CEOs’ revenue expectations at five-year low

Despite widespread experimentation with AI, 56 percent of respondents do not see any tangible benefits. 26 percent of respondents saw cost reductions and 30 percent saw revenue increases. Only 12 percent reported clear benefits – both revenue increases and cost reductions.

Rapid, organizational-wide AI integration creates a profit differential: CEOs who are already seeing incremental revenue from their AI investments are two to three times more likely to report that their company has broadly integrated AI into its products and services, customer demand generation, and strategic decision-making.

The foundation matters as much as the scale of adoption. Business leaders who say their organization has a strong AI foundation—such as a responsible AI framework and a technology environment that enables enterprise-wide integration—are three times more likely to report meaningful financial returns. According to a separate analysis by PwC, companies that widely adopt AI across their products, services, and customer experiences have achieved nearly four percentage points higher profit margins than those that have not yet done so.