20 Common ROI Rejection Reasons Statistics Every Legal Professional Should Know in 2026

Comprehensive data compiled from extensive research on AI implementation failures, project management breakdowns, and what drives measurable returns in legal technology investments.

Key Takeaways

• AI project failure rates remain alarmingly high – 95% of AI pilots fail to deliver measurable ROI, with American enterprises spending $40 billion on AI systems in 2024 alone while seeing minimal returns
• Data quality stands as the primary barrier to success – 73% of enterprise data leaders identify data completeness and accuracy as the main obstacle to AI success, making comprehensive medical record retrieval essential for legal case preparation
• Unclear objectives cause the most project failures – 37% of projects fail due to poorly defined goals and milestones, while organizations waste $1 million every 20 seconds due to inadequate project management
• Pure AI solutions face trust deficits – 80% of business leaders don't trust autonomous AI systems, and 40% report dissatisfaction with AI accuracy, highlighting the need for human-verified AI approaches
• Process inefficiencies compound costs rapidly – Organizations squander 12% of resources through inadequate project management, with average cost overruns reaching 27%
• Strategic alignment and mature project management practices separate winners from failures – Only 42% of organizations report high alignment between projects and strategic goals, yet PMI research shows that projects within organizations using proper project management frameworks are 2.5 times more successful
• Post-implementation tracking remains overlooked – Only 36% of organizations fully realize project benefits, largely due to inadequate performance monitoring after deployment

The Basics: Deconstructing the ROI Formula (and Where it Goes Wrong)

1. 95% of AI pilots fail to deliver measurable ROI

MIT research reveals that 95% of AI pilots fail to extract measurable value, with only 5% of integrated pilots generating significant returns. This failure rate stems not from AI technology itself, but from implementation approaches that neglect data quality, realistic objectives, and human oversight requirements.

2. AI projects fail at twice the rate of non-AI technology initiatives

RAND Corporation analysis shows 80% of AI projects fail—double the failure rate of traditional technology implementations. This disparity highlights the unique challenges AI presents when organizations lack quality data inputs, clear success metrics, and appropriate human-machine integration.

3. $40 billion invested in AI with minimal organizational returns

American enterprises spent $40 billion on AI systems in 2024, yet the vast majority saw zero meaningful ROI. This staggering investment-to-return gap underscores the importance of selecting AI solutions with proven value delivery and demonstrated outcomes in specific industry contexts.

Reason 1: Inaccurate or Incomplete Data Inputs Affecting Your ROI Calculation

4. 73% identify data quality as the primary barrier to AI success

A Capital One survey of 500 enterprise data leaders found that 73% identify data quality and completeness as the main obstacle to AI success—ranking above model accuracy, computing costs, and talent shortages. For legal practices, incomplete medical records directly undermine case valuations, settlement negotiations, and trial preparation.

5. 43% cite data readiness as their top AI obstacle

Beyond quality concerns, 43% of organizations cite data readiness as their primary barrier to AI implementation. This readiness gap includes missing records, inconsistent formatting, and incomplete historical documentation—precisely the issues that plague pre-litigation case preparation.

Codes Health's Missing Record Review directly addresses this barrier by cross-referencing patient medical history to identify gaps before trial. The platform's integration with health information exchanges, TEFCA networks, and EHR systems ensures comprehensive record retrieval from all provider sources, eliminating the data incompleteness that derails ROI projections.

Incomplete authorizations are the #1 cause of denied requests. Missing patient signatures, unclear expiration dates, or unchecked boxes for sensitive records will restart your 15-day clock. Codes Health's AI review catches these errors before submission—the system automatically flags misspellings, missing dates of service, and signature issues that would otherwise cause provider rejections are preventable with proper validation.

Reason 2: Overlooking Intangible Benefits and Undervaluing Productivity Gains in ROI

6. Organizations waste $1 million every 20 seconds due to poor project management

PMI research quantifies the cost of inefficiency: $1 million wasted every 20 seconds globally due to inadequate project management. This waste includes duplicated efforts, communication failures, and rework—costs rarely captured in traditional ROI calculations but devastating to actual profitability.

7. $2 trillion lost annually to poor project management worldwide

The global cost of project management failures reaches $2 trillion annually, with much of this loss attributable to intangible factors: staff burnout, client dissatisfaction, and missed opportunities. ROI calculations that ignore these factors systematically undervalue solutions that address them.

For law firms, Codes Health's AI-automated case chronologies eliminate hours of paralegal time spent organizing thousands of pages of medical documentation. This time recovery represents significant intangible value—staff can focus on case strategy rather than administrative tasks, reducing burnout while improving case outcomes.

