Businesses are still in the early stages of exploring how artificial intelligence can help their organizations, but that hasn’t stopped them from investing heavily in the technology. These findings come from Nasdaq’s new 2026 Outlook survey, which asked CEOs, board chairs, executives and leaders about their thoughts on AI and the economy. The study found that despite organizations making significant investments in AI, only 5% of leaders believe their organization is AI native. When it comes to AI readiness, the majority (71%) classify themselves as either “novices” or “explorers.”
The top three areas where leaders see the most progress toward AI adoption are product development, anti-fraud and anti-money laundering, and compliance and risk management.
Regarding the obstacles to increased adoption of AI, business leaders pointed to several key internal barriers, including uncertain return on investment, the need to address technology debt and legacy technology, and concerns about governance and compliance. Externally, survey respondents said tool maturity, regulatory complexity, and cost concerns are the three biggest barriers to increased adoption.
Here are some key findings from the survey. Fill out the form at the end of this article to access the complete survey.
Investing in AI
On average, leaders report dedicating one-fifth of their technology budget to AI initiatives. However, there is wide variation across organizations, with 31% saying less than 10% of their technology budget is focused on AI, and 12% of respondents saying at least half of their budget is devoted to this technology.
Research has found that not all business sectors are adopting AI equally. Financial institutions are seeing significant adoption of AI for product development, fraud detection, and compliance teams. Meanwhile, there is an interesting divide when it comes to the use of AI in trading, with a quarter of financial institutions already expanding and implementing AI solutions within their functions, while half are just at the starting line.
In terms of how companies are thinking about their use of technology, the survey found that innovation and addressing compliance challenges stand out as key elements of an AI strategy.
Early days of AI adoption
Despite these significant investments, 71% of respondents said their workforce is still in the early stages of AI readiness. This study classified organizations into four categories:
- 22% are newbies: learning about the capabilities, benefits, and risks of AI, but have not yet implemented AI in their organization
- 49% are Explorers: They are starting to incorporate AI capabilities into some products or business areas in the early stages of adoption.
- 25% Adopters: Very familiar with AI capabilities, with varying levels of adoption and implementation.
- 5% are leaders: fully AI native
Impact of AI
When asked what they expect the long-term impact of AI to be on the economy, 63% of respondents said they believe AI will be “evolutionary.”
Thirty percent of leaders said they actually expected AI to transform all aspects of the economy, while only 6% said the impact would be negligible.
What happens after the AI bubble?
Regardless of the ultimate impact of AI technology, 87% of survey respondents said they believe an AI industry bubble currently exists. Still, only 11% of leaders said they expected this to result in a major setback in the short to medium term.
70% of respondents say the most likely outcome after the bubble bursts is “significant” consolidation in the AI industry.
Expectations for 2026
Looking at the broader macro outlook, a majority of institutional investment leaders are bullish on both global growth (68%) and the outlook for their companies (79%) in 2026, with the majority expecting “moderate” growth in both categories.
In fact, only 3% of leaders described the year ahead as “high risk,” and 69% described their assessment as “neutral,” “cautiously optimistic,” or “strongly optimistic.”
When asked what will have the biggest impact on economic performance this year, the top three answers were:
- 38%: Improving geopolitical relations and trade stability
- 25%: Inflation control and price stability
- 14%: Increased consumer confidence
Fill out the form below and check out the full results of Nasdaq’s 2026 Outlook Survey here.
