Last week we talked about “Salt Bae Syndrome” — you know, sprinkling AI across your business like parmesan on pasta. Looks fancy. Tastes... meh.

This week, we’re staying in the kitchen. You’ve got a dozen AI ideas simmering, but which ones actually feed the business?

Here’s what usually happens:
Teams pull out a spreadsheet and start scoring.

Then someone squints and goes:

And that’s when it hits you — you’re not prioritizing strategy; you’re grading guesses.

According to Axis Intelligence’s 2025 report, “AI ROI Strategy: From $50M Investment to Measurable Returns,” the top reason AI initiatives fail to deliver ROI is simple: no direct connection to core business strategy.

Here’s the secret: scoring is the side dish, not the main course.

If you want your AI investments to go somewhere meaningful, you need OKRs — Objectives and Key Results.

Think of OKRs like your strategic GPS:

Every AI initiative should map to a specific OKR. Not the other way around.

Start by defining 3–5 OKRs for your AI portfolio — more than that, and you’re just spreading peanut butter on strategy. (See: How to Incorporate OKRs into Your Portfolios.)

If an AI idea doesn’t trace directly to one of those OKRs? 🚫 Don’t fund it. Don’t build it. Don’t even mention it on your next slide deck.

Because AI shouldn’t be a distraction — it should be jet fuel for your strategy.

Here’s where most companies mess it up: they take the CEO’s OKRs, copy-paste them into every team’s plan, and call it “alignment.”

That’s not alignment — that’s karaoke.

Caroli.org’s research on Why Cascading OKRs Don’t Work nails it: cascading creates rigidity, kills ownership, and locks teams into waterfall planning. Everyone’s waiting for someone else to start.

The fix? Strategic alignment, not duplication.

Let every team write their own OKRs that ladder up to company goals — their own spin, their own ownership, same destination. (See: Aligning, Not Cascading, OKRs with an OKR Lineage.)

Now your AI roadmap isn’t a science-fair table of “cool experiments.”
It’s a map of strategic leverage.

Want to stop wasting money on “innovation” projects that go nowhere? Run every AI idea through this quick filter:

These questions line up with standard prioritization frameworks — strategic alignment, expected ROI, measurable outcomes — as outlined in How Project Prioritization Scoring Models Help Organizations.

Let’s look at a mid-size wealth management firm — about 450 employees, managing $600M AUM.

Their annual OKRs were simple:

Before OKR alignment:
They had ten AI projects. No prioritization.
CFO’s standing in a meeting like,

After OKR Mapping:

Result:
Funded 5 aligned projects.
Killed 2. Deferred 3.
Saved $280K.
Delivered 3.2× ROI in the first year.

And this isn’t an outlier — DigitalDefynd’s 2025 “Top 20 AI in Finance Case Studies” shows similar patterns: firms aligning AI with OKRs see 35% higher portfolio performance and dramatically faster execution cycles.

That’s not luck. That’s focus.

According to How to Leverage and Cascade OKRs in Large Organizations, successful OKR adoption comes from top-down direction + bottom-up alignment.

Here’s how to start today:

You’ll instantly see which projects actually move the needle — and which are just “AI tourism.”

Without OKRs:

According to Axis Intelligence, companies that fail to align AI with strategic goals see median ROI of just 10%, far below the 20% target most organizations aim for.

With OKRs:

New Rule:
If it doesn’t support a top-3 OKR, it doesn’t belong in your AI portfolio.

Because let’s be honest — AI should make your business smarter, not your budget smaller.

👉 Get the Template — then sign up for The Agent Foundry to start mapping out those initiatives for real.