Reason 3: Inefficient Processes and Prolonged Timelines Derailing Your Investment ROI

8. 70% of projects fail globally

Project management research shows 70% of projects fail to meet their objectives, with timeline overruns among the most common failure modes. In legal contexts, delayed medical record retrieval compounds into months of case timeline extension, eroding client confidence and firm profitability.

9. Only 34% of organizations complete projects on time

Wellingtone research reveals that only 34% of organizations complete projects on schedule, with an equal percentage completing them on budget. These twin failures—time and cost overruns—explain why ROI projections consistently miss targets.

Codes Health delivers 10-12 day average turnaround for complete medical record retrieval. Requests that previously took months now complete in under two weeks, with automated daily follow-ups ensuring persistent pursuit of outstanding records without manual staff intervention.

While some competitors advertise same-day retrieval, these expedited services typically deliver incomplete records and require ongoing client involvement to chase missing documentation—a process that leads to client churn and case delays. Codes Health's 10-12 day turnaround ensures complete records from all provider sources without requiring client follow-up, delivering truly comprehensive documentation that supports case success.

Reason 4: Lack of Strategic Alignment and Unclear Objectives for Your Investment

10. 37% of projects fail due to unclear objectives and milestones

Executive surveys reveal 37% of project failures stem from poorly defined objectives and milestones. Without clear success criteria, ROI calculations become meaningless exercises—there's no baseline against which to measure returns.

11. Only 42% of organizations report high project-strategy alignment

Despite the critical importance of alignment, only 42% of organizations report strong connection between individual projects and strategic goals. This disconnect explains why technically successful implementations still fail to deliver business value.

12. Projects are 2.5 times more successful with proper management practices

PMI research demonstrates that projects are 2.5 times more successful when proper management practices are implemented, including clear objective setting and milestone tracking. This multiplier effect makes strategic alignment and mature project management perhaps the highest-leverage factors in achieving positive ROI.

Reason 5: Ignoring Post-Implementation Tracking and Ongoing Performance Monitoring for ROI

13. Only 36% of organizations fully realize project benefits

Wellingtone research shows only 36% of organizations fully realize intended project benefits, with most failures occurring in the post-implementation phase when attention shifts to new initiatives. Without ongoing tracking, even successful implementations fail to deliver projected returns.

14. 33% of project failures attributed to poor communication

Ongoing communication failures cause 33% of project failures, with post-implementation phases particularly vulnerable. When teams lose visibility into system performance, problems compound undetected until ROI targets become unrecoverable.

Codes Health provides real-time status updates for every fax and call made on behalf of clients, offering complete visibility into request status. This transparency enables continuous performance monitoring, ensuring issues are identified and resolved before they impact case timelines.

Reason 6: Underestimating Implementation Costs and Hidden Expenses in Your ROI Calculation

15. Average project cost overrun reaches 27%

Analysis shows the average project experiences 27% cost overruns beyond initial estimates. These overruns often stem from hidden implementation costs—training, integration, maintenance—that weren't captured in original ROI projections.

16. For every $1 billion invested, $122 million is wasted

Detailed analysis reveals that for every $1 billion invested in U.S. projects, $122 million is wasted due to poor performance. This 12.2% loss rate reflects systematic underestimation of true project costs.

Codes Health's ability to integrate with existing EHR systems means legal practices can embed the platform within current workflows rather than requiring wholesale process replacement. This integration approach minimizes hidden implementation costs that inflate the "cost of investment" side of ROI calculations. For high-volume customers, Codes Health can build custom integrations with CRM platforms and other medical software systems, ensuring seamless workflow adoption. The platform operates on a flat fee pricing model, eliminating surprise costs and enabling accurate ROI projections from the start.

Reason 7: Reliability Concerns – Why Pure AI Solutions Can Lead to Rejected ROI

17. 40% report dissatisfaction with AI accuracy and reliability

A ZoomInfo survey found 40% of AI users report dissatisfaction with accuracy and reliability of AI tools. In legal contexts, where incorrect information can affect case outcomes or patient care, this reliability gap is unacceptable.

18. 80% of business leaders don't trust autonomous AI systems

PwC research shows 80% of business leaders don't trust agentic AI systems to operate autonomously. This trust deficit drives organizations to either avoid AI entirely—missing efficiency gains—or implement extensive manual review processes that negate time savings.

19. 42% of companies abandoned most AI initiatives in 2025

S&P Global research reveals 42% of companies abandoned most AI initiatives in 2025, up from 17% in 2024. This acceleration in AI abandonment reflects growing recognition that pure AI solutions without human verification fail to deliver promised value.

