GETTING REAL ABOUT AI
Where enterprise AI actually stands, why adoption is universal and return isn't, and the six ways initiatives quietly fail.
The AI ROI Engine: A Framework to Prove AI ROI, by Brandon C. Powell
The operating system for turning enterprise AI investment into real returns.
Out now on Amazon
NEARLY EVERYONE HAS ADOPTED AI. ALMOST NO ONE CAN PROVE IT WAS WORTH IT.
56%
of CEOs say AI hasn't increased revenue or cut costs at all.*
12%
have gotten both revenue lift and cost reduction.*
5%
have reached measurable, ongoing business impact.**
100+
enterprise deployments behind the system in this book.
The return on AI is real, but it is concentrated in the few companies that run it as an operating model rather than a tool.
* PwC 2026 Global CEO Survey, 4,400+ CEOs. ** MIT NANDA, The GenAI Divide: State of AI in Business 2025.
The author
BRANDON C. POWELL
Named by Forbes one of the top five AI leaders bringing AI to everyone. Harvard MBA. Girl dad. AI Humanist.
Brandon bootstrapped HatchWorks AI from nothing in 2016 to a 200-person AI firm with six offices across the Americas, then pivoted the entire company into generative AI and rebuilt how it delivers.
He has taken hundreds of CEOs and executive teams from AI curiosity to measured results, and speaks on AI strategy at YPO EDGE, Tiger 21, CEO Coaching International and Harvard Business School alumni programs. He calls himself an AI Humanist and treats that as a strategy, not a sentiment.
LinkedIn- #1AI services company in the U.S.
- TOP 5AI leaders bringing AI to everyone
- 200people, six offices across the Americas
- 99%retention in the hardest talent market in tech
QUOTES FROM THE AI ROI ENGINE
- Using AI is table stakes.
- You can’t win by using AI. You win by redesigning around it.
- Profit. Risk reduction. Decision velocity.
- If it doesn’t pull a lever, it’s innovation theater.
- AI is not an IT project. It’s infrastructure.
- We were selling technology, not outcomes.
- Ninety days to a real number.
- An engine, not a pep talk.
- Go get your first number.
What's inside
I
II
III
AN AI ROI SYSTEM, NOT A PEP TALK
Fourteen chapters in three parts, drawn from more than a hundred enterprise deployments.
The premise
ONLY THREE LEVERS MATTER
If an initiative doesn't pull one of these, it's innovation theater.
PROFIT
Revenue lift, cost takeout, and the cash freed by faster cycles.
RISK REDUCTION
Catching what humans miss, at a speed humans can't match.
DECISION VELOCITY
Calls that took weeks now take hours.
THE ROI ENGINE
The formula behind the returns and the operating model that carries an initiative from idea to measured number, with two full case studies, including one that failed first.
BUILDING YOUR OWN
Readiness, where to look for value, getting the data house in order, build or buy, and ninety days to a real number.
THE MAKING OF THE AI ROI ENGINE
Written inside a company that bet everything on this technology, with the people who build it for a living in the room.
"Most enterprises can't tell you the return on their AI investment. That is an operating problem, not an AI problem. So I wrote a book about the fix."
Brandon C. Powell
his book was not written alone. Brandon put the question in front of the people who spend their working lives inside enterprise AI, the architects, data engineers, forward-deployed engineers and change leads at HatchWorks AI, and asked them to argue with it.
The CTO who builds intelligence layers for a living pressured the architecture. The engineers who ship agents into production pushed back on anything that wouldn't survive a real environment. The strategists who sit with executives every week cut whatever a CFO wouldn't sign. Every framework in the book had to hold up against people who would have to use it on Monday.
What survived is a system tested across more than a hundred enterprise deployments, written by an operator who bet his own company on this technology, got it wrong first, and then made it pay.
”
PROOF, IN THEIR OWN WORDS
"This is the playbook, not a book about it. We ran it. It works. If your AI pilots keep going nowhere, start here."
Brant LandryPartner · Reserve Capital Partners
"AI may be the most important technology of our lifetimes, and most companies still can't show what it's done for their P&L. This book closes that gap."
Matt PaigeVP of Strategy · HatchWorks AI
"I look at businesses for a living. The ones winning with AI do what is in this book. Everyone else buys tools and hopes."
Caleb MesserChairman · GME Supply
"The only AI book I have handed to my leadership team. It tells you what to fund and what to kill."
Chris GrinnellPresident · Aero Star Aviation
"An instant best seller. Educates the reader where we are today, but also lays a marker down for a future look back at the AI acceleration timeline since 2026."
Patrick DonlinMr D Real Estate
"It is almost never the model. It's the data underneath and the governance around it. This is the first book that treats the architecture and the funding decision as the same conversation."
Omar ShantiChief Technology Officer · HatchWorks AI
"The most useful—and more importantly, practical—book on AI for business I've read."
Rajeev KapurPresident and CEO · 1105 Media
FREENo purchase required
THE READER
ARTIFACTS
The book is out. Now put it to work: every diagram, checklist and decision tool from it, as an interactive version and a PDF. Enter your company email and they are yours.
- 01THE AI ROI ENGINE SCORECARD
- 02EVERY DIAGRAM FROM THE BOOK
- 03CHECKLISTS & DECISION TOOLS
- 04INTERACTIVE + PDF VERSIONS
GET ACCESSInstant delivery
Keynotes & leadership sessions
BRING THE SYSTEM
BRING THE SYSTEM
TO YOUR TEAM: AI ROI keynotes by Brandon C. Powell
Brandon speaks to boards, executive teams and industry audiences on making enterprise AI pay: the three value levers, the trust gates, and what the operators getting real returns do differently.
- Forbes Top 5 Leaders in AI, 2025
- Georgia Titan 100 Hall of Fame, 2026
- Trusted by YPO, Tiger 21 and HBS Alumni Clubs
- Harvard MBA · Certified AI Trainer
- 01KEYNOTE
- 02EXECUTIVE WORKSHOP
- 03BOARD BRIEFING
STRAIGHT ANSWERS ON AI ROI
Turning enterprise AI spend into a number you can defend. It lays out an operating system built from more than a hundred real deployments: find the value, evaluate readiness, fund it properly, execute in ninety days, and measure what came back.
The whole C-suite and the leadership team under it, not the CTO or CIO alone. AI is not an IT project. It behaves more like electricity, and every leader at the table owns a piece of making it pay.
No. There is architecture in it, but it is written for people who run P&Ls. If you can read a business case, you can read this book.
It was written by an operator who bet his own company on this technology, got it wrong first, and then spent three years on the same side of the table as the people who have to make AI pay.
It's out now on Amazon. Get your copy here, then grab the free Reader Artifacts to put it to work.
Every diagram, checklist and decision tool from the book lives in Reader Artifacts. Enter your email in the section above and they are yours, free, along with everything we add as readers put the system to work.
Yes. Brandon keynotes and runs leadership sessions on making AI pay, for boards, executive teams and industry events. Topics, format and booking are on his site: brandoncpowell.ai/speaking
Contact
GET IN TOUCH with Brandon C. Powell
Speaking requests for Brandon, press, bulk orders, partnerships and general questions about the book.
