> Since these departments do not directly drive profits, there's no visible bottom line to make meaningful observations on.
“Bottom line” is a reference to costs, it doesn’t matter whether a department is a profit center. If AI is making these departments more efficient, it should show up in the bottom line.
AI does show up in the bottom line, but it’s not attributable to AI. How can you tell if the last month’s 20 new features vs 10 new features the same period one year ago are due to AI or simply to your developers being smarter/working harder/returning to office, etc?
“Bottom line” is a reference to costs, it doesn’t matter whether a department is a profit center. If AI is making these departments more efficient, it should show up in the bottom line.