Codes Health addresses reliability concerns through its AI-human hybrid approach—AI insights verified by humans. Medical and legal experts validate findings, ensuring trustworthy data for case preparation. This model addresses the reliability concerns that cause pure AI solutions to be abandoned while maintaining speed advantages over fully manual processes.

General-purpose AI tools (like ChatGPT) are not designed to reliably analyze complex medical records end-to-end for litigation—especially when records are fragmented, incomplete, or require strict verification and handling. Codes Health is purpose-built for legal medical-record workflows and can analyze and summarize records with high precision using specialized models and verification steps.

Beyond the Numbers: Ensuring Your Investment Delivers Measurable Return on Investment

20. Only 4% of companies achieved significant returns on AI investments

Harvard Business Review analysis found that while 26% of companies have developed working AI products, only 4% achieved significant returns. This gap between implementation and value extraction highlights the importance of selecting AI solutions with proven ROI in specific industry applications.

The path from AI investment to measurable returns requires addressing the seven rejection reasons outlined above: data quality, intangible benefits, process efficiency, strategic alignment, performance tracking, implementation costs, and reliability verification. Organizations that systematically address these factors join the 4% achieving significant returns rather than the 95% experiencing failure.

For personal injury law firms, Codes Health's platform combines these success factors into a single solution: comprehensive medical record retrieval that ensures data completeness, AI-automated chronologies that capture productivity gains, 10-12 day turnaround that eliminates process delays, real-time status tracking for performance monitoring, EHR integration that minimizes implementation costs, and human-verified AI that delivers trustworthy results.

Codes Health's MIT-educated engineering team continuously builds out additional workflows and products, ensuring the platform constantly evolves, improves, and becomes more comprehensive to meet the changing demands of legal professionals. This commitment to ongoing innovation means your investment grows more valuable over time as new capabilities are added.

Understanding ROI: What is a Good Return on Investment?

Return on investment calculations in legal technology extend beyond simple profit margins. For personal injury law firms and other medical-record-heavy practices, ROI includes case outcomes, time savings, staff productivity, and client satisfaction—metrics that directly impact firm profitability.

Codes Health addresses this complexity by combining AI-powered medical record retrieval with human verification, delivering measurable value through faster case preparation and comprehensive documentation. Understanding what constitutes "good ROI" requires examining both tangible financial returns and operational improvements that compound over time.

The stakes are significant: organizations squander 12% of their resources due to inadequate project management alone. For law firms handling medical-related litigation, this waste manifests in delayed settlements, incomplete case documentation, and paralegal hours spent chasing records instead of building cases.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is ROI typically calculated for legal or healthcare technology investments?

ROI in legal tech contexts extends beyond the standard formula of (Net Gain / Cost of Investment) × 100. Comprehensive ROI calculations should include direct cost savings, time recovered for billable work, case outcome improvements, and staff satisfaction metrics. Medical record retrieval ROI specifically considers turnaround time reduction, case preparation efficiency, and reduction in provider rejection rates.

What are the most common pitfalls when demonstrating ROI for new software solutions?

The primary pitfalls include incomplete data inputs (73% of organizations cite data quality as their main barrier), overlooking intangible benefits like staff productivity, and underestimating implementation costs. Many organizations also fail to track post-implementation performance, meaning projected returns never materialize into measured results.

Can intangible benefits like improved accuracy or reduced stress be factored into ROI calculations?

Yes, and they should be. With $2 trillion wasted annually on poor project management globally, intangible factors represent substantial hidden costs. Staff retention, reduced rework, and client satisfaction improvements can be quantified through turnover costs, error rates, and client lifetime value metrics.

How can Codes Health's services help improve measurable ROI for legal firms and healthcare providers?

Codes Health addresses multiple ROI rejection factors simultaneously: comprehensive record retrieval from all provider sources eliminates data incompleteness, 10-12 day turnaround reduces timeline delays, AI-human hybrid verification ensures reliability, and real-time status tracking enables performance monitoring. Integration with existing EHR systems minimizes implementation overhead costs.

What steps prevent inaccurate data from skewing ROI calculations?

Proactive error checking catches common issues before they cause delays—misspellings, missing dates, absent signatures. Provider rejections are preventable with proper validation. Missing Record Review cross-references patient history to identify gaps, ensuring complete data inputs for accurate ROI projections and case valuations.

Is "good ROI" a universal standard, or does it vary by industry or project?

ROI benchmarks vary significantly by context. While Gartner found early AI adopters achieving 15.8% revenue increases and 22.6% productivity improvements, most organizations fail to reach these levels. For legal practices, "good ROI" typically means recovered paralegal hours, faster case resolution, and improved settlement outcomes relative to platform investment.