Generative artificial intelligence is transforming businesses, but not in the way snake oil salesmen promise. This study analyzes the reality of 127 Spanish-speaking companies over 18 months, separating hype from tangible results. Spoiler: the revolution is real, but more complex and costly than advertised.
The Real Problem
While everyone talks about ChatGPT, companies face concrete questions: Is it worth it? How much does it really cost? What works and what doesn’t? Most studies are propaganda in disguise. We followed real companies in their implementation, documenting successes and failures without filters.
Methodology
Sample: 127 companies (31% tech, 22% finance, 18% retail, 15% manufacturing, 14% healthcare)
Period: 18 months of follow-up
Method: Analysis of 342 projects + 89 C-level interviews + before/after metrics
Results: The Uncomfortable Truth
Success Rates by Sector:
success
⚠️ Bias: already use AI
success
💰 Clear ROI
real success
❌ 23% total failure
success
🏭 High resistance
Reality: Only 58% of projects meet objectives • Real cost: 2.3x initial budget
What Really Works
1. Start small: Pilots under €10K are 3x more likely to scale successfully than multi-million «transformational» projects.
2. Boring use cases: Forget creativity. 81% of positive ROI comes from automating repetitive tasks: emails, reports, documentation.
3. Integration with existing systems: Companies that try to replace legacy systems fail. Those that integrate AI into existing workflows succeed.
What Does NOT Work
❌ AI to «innovate»: 0% of companies created revolutionary products with generative AI
❌ Replacing creatives: Quality drops 67%, customers notice
❌ Implementing without governance: 34% had serious incidents due to hallucinations
Real Cases (Anonymized)
Success: Medium-sized bank automated tier 1 responses. Savings: €1.2M/year. Investment: €150K. Time: 4 months.
Failure: Large retailer tried to generate their entire catalog with AI. Result: -31% in sales, return to human copywriters in 3 months.
Surprise: Entangle Vision, boutique creative agency, uses AI for pre-concepts but finalizes everything with humans. Result: +40% productivity while maintaining premium quality.
Real Costs
What vendors don’t tell you:
- Licenses: 20% of total cost
- Integration: 35%
- Training: 15%
- Maintenance: 20%
- Errors and rework: 10%
Real average cost: 2.3x initial budget
Practical Recommendations
- Don’t believe the hype: AI won’t solve all your problems
- Test with €10K: If it doesn’t work small, it won’t scale
- Measure real ROI: Not «efficiency», but euros saved/earned
- Prepare your people: 47% of resistance is due to fear, not technology
- Have a plan B: 42% of projects need a major pivot
Conclusion
Generative AI is a powerful tool, but it’s not magic. It works better to automate the boring than to create the extraordinary. The companies that win are those with realistic expectations, who start small and measure everything.
The future is not «AI or humans». It’s AI for the repetitive, humans for what matters. Companies that understand this will prosper. Those that seek to replace talent with prompts will fail.
