diminishing returns

American  

[dih-min-ish-ing ri-turnz] / dɪˈmɪn ɪʃ ɪŋ rɪˈtɜrnz /

noun

1. any rate of profit, production, benefits, etc., that beyond a certain point fails to increase proportionately with added investment, effort, or skill.

2. Also called law of diminishing returns.  Economics. the fact, often stated as a law or principle, that when any factor of production, as labor, is increased while other factors, as capital and land, are held constant in amount, the output per unit of the variable factor will eventually diminish.

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diminishing returns British  

plural noun

1. progressively smaller rises in output resulting from the increased application of a variable input, such as labour, to a fixed quantity, as of capital or land

2. the increase in the average cost of production that may arise beyond a certain point as a result of increasing the overall scale of production

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Etymology

Origin of diminishing returns

First recorded in 1805–15

Example Sentences

There is also the risk of diminishing returns: as more platforms deploy similar tools, AI may become a baseline cost of doing business rather than a lasting differentiator.

From Barron's

In experiments involving brainstorming, participants predicted that their best ideas would come early and that additional effort would yield diminishing returns.

From The Wall Street Journal

“Here’s what I think happens next: The AI hype cycle is peaking. The diminishing returns are becoming impossible to hide. Competitors are catching up,” he said.

From MarketWatch

Enter “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” created by Martin and “House of the Dragon” co-executive producer Ira Parker, and part of a TV franchise that’s continuing to expand despite delivering diminishing returns.

From Salon

How much can a film criticize big tech’s spell over children when the long-running “Toy Story” franchise is similarly designed to lure its audience into a stupor, and for increasingly diminishing returns.

From Salon