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In recent quarters, interest in artificial intelligence technology has moved from hype to tangible returns, with some companies starting to report financial returns from investing in artificial intelligence.
According to the Stanford HAI 2026 AI Index report, corporate AI investment will skyrocket as companies seek to increase efficiency and increase profitability, reaching $581.7 billion in 2025, a 130% year-over-year increase.
CEOs tout technology benefits, hyperscalers microsoft, Amazon, google and meta With the country expected to spend $700 billion on infrastructure this year, investors are looking for tangible returns.
Now, with third-quarter earnings season underway, some companies are starting to put numbers on these benefits.
Santander quantifies AI progress
Spanish banking giant Santander announced on Wednesday that its AI efforts will generate business value of 194 million euros ($216 million) in the first nine months of 2026.
Santander Chief Financial Officer José García Cantera told CNBC that AI is helping the bank eliminate low-value tasks and free employees to focus on higher-value work.
“This impacts both revenue and costs, so we’re in a quarter where we can actually tie a positive contribution directly to AI,” Cantera said.
“It is very difficult to say how much benefit we are getting from AI because it is embedded in every process we do at the bank, but clearly it is improving the quality of service to our customers.”
Novartis and Standard Chartered see AI in results
Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis CEO Vasu Narasimhan told CNBC that AI is starting to contribute to the company’s bottom line.
Novartis reported third-quarter core operating income of $6.04 billion, up 10% year over year on a constant currency basis. The company doesn’t quantify how much of that is due to AI, but Narasimhan told CNBC: “I think this is the first quarter where we’ve actually seen AI start to measurably improve our bottom line.”
“We’re really working on R&D to see if we can really improve the productivity of R&D,” Narasimhan said on Tuesday’s “Squawk Box Europe” show.
“We’re already seeing some of the productivity gains you’ve seen in the ultimate performance of what AI can do for M&S (marketing and sales).”
Meanwhile, Standard Chartered’s chief financial officer Manus Costello told Squawk Box Europe on Wednesday that the company is seeing AI “emerging everywhere across the business.”
The bank reported third-quarter operating profit, excluding notable items, increased 14% at constant currency.
“I think you can see that in the sales growth that we’re delivering. And I think you can see that in the sales leverage that I talked about,” Costello said, adding that AI is helping business owners build better relationships with customers and generate more revenue.
“We’re also realizing the strong operating leverage that I talked about earlier, and our revenue is growing much faster than our costs. Part of that is because we’ve been able to deploy AI tools to improve our core processes and scale them up very efficiently,” he added.
Carlsberg says the benefits are not yet large-scale
carlsberg CEO Jacob Aarup-Andersen told Squawk Box Europe this week that while the benefits of AI are not being seen at scale, the technology is impacting internal processes, cost efficiency, commercial and pricing processes, marketing and its supply chain.
The company’s sales increased 4.9% in the third quarter.
Big Tech points to AI-led growth
Elsewhere, tech companies are reporting profits. Meta said in its Oct. 21 earnings call that its AI investments led to “significant advertising revenue growth,” with total revenue increasing 26% in the quarter ended Sept. 30.
Google Cloud revenue more than doubled to nearly $31 billion in the third quarter, the company reported Wednesday, while concerns about AI competition slowed Alphabet’s Google Search revenue growth.
