--- title: "IKEA and Walmart are both doing it! Breaking free from the money-burning curse, eight major companies' practical cases prove that AI can really make money" type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/295993474.md" description: "Despite the difficulty in quantifying returns on most AI projects, companies like Walmart and IKEA have successfully achieved profitability by addressing specific business pain points. Walmart utilizes AI to process vast amounts of product data; Mercado Libre has increased its fraud detection rate to 99%; IKEA has leveraged AI assistants to free up manpower, generating an additional $1.4 billion in sales; DoorDash and Bank of America have also significantly reduced customer service costs and improved efficiency through AI, demonstrating that the implementation of AI can bring substantial business value" datetime: "2026-08-15T06:32:40.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/295993474.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/295993474.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/295993474.md) --- # IKEA and Walmart are both doing it! Breaking free from the money-burning curse, eight major companies' practical cases prove that AI can really make money Despite global companies heavily investing in artificial intelligence (AI), there are actually very few cases that can convert efforts into "quantifiable returns." Research indicates that currently, only about 5% of generative AI projects yield substantial benefits; international organization Gartner even estimates that by 2027, as many as 40% of projects will face cancellation due to "unclear business value." However, amidst a climate of observation and trial-and-error, a few leading companies have crossed the experimental phase. They have successfully demonstrated the practical value of AI by reducing costs, boosting revenue, upgrading customer service efficiency, and strengthening risk management. The common mindset behind these successful cases is very clear: **never for the sake of AI itself**. They prioritize identifying specific business pain points and then precisely invest in AI technology. Below are impressive achievements across various industries: ### Breaking Human Limits and Strengthening Risk Management - **Walmart**: Successfully updated up to 850 million product data using generative AI. If handled by traditional manual processes, the enormous workload would force the team size to expand tenfold or more. - **Mercado Libre**: This Latin American e-commerce leader implemented OpenAI's GPT-4 for product authenticity verification. The system cross-referenced over 5,000 variables, significantly boosting fraud detection accuracy to nearly 99%. ### Upgrading Customer Experience: A Win-Win Strategy of Cost Savings and Revenue Generation - **IKEA**: After launching the AI assistant Billie, successfully automated 47% of routine inquiries. IKEA did not reduce customer service staff; instead, it retrained 8,500 employees as "remote interior design consultants," further generating up to $1.4 billion in new sales. - **DoorDash**: Partnered with AWS to create a voice self-service portal, significantly reducing the volume of calls transferred to human customer service by 49%, saving the company $3 million in operational costs annually. - **Bank of America**: Its virtual assistant Erica had accumulated over 3 billion customer interactions by 2025, successfully halving the total incoming calls to the service desk. - **Octopus Energy**: Introduced the AI assistant Arlo through its Kraken platform to handle routine customer service, increasing customer satisfaction from 73% to 76%. This move also spurred the independent development of the Kraken platform, which is expected to generate £422 million in revenue by 2025. ### Marketing Optimization and Logistics Automation - **Radisson**: Utilized AI to automatically generate and optimize digital advertisements, not only halving production time but also driving a 22% increase in advertising revenue, with an overall return on investment (ROI) improvement of 35% - **UPS**: In order to cope with the global tariff system reform, it has taken the lead in introducing Agentic AI to handle cumbersome customs and documentation processes. The company announced in June 2026 that the proportion of small packages cleared without human intervention and completed within a day has surged from the original 21% to an astonishing 97%. These practical experiences repeatedly highlight that the success or failure of AI investment does not hinge on whether a company "follows the trend of using AI," but rather on whether it can truly solve measurable and concrete business problems. If a company can first clearly define its pain points and set clear success indicators, and then carefully assess whether AI is the best tool, it can successfully avoid the "zero return" project trap and transform technological investments into real business dividends. - 8 Companies Proving AI Can Deliver Real ROI (Source of the main image: pixabay) ### Further Reading: - What is the hardest-to-replicate "corporate taste" in the key asset battlefield of AI transformation? - Jensen Huang: Companies laying off employees while using AI as an excuse are too lazy and unreasonable. - Has AI saved time but lost direction? Three major workplace studies reveal blind spots in corporate AI implementation. - Major U.S. companies restart hiring, with AI costs and capability limits becoming key factors. - AI training has become a new battleground for workplace power struggles, with employees' "tacit knowledge" being key to the implementation of corporate technology ### Related Stocks - [MELI.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/MELI.US.md) - [DASH.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/DASH.US.md) - [BAC.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BAC.US.md) - [WMT.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/WMT.US.md) - [DASX.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/DASX.US.md) - [KMLI.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/KMLI.US.md) - [OpenAI.NA](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/OpenAI.NA.md) - [UPS.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/UPS.US.md) - [BAC-Q.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BAC-Q.US.md) - [BML-L.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BML-L.US.md) - [BAC-L.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BAC-L.US.md) - [BAC-K.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BAC-K.US.md) - [BML-H.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BML-H.US.md) - [BAC-N.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BAC-N.US.md) - [BAC-E.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BAC-E.US.md) - [MER-K.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/MER-K.US.md) - [BAC-O.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BAC-O.US.md) - [BML-G.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BML-G.US.md) - [BAC-M.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BAC-M.US.md) - [BAC-B.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BAC-B.US.md) - [BML-J.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BML-J.US.md) - [BAC-S.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BAC-S.US.md) - [BAC-P.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BAC-P.US.md) - [8648.JP](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/8648.JP.md) ## Related News & Research - [Bank of America says the midterm elections could be a major turning point for the stock market](https://longbridge.com/en/news/295297719.md) - [Walmart Could Return to Its Beat-And-Raise Playbook This Quarter, Analyst Says](https://longbridge.com/en/news/295699989.md) - [Walmart Earnings Are Due. 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