AI: from adoption to accountability

AI remains a top investment priority for 82% of UK CEOs over the next three years, according to KPMG’s 2026 CEO Outlook. And almost three-quarters (74%) of them are investing more than 10% of their budget in AI over the next 12 months.

The majority (87%) of UK CEOs expect to see a return on that investment within three years. They’re far more optimistic than they were two years ago, when 83% said it would be at least three years before they achieved ROI. And this year, for the first time, a small proportion (4%) of UK CEOs say they’ll see a return in less than six months or have already seen one.

Much of that return on investment has come in the form of enhanced efficiency and productivity, including improved decision-making and data analysis. Almost half (48%) say this is a top 2 benefit of implementing AI. It’s not the only benefit though – 29% say a key benefit is increased profitability and growth, with the same proportion calling out improved threat detection and security posture.

Compared to 2025, however, a smaller proportion of UK CEOs are expecting to see their investments pay off in less than a year. That could be because they’ve moved on from the low-hanging fruit to more complex, enterprise-wide integration.

As they’ve gone from experimentation and early adoption to scaling AI across the enterprise, they’re encountering new challenges. And that has made them rethink their progress. Whereas in 2025, 76% said they were confident they were moving at the right pace or ahead of the curve, that’s dropped to 59% in 2026. That said, a further 35% are feeling cautiously optimistic.

While UK CEOs remain optimistic about the potential of AI, their focus is shifting from AI at speed to responsible integration. That means thinking through carefully what AI means for their people, their reputation and their resilience, and building in appropriate governance and controls.

This year’s CEO Outlook results show that UK CEOs have become particularly tuned into the ethical considerations around AI – with 81% saying these are either very or mostly challenging. It’s still the top challenge for global respondents, but the proportion selecting it is much smaller at 57%.

Concerns around AI and data sovereignty also make the top 5 challenges to implementing AI. Almost half (49%) of UK CEOs are reacting by increasing their focus on internal data governance and control. Data sovereignty concerns are also influencing UK CEOs' choice of AI partners and vendors. That’s a much bigger consideration for UK CEOs (42%) than their global counterparts (17%).

A small majority of UK CEOs are in favour of more AI regulation. Half (50%) say regulations regarding AI should be increased, with 42% unsure. And a majority (61%) say that the pace of progress on AI regulations will be a barrier to their organisation’s success. That’s down significantly from three-quarters (76%) in 2025.

KPMG’s Q3 AI Pulse report suggests that the organisations having the greatest success with AI are those that have embedded clear accountability, strong governance and the ability to coordinate AI across the business. Over half (55%) of global respondents to the AI Pulse say they now operate a formal AI management infrastructure. That rises to 86% for those who report an established return on their investment in AI.