According to a report from Globalization Partners, unlike in 2025, when deploying and testing AI was driving business strategy, organizations in 2026 want a proven ROI before committing to a budget.
How global executives characterize their organizations’ approaches to AI adoption (Source: Globalization Partners)
62% of business leaders said they feel pressure from their organization to use AI, but only 38% feel that AI tools are personally beneficial. Companies also began building in-house solutions to address security and compliance requirements.
“A sophisticated strategy identifies high-impact AI use cases and builds the necessary organizational foundation before a plan is created. It’s the difference between a lasting proof of concept and a successful transformative deployment,” said Nat Natarajan, COO at GP.
Most global companies are prepared to cut spending on AI if they fail to meet their 2026 profit targets. This shows the disappointment with last year’s ROI results.
Globally, business leaders remain divided on the long-term direction of AI, with 69% of U.S. HR executives believing that AI is a permanent transformation that will lead to the future of work.
Increasing supervisory burden
AI helps employees work faster, but many decision makers still don’t trust the results. Only 23% of global executives say they have complete confidence in the accuracy of AI’s output. To prevent speed from impacting quality, companies are increasing human oversight and turning employees into reviewers who check and correct AI-generated content.
Managers are also concerned about employees using AI tools without approval or supervision.
Some say they are reluctant to use AI on sensitive documents due to uncertainty about whether the information is legally accurate.
Businesses are becoming accustomed to relying on AI for tasks such as risk management, financial budgeting, and human capital management.
AI is also increasing employee review work. Most employees report spending more time checking, editing, and updating AI-assisted work, but fewer say they are spending less time monitoring.
AI will change the way companies value work
Decision makers acknowledge that they are increasingly viewing employees as secondary assets as advanced AI systems reduce the value of human labor. They also worry that they are using AI to “increase productivity” rather than create measurable business value.
Only 12% of executives strongly agree that sacrificing employee privacy for AI monitoring is worth it to achieve business goals.
AI is increasing competition for specialized talent while degrading the values of some parts of the workforce. To secure talent for AI, leaders say they want to actively hire workers in countries that don’t yet have them. They also say that while AI improves access to talent, it also brings risks that they are not prepared to manage.
Leaders say organizations need a borderless workforce strategy to turn access to talent around the world into a competitive advantage.
