Return on investment (ROI)
The value an organization gets back for what it spends. A narrowly scoped deployment has an honest ROI built on defensible value; a grand deployment sold on a demo has an ROI that evaporates when reality tests it. (Developed in depth in Module 8.) (see Topic 8.1)
Defined in 4 GAGE programs, which carry 7 distinct definitions of it. The wording above is taught in AI Governance: Applied Mastery.
How each discipline defines it
The same term does different work depending on who is using it. These are the definitions as each program teaches them, unedited.
A ratio measuring the net benefit of an investment relative to its cost, calculated as (Total Benefit minus Total Cost) divided by Total Cost, expressed as a percentage. Must always be paired with the time period over which it was measured; a bare ROI percentage with no stated period is incomplete.
The value an organization gets back for what it spends. A narrowly scoped deployment has an honest ROI built on defensible value; a grand deployment sold on a demo has an ROI that evaporates when reality tests it. (Developed in depth in Module 8.) (see Topic 8.1)
The financial return relative to the cost of an investment. Essential but partial for AI transformation; a lagging, single-dimension, gameable signal that misleads when used as the only measure.
The ratio of net benefit to cost, expressed as a percentage; the simple headline metric that ignores time, which is why it is reported alongside payback, NPV, and IRR rather than alone.
The value a decision produces set against what it cost, usually expressed as a ratio or a net figure over a defined period. Honest ROI is the value genuinely attributable to the AI, against a real baseline, net of the full cost of ownership.
Where it is taught
The exact lessons this term appears in. The first 7 topics of every program are free with a free account.
- ROI Calculation Tools and Templates · AI in the Workplace and Team Leadership, AI Literacy & Professional Conduct
- Scoping the deployment: what your organization actually needs versus what the demo showed · Shipping AI and Surviving the Incident, AI Governance: Applied Mastery
- The honest ROI: measuring what the AI actually changed at your organization, not what the vendor promised · The Money: Budgets, ROI, and Risk, AI Governance: Applied Mastery
- Measuring Long-Term Transformation Success · Measure, Sustain and Evolve, Business AI Transformation
Terms it appears with
Not an alphabetical neighbourhood: these are the terms taught in the same lessons, ranked by how often they appear together.