CEOs Leading Surge in Corporate AI Spending: BCG

Corporate investment in AI is set to accelerate in 2026, with companies planning to double spending on the technology and allocate an average of 1.7% of revenues to AI, according to a new global study by Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

The report finds that despite ongoing economic uncertainty, most companies do not plan to scale back AI investments. Nearly all chief executives surveyed said they would continue investing at current or higher levels even if returns do not materialize in the short term, signaling that AI has become a core business priority rather than a discretionary technology expense.

These conclusions are detailed in BCG AI Radar 2026: As AI Investments Surge, CEOs Take the Lead, based on a survey of 2,360 executives across 16 markets and nine industries, including 640 CEOs. The study shows a shift in leadership dynamics, with chief executives increasingly positioning themselves as the primary decision makers on AI strategy and execution.

Nearly three-quarters of CEOs now say they are directly responsible for AI decisions, double the share reported a year earlier. Many are also investing in their own skills, with leading CEOs spending more than eight hours per week on AI upskilling. Compared with their peers, these executives are also committing more resources to building AI capabilities across their organizations.

BCG identifies three broad CEO approaches to AI adoption. A small group remains cautious, making limited early investments. The majority takes a value-driven approach, investing when risks are manageable and returns are clearer. A similar-sized group is moving more aggressively, using AI to drive broader transformation through faster investment, workforce retraining and confidence in long-term returns.

The differences are most visible in spending priorities. Companies led by more aggressive adopters dedicate a significantly larger share of AI budgets to upskilling and retraining employees. They are also moving faster on AI agents, directing more than half of their AI investment toward these tools and deploying them across entire processes rather than isolated tasks.

Overall, CEOs have committed more than 30% of AI budgets to agentic AI in 2026. Confidence in these technologies is high, with about nine in 10 executives expecting AI agents to deliver measurable returns within the year. Many CEOs cite the growing maturity of these systems as a key factor behind their optimism.

Regional differences remain pronounced. CEOs in India and Greater China report higher confidence in AI’s ability to deliver value than their counterparts in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union. In Western markets, a larger share of executives say their organizations are investing in AI partly to avoid competitive pressure rather than from conviction alone.

All industries surveyed plan to increase AI spending in 2026. Financial institutions and technology companies are allocating around 2% of revenues to AI, while industrial and real estate companies are investing less, at under 1% of revenues. Even so, the direction of travel is consistent across sectors.

The study also finds that while about half of CEOs believe their own roles could be at risk if AI investments fail to pay off, most are more optimistic about AI’s return on investment than they were a year ago. By 2028, a large majority expect success in AI adoption to be a defining measure of corporate performance.