No-Headquarters/BOZEMAN, Mont.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 15, 2025--
Snowflake (NYSE: SNOW), the AI Data Cloud company, in collaboration with Enterprise Strategy Group, today released the “ Radical ROI of Generative AI,” a global research report surveying 1,900 business and IT leaders across nine different countries — all of whom are actively using AI for one or more use cases. Of all respondents, 92% reported that their AI investments are already paying for themselves, and 98% plan to invest more on AI in 2025. As AI adoption accelerates across global enterprises, a robust data foundation has emerged as the cornerstone of successful implementation, yet respondents are still grappling with how to make their data AI-ready.
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“I’ve spent almost two decades of my career developing AI, and we’ve finally reached the tipping point where AI is creating real, tangible value for enterprises across the globe,” said Baris Gultekin, Head of AI, Snowflake. “With over 4,000 customers using Snowflake for AI and ML on a weekly basis, I routinely see the outsized impact these tools have in driving greater efficiency and productivity for teams, and democratizing data insights across entire organizations.”
Businesses Report Varying Levels of AI Success Across the Globe
Early AI investments are proving to be successful for the majority of enterprises, with 93% indicating that their AI initiatives have been very or mostly successful. In fact, two-thirds of respondents are already starting to quantify their generative AI ROI today, finding that for every dollar spent, they are seeing $1.41 in returns (or 41% ROI) through cost savings and increased revenue.
However, there are global nuances around where organizations are focusing their AI efforts that directly correlate to each country's AI maturity, and their results in terms of driving ROI across regions:
Organizations Face Increased Pressure to Select the Right Use Cases
Despite almost all respondents reporting success with their AI initiatives to-date, many organizations are grappling with difficult decisions to build on the momentum. Amid a sea of opportunities to implement AI within their businesses, respondents reported challenges with identifying the most impactful use cases and increased pressure to make the right decisions — all while grappling with limited resources:
Overcoming Data Barriers to Maximize AI Effectiveness
Organizations are increasingly incorporating their proprietary data to maximize AI’s effectiveness, with 80% of respondents choosing to fine-tune models with their own data. Despite this widespread recognition of data's importance — with 71% of respondents acknowledging that effective model training and fine-tuning requires multi-terabytes of data — significant challenges persist in making this data AI-ready. With the majority struggling to make use of their most valuable asset, organizations claim that the following are the biggest data hurdles for driving AI success:
There is a significant opportunity for businesses to overcome these challenges and unlock the full potential of their data for more accurate, relevant, and impactful AI outcomes with a unified data platform.
"The rapid pace of AI is only accelerating the need for organizations to consolidate all of their data in a well-governed fashion," said Artin Avanes, Head of Core Data Platform, Snowflake. "Having an easy, connected, and trusted data platform like Snowflake is imperative not just for helping users see faster returns on their data investments, but it lays the foundation for users to easily scale their AI apps in a compliant and secure manner — without requiring specialized or hard to find technical skills. A managed, interoperable data platform provides seamless business continuity as global enterprises tap into their entire data estate to lead in the evolving AI landscape.”
Learn More:
Methodology
Researchers from Enterprise Strategy Group identified, and conducted deeper research between Nov. 21, 2024, to Jan. 10, 2025, with early adopter organizations — those already augmenting and executing business processes in production, using commercial and open-source models rather than consumer-grade, subscription software such as ChatGPT. Of 3,324 respondents, 1,900 (57%) said they are using commercial or open source generative AI solutions. Additional details around methodology can be found within the report.
About Snowflake
Snowflake makes enterprise AI easy, efficient and trusted. More than 11,000 companies around the globe, including hundreds of the world’s largest, use Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud to share data, build applications, and power their business with AI. The era of enterprise AI is here. Learn more at snowflake.com (NYSE: SNOW).
Measuring the ROI of AI
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.
Iran had no immediate reaction to the news, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.
Meanwhile Monday, Iran called for pro-government demonstrators to head to the streets in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”
Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran including cyberattacks and direct strikes by the U.S. or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night. Asked about Iran’s threats of retaliation, he said: “If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”
Trump said that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the government continues to arrest protesters.
“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”
He added: “The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate.”
Iran through country's parliamentary speaker warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators.
More than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 496 of the dead were protesters and 48 were with security forces.
With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.
Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown. Protesters flooded the streets in the country’s capital and its second-largest city on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Online videos purported to show more demonstrations Sunday night into Monday, with a Tehran official acknowledging them in state media.
In Tehran, a witness told the AP that the streets of the capital empty at the sunset call to prayers each night. By the Isha, or nighttime prayer, the streets are deserted.
Part of that stems from the fear of getting caught in the crackdown. Police sent the public a text message that warned: “Given the presence of terrorist groups and armed individuals in some gatherings last night and their plans to cause death, and the firm decision to not tolerate any appeasement and to deal decisively with the rioters, families are strongly advised to take care of their youth and teenagers.”
Another text, which claimed to come from the intelligence arm of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also directly warned people not to take part in demonstrations.
“Dear parents, in view of the enemy’s plan to increase the level of naked violence and the decision to kill people, ... refrain from being on the streets and gathering in places involved in violence, and inform your children about the consequences of cooperating with terrorist mercenaries, which is an example of treason against the country,” the text warned.
The witness spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing crackdown.
The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.
Nikhinson reported from aboard Air Force One.
In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, January. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)
In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran shows protesters taking to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(UGC via AP)
In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran showed protesters once again taking to the streets of Tehran despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Saturday Jan. 10, 2026. (UGC via AP)
