Three out of four global leaders will prioritize AI investment despite economic uncertainty, KPMG Global AI Pulse survey finds

Key findings

• 74 percent of global leaders say AI will remain a top investment priority even if a recession occurs over the next 12 months.
• Global leaders confident in their talent pipeline are four times as likely to report meaningful AI business value (77 percent vs. 20 percent), including productivity gains, cost savings, revenue growth, and improved decision-making.
• Nearly two thirds of companies' report seeing their AI investment deliver meaningful business value.
• AI agent adoption is accelerating with 32 percent deploying and scaling agents and a further 27 percent orchestrating multiple agents across their business.
• Nearly three in four leaders are somewhat or greatly concerned about data security, privacy, and risk — the highest concern across all factors.

LONDON, 31 March 2026 — KPMG International has released findings from its first quarterly KPMG Global AI Pulse survey, offering a snapshot of how companies across 20 countries are investing in and realizing value from AI and agent implementation and the business implications and impact this transformation has on workforce, governance and risk management. The survey draws insights from senior business leaders with three-quarters of respondents representing organizations with annual revenues exceeding US$1B+.

The findings show that global enthusiasm for AI is unwavering, but only a few are scaling fast enough to turn that spend into real business value. Leaders plan to invest a weighted global average of US$186 million in AI over the next 12 months, and 74 percent say AI will remain a top investment priority even in the event of a recession. While most organizations (64 percent) cite AI as already delivering meaningful business outcomes, they face growing challenges — from measuring and quantifying value, to adapting governance models at the required speed, managing data privacy and cyber risks, and addressing workforce resistance. These risks and challenges are keeping many global organizations in the experimentation and piloting stage of AI implementation, while a meaningful minority (11 percent) are gaining edge through AI agent deployment, scaling across functions and beginning to coordinate them across workflows.

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

AI value is real but unevenly realized across organizations. A clear gap is present between organizations 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 organizations 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. Organizations 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 personalized 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: Organizations 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. Organizations 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 specialized 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 organizations mature

AI maturity is closely tied to the ability to scale governance alongside the technology itself, giving organizations 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 organizations 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.

Marie-Helene De-Messou,
Senior Associate, Global Corporate Communications, KPMG International

T: +1 202 569 6824
E: mdemessou@kpmg.com

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 organizations 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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