How “95%” escaped into the world – and why so many believed it

Azeem Azhar and Hannah Petrovic at Exponential View:

“95 percent” has become an orphaned statistic. Adding to the list of: we only use 10% of our brains, it takes seven years to digest swallowed gum and Napoleon was short.

One number still keeps turning up in speeches, board meetings, my conversations and inbox:

“95 percent”

Do I need to say more than that? OK, here’s another clue: this number traveled on borrowed authority in 2025, rarely with a footnote and it started to shape decisions.

The claim is this: “95 percent” of organizations see no measurable profit-and-loss impact from generative AI. Of course, you know what I’m talking about. It has ricocheted through Fortune, the FT, The Economist, amongst others.

Often presented as “MIT / MIT Media Lab research,” the “95 percent” is treated as a settled measurement of the AI economy. It’s invading my conversations and moving the world. I’ve heard it cited by executives as they decide how to approach AI deployments and investors who use it to calibrate risk.

This number basks in the glow of MIT, the world’s best technology university. And I started to wonder if this evidence had truly earned that halo.

More here.

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