01 — CAPITAL↗
$581.7B
AI investment more than doubled
Global corporate AI investment reached a new high in 2025, including private investment and M&A.
Explore investment → EXECUTIVE BRIEFING · OCTOBER 2026
The next era of AI
is a value story.
AI is moving from experimentation to economic infrastructure. The leadership challenge is no longer simply adopting the technology—it is allocating capital, redesigning work, and translating capability into durable advantage.
$581.7Bglobal AI investment in 2025
88%organizations report AI use
7%report enterprise-wide scaling
AI×ROI
CAPITAL
COMPUTE
WORKFLOW
TRUST
THE AI VALUE SYSTEM CONNECTED BY DESIGN
37° 46' N
122° 25' W
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INSIGHT / 01FROM MODEL CAPABILITY TO BUSINESS OUTCOMESSCROLL TO EXPLORE ↓
01 / THE SIGNALS
Momentum is real.
Value capture is the work.
Three data points frame the leadership agenda: capital is accelerating, adoption is broad, and enterprise-wide scaling remains difficult.
02 — ADOPTION↗
88%
Organizations report AI use
AI use across at least one business function continues to rise—but adoption alone does not prove enterprise value.
Explore adoption →03 — SCALE↗
7%
Have fully scaled AI
In McKinsey’s 2025 survey, only a small share said AI had been fully scaled across the organization.
EXPERIMENTATIONENTERPRISE SCALE
What it takes to scale →Sources: Stanford HAI, 2026 AI Index Report — Economy; McKinsey, “AI at work but not at scale,” December 2025. Survey measures are self-reported; definitions and samples vary by source.
02 / CAPITAL FLOWS
AI is becoming a
capital-allocation story.
Investment is building the infrastructure for the next technology cycle. Leaders must connect the scale of spending to a credible path toward productivity, growth, and resilience.
GLOBAL CORPORATE AI INVESTMENT
US dollars · billionsInvestment accelerated sharply in 2025
Annual investment · 2023–2025● DATA VERIFIED
Source: Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI, 2026 AI Index Report, Economy chapter. Values shown are the report’s global corporate AI investment totals; figures may be rounded.
03 / ENTERPRISE ADOPTION
Adoption is broad.
Transformation is uneven.
The percentage of organizations using AI has climbed quickly. The next competitive divide may be between organizations that add AI to existing processes and those that redesign the work itself.
AI IN AT LEAST ONE BUSINESS FUNCTION
Percent of respondentsReported organizational use
Survey responses · 2023–2025● SURVEY DATA
88%REPORT AI USE
Nearly nine in ten
respondents said their organization used AI in at least one business function in 2025.
Reporting AI use 88% Not reporting use 12%
LEADERSHIP IMPLICATION
Explore the approach →Shift the question from “Where can we use AI?” to “Which workflows should we redesign?”
Sources: Stanford HAI, 2026 AI Index Report — Economy; McKinsey Global Survey on the State of AI, as summarized in the report. Adoption is respondent-reported, not a census of all organizations.
04 / THE EXECUTIVE AGENDA
Four questions for leaders
building with AI.
Technology strategy becomes business strategy when the investment thesis, operating model, and accountability system reinforce one another.
01↗
02↗
03↗
04↗
Where should we place the bets?
Prioritize use cases by economic value, feasibility, and strategic differentiation.
What must change in the operating model?
Redesign roles, decision rights, workflows, and incentives around new capabilities.
Where are the infrastructure constraints?
Understand compute, energy, data, talent, and regional exposure.
How do we earn the right to scale?
Make risk ownership, evaluation, security, and human oversight part of delivery.
MAKE THE NEXT MOVE COUNT
Build a strategy that
turns potential into value.
Explore the questions that connect technology, capital, and organizational performance.
Explore more insights ↗