Over the past year, Wall Street and Silicon Valley have wrestled with the same uncomfortable issues. Will companies really invest in AI, or is the hype simply exceeding their budgets?
A new CIO survey from RBC Capital suggests we may finally have an answer to that question, and it's a resounding yes.
RBC recently surveyed 117 IT professionals at companies with annual revenue ranging from less than $250 million to more than $25 billion. 90% of respondents said their organizations plan to increase spending on AI in 2026.
“Overall, we remain optimistic that macro/budget stabilization will materialize in 2026, driven by the pace of early adoption of GenAI,” RBC analysts said in a research note summarizing their findings.
Not only are CIOs rapidly moving to operationalize AI systems, they are also securing dedicated budgets to fund their deployment.
An astonishing 90% of technology leaders say their organizations are creating new budgets specifically for generative AI and LLM projects, up from 85% a year ago. This suggests that AI is becoming an additive rather than a substitute for corporate technology spending.
More importantly, 60% of respondents say they have already put their AI efforts into production, up from 39% a year ago. Another 32% expect it to be in production within six months.
The change came after months of skepticism from investors who questioned whether companies would convert pilot projects into actual spending. Research data suggests that moment has arrived now.
CIOs overwhelmingly named AI as the top category for software spending growth next year, ahead of cybersecurity and IT service management. In open-ended responses, executives repeatedly cited AI as the top investment area for 2026, often combined with infrastructure upgrades and automation efforts, according to the RBC survey.
Use cases are expanding beyond experimentation. 76% of CIOs say their company's AI strategy now targets both cost reduction and revenue generation, reinforcing AI's transition from novelty to competitive mission.
Concerns still remain, with data privacy at the top of the list, but those concerns no longer delay adoption. In fact, AI is becoming the main force driving IT budgets into 2026.
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