(And Your IT Provider Can’t Fix That)

Here’s the number that should stop every business owner mid-sentence: 93% of Canadian business leaders say their companies are using AI, but only 2% report actually getting a return on that spending. And most of that 2%? Billion-dollar enterprises. Mid-market companies are barely a blip in the results.

That’s not an adoption problem. That’s a spending problem disguised as a strategy.

I have this conversation with business owners all the time. Someone shows me a proposal from their IT provider and says, “They want us to add AI to our Microsoft setup. They say it’ll change how we work.”

I always ask the same question: “What problem are you trying to solve?”

Silence. Almost every time.

There’s a huge gap between “we bought some AI tools” and “AI is helping our business.” That gap is where the spending disappears.

Not All AI Is the Same, and Nobody Is Explaining the Difference

Part of the problem is that “AI” has become a catch-all word that means completely different things depending on who’s selling it. When your IT provider says “we’re adding AI,” they could be talking about a dozen different products that work in completely different ways, cost completely different amounts, and do completely different things.

Think of it like vehicles. A forklift, a pickup truck, and a school bus are all “vehicles,” but you wouldn’t buy a forklift to drive your kids to school. AI works the same way. ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, Claude – these are all built on different technology, made by different companies, with different strengths and different price tags. Some are good at writing. Some are better at analyzing data. Some are designed to work inside your existing software. Some are standalone tools.

Most business owners hear “AI” and assume it’s all the same thing. It’s not. And nobody selling it to you has much incentive to explain the differences, because the explanation might lead you to a cheaper option or no option at all. When someone recommends “AI” for your business without explaining which type, why that type, and what alternatives exist, that’s a product pitch, not advice.

Your IT Provider Is Selling Products, Not a Plan

When your IT provider recommends an AI tool, ask yourself whose problem it solves. An AI-powered help desk makes their support team faster. An AI monitoring tool reduces their workload. Those aren’t bad things, but they’re improvements to their business wrapped up as innovation for yours.

A real AI plan starts with your operations. Where are you losing time? Where are decisions stuck waiting on one person? Where does important knowledge disappear when someone leaves? If the conversation starts with a product name instead of a business problem, you’re headed in the wrong direction.

Meanwhile, the Bill for Everything Is Going Up

Here’s something that rarely comes up in AI conversations: the cost of the physical equipment that runs your technology is climbing fast, and it has nothing to do with you.

The parts inside servers and computers have jumped 50% or more in price this year. Trade tariffs, supply shortages, and the tech giants buying up massive amounts of components for their own AI projects are driving prices up for everyone else. The major manufacturers are projecting another 15% on top of that.

This hits you whether you use AI or not. Need to replace an aging server? It costs more than last year. Adding AI on top? Even something as simple as Microsoft Copilot is $30 per person per month. For a 200-person company, that’s $72,000 a year before you’ve seen a single result. And that’s just the subscription. It doesn’t include the equipment upgrades you might need underneath it.

Three Questions Before You Spend a Dollar

What problem are you solving? Not “we want to be more efficient.” Something specific. If you can’t describe it in one sentence, you’re not ready to evaluate solutions.

What kind of AI are they recommending, and why that kind? If the answer is vague, or the only option presented is the one your IT provider happens to sell, get a second opinion. There may be a simpler, cheaper, or better-fit option nobody mentioned.

Who is giving you this advice, and what do they sell? If the person recommending AI also makes money selling it, you don’t have an advisor. You have a salesperson. Big technology decisions deserve input from someone without a financial stake in your answer.

The Bottom Line AI is going to matter for businesses like yours. The question is whether you adopt it based on your actual needs, or based on your vendor’s product catalog. The companies that get this right won’t be the ones that moved fastest. They’ll be the ones that understood what they were buying and why.