I see a lot of statements out there about AI not delivering ROI, and I’ll be honest it makes me chuckle; it reminds me of a meeting I had many moons ago at an oil major, the IT team wanted a new offshore field to use a specific software stack, the person running the program had a different view. In a memorable meeting a conversation went like this. AI が ROI を生まないという主張をよく目にするが、正直言って少し笑ってしまう。それは、昔、大手石油会社での会議を思い出させる。IT チームは新しい海上油田で特定のソフトウェアスタックを使いたがっていたが、プロジェクト責任者は別の考えを持っていた。忘れられない会議で、こんなやり取りがあった。
IT: Well if you don’t use this software, it will cost you more and it’ll take longer to get a return on investment
Business Lead: How much extra will it cost me? ビジネス責任者: それで、追加でいくらコストがかかるのか。
IT (thinking it was on to something): $20m IT部門(名案を思いついたと思って): 2,000万ドルです
Business Lead: Oh no, that might push the ROI back by 2 weeks, in 5 years’ time. ビジネス責任者: なんだ、それなら5年後のROIが2週間遅れるかもしれない程度だな。
The point was that the IT spend was a pitiful dot in the overall spend on the oil field. So here is the other part of that statement: ポイントは、油田開発全体の支出に比べれば、ITへの支出なんて哀れなほど小さな「点」にすぎなかったということだ。そして、その発言の裏にあるもう一つの側面がこちら。:
Zero oil field investments deliver ROI 油田投資でROIを達成するものなど皆無である
But of course, they do you scream, and it's true that after the field goes on-line then yes of course it does. But that is years and years down the line, based on the way ROI is reported for AI in 2025 you’d think that ROI was an instantaneous thing normally, rather than being a return on investment. In IT itself, ERP programs often don’t have a clear ROI, and certainly don’t have an ROI within 12 months. Yet people do them, because while the ROI isn’t clear, the cost of staying still is often horrific, so the ERP is more about cost avoidance than it is ROI.
My point? That demanding AI, a hugely complex technology that people are investing trillions of dollars into, will magically deliver short-term ROI on everything you do with it, is just silly. So why does that happen? 私が言いたいことは何か。 人々が数兆ドルもの資金を投じている、極めて複雑なテクノロジーである「AI」に対して、それを使って行うすべての事柄が「魔法のように短期間でROIをもたらすはずだ」と要求するのは、単に愚かなことだ。では、なぜそのようなことが起きてしまうのだろうか ===================続く=================