Kelly Cutler, associate professor and associate director of research at Northwestern University’s Medill Spiegel Research Center, presented at the 2026 AMEC Global Summit on Measurement, held May 18–20 in Dublin, Ireland. Her session, The AI ROI Reality Check: What Actually Drives Value in AI Marketing, examined the gap between AI productivity gains and genuine business value, including how prompt fluency, governance frameworks, leadership alignment and organizational culture can influence whether AI investments deliver measurable ROI.
Are AI tools truly delivering business value, or are they simply creating the illusion of productivity?
In this keynote session, Kelly Cutler, Associate Professor at Northwestern University, explored the reality behind AI return on investment (ROI) in modern marketing organizations. While industry research highlights faster data analysis, translation, content creation, and operational efficiency as major benefits of AI, real-world evidence tells a more nuanced story.
Drawing on industry benchmarks and in-depth qualitative research involving executive leaders and a large organization where more than 400 marketers use AI every day, Kelly examines why many organizations struggle to convert productivity gains into measurable business outcomes.
Discover why saving hours with AI does not automatically create value, how time savings often become consumed by additional meetings, and what separates companies achieving meaningful AI-driven growth from those experiencing hollow productivity gains.
Key Topics Covered:
- AI ROI and business value generation
- Marketing AI adoption strategies
- Productivity vs performance outcomes
- Prompt engineering and prompt fluency
- AI governance frameworks
- Organizational change management
- Executive perspectives on AI implementation
- Cultural resistance to AI transformation
- Marketing technology and innovation
- Future of AI in marketing leadership
Watch the session, The AI ROI Reality Check: What Actually Drives Value in AI Marketing.