{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"","title":"The ROI Number Isn't a Number","thumbnail_width":200,"thumbnail_height":200,"thumbnail_url":"https://open-images.acast.com/shows/6a108d0055b99c7f8915c7a7/1784608793649-3e098043-dcfb-4583-bc4c-7b0b900d3b6e.jpeg?height=200","description":"

Somebody in your building is about to justify a nine-figure AI decision using a stat from a slide from a deck they never opened — and the stat is a misquote of an MIT paper that says something different. This week, the practitioner's read on how AI ROI numbers actually get made, why the ones on your slide are almost never measurement, and the three questions to ask in the meeting that turn any headline number back into something you can use.

This episode of Above the Noise — the unbiased AI brief for enterprise leaders:


No vendors. No hype. Just the signal.

👉 Follow Above the Noise wherever you listen — new episode every two weeks. Send it to one leader who has the \"MIT 95%\" bullet on slide three of their next deck, and leave a rating so more people find it. Between episodes, find Shaun on LinkedIn — come argue with him there. Especially on this one. The MIT number has fans.

🔗 Show Notes & Sources

Every stat in this episode is sourced. Check the work yourself:


HuggingFace autonomous-agent breach (July 16, 2026)

OpenAI GPT-5.6 + ChatGPT Work (July 9, 2026)

The $8B forward-deployed engineering arms race (July 2026)


","author_name":"Shaun Gehring"}