Dive Brief:
- While some CEOs say they’ve seen a return on investment from their bet on artificial intelligence, and others say they’re expecting to see returns, just 9% said AI agents are “transformational for their organization,” according to a study released Oct. 15 by accounting firm KPMG.
- Nearly 4 in 10 reported “significant improvements in efficiency or growth” as a result of AI agents, and 43% saw “moderate impacts with targeted use cases.” Meanwhile, 84% said AI was a top investment priority over the next three years “despite ongoing economic uncertainty,” and 65% said they planned to spend at least 10% of their capital budget on AI in the next year.
- Leaders are increasingly focused on transforming their businesses for the AI era and are moving quickly on those changes, the study found.
Dive Insight:
“The focus on AI innovation has shifted from efficiency gains to how these investments will shape their business models, workforce and growth,” KPMG U.S. CEO Tim Walsh said in a statement. “With new technologies comes a healthy dose of risk management. AI and cyber strategies have become inseparable.”
More than 6 in 10 U.S. CEOs said they were confident their firms were moving at the right pace or ahead of the curve in terms of AI development. Another 32% said they were cautiously optimistic, and 4% said they were “concerned and struggling to keep up.”
“CEOs are leading with conviction and a heightened sense of urgency to accelerate change within their organizations,” Walsh said.“Leaders want to move faster, especially on AI, but their operating models, cyber defenses, workforce and governance are tasked with keeping pace with the technology’s evolution. They must build the governance and infrastructure that sets them up to win higher stakes under higher pressure.”
The 2026 study was based on survey data from more than 1,300 CEOs worldwide, including 400 in the U.S. It found that despite widespread confidence in U.S. economic growth, 78% of CEOs said inflation would negatively impact their company over the next three years. Those pressures would likely exacerbate existing cost outlays related to increased technology expenses, the survey said.
Meanwhile, 64% of CEOs said they were “confident in the growth prospects of the global economy.” Yet 79% said they expected geopolitical conflicts and tensions to affect their company’s bottom line over the next three years.
Four out of five U.S. CEOs said they understood the ways in which AI would disrupt existing business models and create new opportunities. These CEOs also said they believed their data readiness and quality would “help them safely and effectively integrate AI into their business.”
Even so, 85% of CEOs said that cybercrime and cyber insecurity would have an impact on their organization’s prosperity over the next three years. That makes cybersecurity a bigger concern than inflation, geopolitical concerns, the pace of technology change or other risk factors.
In order to navigate the future of their businesses, 89% of U.S. CEOs said they expect to increase headcount over the next three years. They said their biggest workforce challenges were employee skill gaps, AI upskilling and training, and attracting and retaining talent.
Furthermore, 81% said AI integration has forced their organizations to reimagine employee training and development, and 75% said AI adoption made them “rethink the skills required for entry-level roles.”
A recent study from employee experience platform Culture Amp found that 85% of employees surveyed said they were actively encouraged to experiment with AI, but just 58% reported having their leaders explain why their companies wanted to implement AI.
