A year ago, the conversations we had with Belgian leaders were mostly about where to start with AI and how to get people started with AI. Those questions have largely been replaced by a more pertinent question: what do the investments in technology, training, and adoption actually return? The Q2 2026 edition of KPMG's Global AI Pulse - drawing on 2,145 senior leaders across twenty countries, territories, and jurisdictions - suggests most organizations do not yet have a confident answer. Adoption nearly doubled in a single quarter and three-quarters of leaders say AI is delivering meaningful value. But when asked whether they can prove a return against what they spent on AI, only seven percent say yes - a point lower than last quarter. Using AI does not automatically imply value from AI.
The survey points at two reasons; neither of which is the technology itself. Most organizations do not know what their AI costs to run: only a third have full visibility, and nearly half have already delayed or scaled back an agent deployment once the bill outgrew the benefit. And while three-quarters of CEOs actively sponsor AI, only 24 percent can say who is accountable when a decision is made with AI. Sponsorship is present, but accountability still has to be explicitly assigned and exercised.
Companies in Belgium have the same concerns, particularly regarding ROI: how do we move our company from personal productivity gains to value that benefits the company as a whole? Meanwhile, governance is moving from policy and documentation into operations, which makes it far more tangible, and cost pressures on Belgian organizations are reduced today because deployments here are younger and smaller. We interpret that as a head start rather than good news: it is far easier to build cost visibility in now than to retrofit it once the invoices get interesting.
