The Unstoppable AI Spending Machine

On the surface, it might seem shocking. After collectively spending billions of dollars over the past two years on AI projects that didn’t live up to lofty promises, an overwhelming majority of global CEOs are saying, “More, please.”

Indeed, 68% of them plan to increase AI spending in the upcoming year, according to a new survey of 350 global CEOs by the communications firm Teneo. That could push global AI spending past $2 trillion next year and suggests that corporate chiefs mostly still believe that AI will help spur massive productivity gains, unearth new growth strategies, or otherwise help their firms flourish.

But the push comes as some investors and board directors are becoming increasingly frustrated that money going into AI projects is depressing profit growth, not boosting it. Even the CEOs themselves admit that their past spending hasn’t produced big gains: Fewer than half of those surveyed reported a tangible return on investment from their internal and customer-facing AI projects. And those CEOs have fared better than most: Fully 95% of AI projects haven’t led to positive returns so far, according to a separate study from MIT.

CEOs believe they have no choice. Many firms have so deeply committed themselves to an AI-led digital transformation that there’s no real turning back. “The cost of stopping is significant,” says Bryan Ackermann, Korn Ferry’s head of AI Strategy and Transformation. Other CEOs feel they’ll be perceived as out of step if they don’t say they’ll spend. “Saying that they don’t plan to invest in AI would make them appear behind the times, and perhaps irresponsible,” says Joe Griesedieck, Korn Ferry vice chairman and managing director of the firm’s Board and CEO Services practice.

Experts recommend that leaders be sensible when spending on AI in 2026. Past expenditures were largely devoted to getting AI tools in front of customers or employees—a tactic which hasn’t necessarily paid off. For instance, Mirka Kowalczuk, Korn Ferry’s Korn Ferry’s senior vice president of global change enablement for AI strategy and transformation, recently spoke with a client who’d given licenses for Copilot, Microsoft’s primary AI agent, to all of their employees. The client was frustrated to discover that only 35% actually used it in their daily work. “You have to start thinking how employees can work in a different way,” says Kowalczuk.

Instead of AI usage, experts say, leaders in 2026 should focus on AI projects that can be successfully implemented across their organizations. Their firms should be able to identify where AI can help their business the most. Leaders should “stop throwing stuff on the wall and hoping it sticks,” Ackermann says. In his view, sensible AI spending would involve redesigning job roles entirely, and potentially also reinventing business processes. Firms need to devote money to retool their existing systems as well, he adds, “so AI can both access and interpret data effectively.”

But for that to take place, firms will need to see more results from AI, says Jamen Graves, Korn Ferry’s global leader of CEO and Enterprise Leadership Development. He believes that CEOs will feel compelled to keep spending, but will ultimately invest less than they’d originally planned. “The story I look for is the one that shows the return-slash-impact that is expected,” he says. “The longer we go without these breakthroughs, the less CEOs will invest.” 

Learn more about Korn Ferry’s AI in the Workplace capabilities.

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