KPMG Global AI Pulse shows accelerating AI investment globally, with Eurostat ranking Malta among EU leaders in Gen AI adoption

Malta stands out in the European landscape for generative AI adoption. According to Eurostat, 46.5 percent of individuals in Malta already use generative AI tools, placing the country among the top three EU Member States alongside Denmark (48.4 percent) and Estonia (46.6 percent), and well above the EU average.

This level of adoption reflects Malta’s highly digitally engaged population and strong openness to emerging technologies across both consumers and the workforce. It also signals that AI is already becoming embedded in day-to-day work practices across Maltese organisations, rather than remaining at an experimental stage.

AI is delivering value, but only for those that scale it

AI value is real but unevenly realised across organisations. A clear gap is present between organisations still in the experimentation phase and those that have moved beyond pilots to fully scaling AI agents and capturing real business value outcomes. While AI adoption is accelerating worldwide, only a small group of ‘AI leaders*’ are seeing clear returns. These leaders consistently outperform others, including 82 percent saying that AI is already delivering meaningful business value, compared to 62 percent of their peers. This is not simply an AI maturity gap; it is a widening performance gap between organisations that treat AI as an enterprise-wide transformation and those that are trying to bolster AI onto existing models and seeing incremental gains.

The difference between AI leaders and their peers is increasingly visible in how AI agents are deployed and used across the enterprise. Organisations are rolling out agents across core functions, specifically in technology and IT (66 percent) to accelerate code development, in operations (55 percent) to orchestrate supply‑chain workflows, and in marketing and sales (43 percent) to power personalised customer experiences. But the real shift lies in how these agents are being used: no longer confined to task automation; they are now coordinating work across functions, routing decisions, surfacing enterprise‑wide insights, and detecting issues early. This shift is most evident among AI leaders, who deploy agents more deeply within business functions, outpacing their peers, in IT (75 percent vs. 64 percent), operations (64 percent vs. 55 percent), and marketing (49 percent vs. 43 percent).

*AI leaders have been defined as: Organisations that are AI mature and that are scaling or operating agentic AI, even if not yet orchestrating/developing multi agent systems. This cohort represents 11 percent of all total respondents within the first Global AI Pulse.

AI value depends on sustained investment in people, behaviors and trust, not just technical scale

AI value is not driven by technology alone but driven by people. Organisations that scale AI alongside workforce investment are nearly four times more likely to report meaningful AI‑driven business value (77 percent vs. 20 percent), spanning productivity, cost savings, growth, and decision‑making. AI leaders understand that bringing people along the AI journey requires more than traditional upskilling, which is why they’re reshaping how they invest in talent – hiring for AI‑specific roles (66 percent vs. 53 percent), pursuing acquihires to access specialised talent (36 percent vs. 29 percent), and introducing AI‑agent shadowing programs (54 percent vs. 39 percent).

As AI agents become part of everyday work, they are also changing what leaders look for in talent – especially at the entry level. The survey shows that success in the AI era is no longer defined by technical skills alone. Leaders are placing greater value on critical thinking and problem‑solving (49 percent), adaptability and continuous learning (52 percent), and creative and strategic thinking (41 percent), reinforcing that human capabilities remain essential even as AI agents continue to scale.

Leaders more confident managing AI risk as organisations mature

AI maturity is closely tied to the ability to scale governance alongside the technology itself, giving organisations the confidence to move faster and operate at scale. While concerns about data security, privacy, and risk are widespread among 75 percent of global leaders, maturity changes how those risks are managed. Among organisations still experimenting with AI, just 20 percent feel confident managing AI‑related risks. That confidence rises sharply to 49 percent among AI leaders, indicating that governance frameworks strengthen as AI becomes embedded into real‑world operations. Rather than worrying about early experimentation, AI leaders' concerns shift to the challenges that come with scaling - such as data quality and integration, governance and sustainability demands, and increased competition from AI‑native entrants.

The full report, including detailed regional breakdowns, sector analysis, and strategic recommendations, will be available at kpmg.com/aipulse on 15 April 2026.

Key regional differences in the Q1 Global AI Pulse:

• Investment in AI*: Global leaders plan to invest a weighted average of US$186 million in AI, with spending expectations highest in ASPAC* (US$245 million), compared with the Americas** (US$178 million) and EMEA (US$157 million). 

*ASPAC includes the People’s Republic of China (including Hong Kong, SAR and Taiwan) = US$235 million
**Americas includes the United States = US$207 million

• Scaling AI agents: AI agent scaling is highest in ASPAC (49 percent), followed by the Americas (46 percent) and EMEA (42 percent). ASPAC also leads in orchestrating and deploying agentic systems (33 percent).
• Barriers to deploying AI agents: In ASPAC and EMEA, a lack of leadership trust and buy‑in is cited as a key barrier (24 percent in both regions), compared with 17 percent in the Americas. 
• Expectations for human–AI collaboration: East Asia anticipates AI agents leading projects (42 percent), Australia favors human‑directed AI (34 percent), and North America leans toward peer‑to‑peer human‑AI collaboration (31 percent). 

The KPMG Global AI Pulse, conducted between 17 February and 17 March 2026 surveyed n=2,110 C‑suite and senior business leaders to provide timely insights into how organisations are adopting and investing in AI, as well as their strategic priorities and emerging risks. This study is a global expansion of KPMG U.S. AI Pulse, which has been conducted for the past two years, extending its insights to a broader international context. 

All respondents represent companies with annual revenues of at least USD$100 million, with three-quarters reporting revenues of US$1 billion+. Participants were drawn from 20 markets across US, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, UK, Ireland, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, China (People’s Republic of China, including Hong Kong, SAR and Taiwan), Japan, Korea (Republic), Singapore, India, Australia. Respondents were screened for seniority (Managing Director level or equivalent and above including > 40% C-Suite).

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