INFRA Signal 485
Why R&D Waste Persists Despite Widespread AI Adoption
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Even with broad AI use, many firms still waste a large share of R&D budgets on projects that never reach market.
Engineers building or operating R&D pipelines must recognize that AI is being applied to low-level tasks while strategic project-selection decisions remain data-starved. Without early, integrated intelligence, costly late-stage cancellations continue, eroding both budget and time-to-market.
Written by elseif from the cluster below · every claim links back to a sourceThe three things worth knowing
More than one-third of R&D spend is lost on initiatives that never become commercial products.
AI tools are predominantly used for execution rather than for guiding which projects should receive funding.
Access to competitive, market, and patent intelligence early in the ideation phase is identified as the most effective lever to reduce waste.
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