Many large companies have a new Chief AI Officer—and it’s the CEO. Nearly three quarters of CEOs say that they are their organization’s main decision maker on AI, twice the share as last year.
CEOs are recognizing that AI is more than a technology. It opens the door to a fundamentally different way of running organizations—touching strategy, operations, culture, risk, and talent. In close coordination with their executive team, the CEO is the executive with the authority and perspective to connect those organizational and management dots.
With so many CEOs taking ownership of the success of their AI initiatives, AI is poised for a consequential year in 2026. So consequential, in fact, that half of CEOs believe that their job is on the line if AI does not pay off.
To go along with their expanded responsibilities, CEOs plan to devote more money to AI in 2026. Corporations expect to double their spending on AI in 2026, from 0.8% to about 1.7% of revenues.
For the third consecutive year, the BCG AI Radar global survey has captured the mood of business executives about AI. Nearly 2,400 executives, including 640 CEOs, from 16 markets responded.
The accompanying slideshow lays out the findings and insights of this survey in greater detail—especially the role of the CEO and the quest to achieve ROI on AI investments.
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Companies Are Spending More
This anticipated surge in corporate AI spending signals how swiftly AI has become a core business priority. (This spending includes investments in technology and infrastructure; data and architecture; enablement, talent, and upskilling; and fees paid to third parties.)
Spending levels vary by industry, with tech companies and financial institutions both planning to spend about 2% of revenues on AI in 2026. At the other end, industrial companies and real estate firms plan on spending less than 1% of revenues on AI.
Organizations are making these investments in recognition of the risks associated with the technology. More than half of respondents continue to have data privacy and cybersecurity concerns. Likewise, 41% of respondents worry about the lack of control or understanding of AI decisions.
CEOs Are More Optimistic
The rise in AI corporate investments is closely tied to the rise in CEO ownership of AI. Sixty-five percent of CEOs say accelerating AI is one of their top three priorities, a prime way to improve both growth and productivity.
Four out of five CEOs are more optimistic about the ROI of their AI investments than they were a year ago. The rapid maturity of AI agents, which can plan, act, and learn on their own, is one of the main reasons. Nearly all CEOs believe that AI agents will produce measurable returns in 2026.
Companies do not anticipate pulling back. More than 90% plan to continue investing in AI at current or higher levels even if the investments do not pay off in the next year.
About 90% of CEOs believe that by 2028, AI will redefine what success looks like within their industry. Companies will move beyond simply deploying AI in everyday tasks to reshaping critical workflows and, for many, inventing entirely new business models. This shift reflects a recognition that end-to-end transformation maximizes ROI on AI investments.
Nearly all CEOs believe that AI agents will produce measurable returns in 2026.
CEO confidence in AI is higher in the East than the West. For example, roughly three quarters of CEOs in India and greater China are confident they will achieve ROI on their AI investments, much higher than in the UK, the US, and Europe. Conversely, a larger share of Western CEOs say their organizations are investing in AI to avoid falling behind or because they feel pressure. One reason may be stronger investor scrutiny in Western markets, where short-term stock market pressure shapes decision making.
Other executives are less confident than CEOs. The farther the distance from the corner office, the less confident are executives in AI’s eventual payoff, dropping from 62% for CEOs to 48% for non-tech executives outside the C-suite.
This declining confidence may partly be explained by a phenomenon known as “change distance.” People closer to change decisions feel more favorably toward change than those further away. By virtue of their background, CEOs are great at changing, as they have navigated challenges, stretched their capabilities, and faced new responsibilities in their careers.
Alternatively, the CEO may have a blind spot about what it will take to embed AI deeply in the company. Executives closer to the day-to-day AI work may have a more realistic view of the challenges.
Trailblazers Create a Virtuous Cycle
Three broad groupings of CEOs emerge from the survey:
Followers, about 15% of CEOs, recognize AI’s potential but are going slow. Their organizations’ investments tend to be limited to pilots or small-scale improvements. They move cautiously, often waiting for clearer evidence of impact or for competitors to set direction. Their progress is incremental. Their anxiety is high and confidence low.
Pragmatists, 70% of CEOs, take a more active stance. They have invested more heavily in AI and in their people. The CEOs themselves are spending seven hours a week working with, thinking about, or learning about AI. Unlike followers, pragmatists are excited. Their momentum is steady but rarely disruptive. They advance with the market rather than ahead of it.
Trailblazers, 15% of CEOs, are decisive. They have upskilled nearly three quarters of their employees. AI is their number-one corporate priority. They are focused on large-scale change. Technology and energy and utilities are the industries most likely to have a trailblazer CEO; insurance and industrials and real estate are the least likely.
Trailblazer CEOs are systematic in their approach to AI. By making AI a top priority, investing at scale, and swiftly upskilling their workforce, they create a reinforcing cycle: faster adoption, greater confidence, and stronger returns that justify even bolder moves.
These groupings are becoming increasingly important. Trailblazers are already reporting gains in productivity, speed, and decision quality in areas where they have applied AI systematically. Their mindset and willingness to lead the charge place them in a stronger position as the next wave of AI arrives.
Agents are the next wave. Agentic AI expands AI’s role from individual tasks to multi-step workflows. Earlier AI tools could generate content, summarize documents, or provide recommendations. Agents can complete sequences of tasks, retrieve and structure data from multiple systems, interact with software tools, and reach business outcomes with limited human involvement.
Trailblazer CEOs are systematic in their approach to AI.
Agents allow employees to take on more responsibilities and make faster decisions. Over time, as they reshape workflows around agents, companies can move away from function-led hierarchies to become flatter and more cross-functional. Decision making will shift from slow approval chains to real-time action as agents and humans work collaboratively.
Trailblazers have been earlier and more assertive in pursuing agents. They are directing more than half of their 2026 AI corporate investments to agents. They are about twice as likely as followers to deploy agents end-to-end across a workstream or process.
For all CEOs, the coming year will test how quickly they can turn intent into progress. Most now say they are the main decision makers on AI, and many feel increased pressure to get it right. As companies expand their investments and agents take on more complex work, the influence of the CEO will grow.
AI touches many of the issues that require direct CEO leadership: creating an operating model that incorporates machines and humans; connecting directly with employees concerned about their future; and setting a positive example of how AI can amplify human judgment and ingenuity.
The survey points to a set of actions that will matter most as CEOs steer their organizations through the next phase of AI:
- Make AI a top priority. For a third of companies, AI is still not a top-three priority. These companies are at risk of an AI-first competitor taking market share.
- Build personal fluency. Practice. Practice. Practice. The more leaders learn about AI, the more likely they are to understand and harness the transformational nature of AI.
- Commit to meaningful, focused AI corporate investments. Companies should invest decisively in AI and agents in end-to-end workflows.
- Develop workforce capability. Leaders understand that success depends on people and change management, not just technology. They upskill their people early to prepare them for an uncertain future. They also seek to close the confidence gap between CEOs and their subordinates.
- Manage for and track tangible outcomes. ROI will be the acronym of 2026 and beyond. It’s not enough to project savings or revenue gains. Investors and other stakeholders are expecting to see ROI on AI investments, if not in 2026, then soon thereafter.
CEOs can shape how AI delivers value. The ones who embrace it will determine the pace of progress.
