjourney and DALL·E,
Shortening production timelines from six weeks to seven days.

3. Risk and compliance checks

AI can monitor transactions and contracts 24/7 - faster and with higher accuracy than outsourced compliance partners.

→ MIT research: Roughly $1M in annual savings have come from automated operational risk reviews.

→ Example: Socure helped an organisation complete 700,000 PEP-alert reviews,
Saving them $1M yearly and freeing analysts for higher-value oversight.

Front-office AI is a valuation lever.
Back-office AI is a margin lever.

You compound returns when you pull both together.

So ask yourself:
Are your AI investments working together - or are you overfunding the showroom?