Paris: AI investment strategy is entering a more pragmatic phase as global organizations move beyond experimentation and hype to focus on long-term value creation, governance, and enterprise-wide adoption, according to new research released by the Capgemini Research Institute in Paris.
The institute has published its flagship report, The Multi-Year AI Advantage: Building the Enterprise of Tomorrow, along with a spotlight study titled How AI Is Quietly Reshaping Executive Decisions.
The findings indicate that as organizations approach 2026, leaders are increasingly embedding AI into decision-making while prioritising governance, infrastructure, skills, and accountability frameworks.
AI Investment Strategy Drives Long-Term Competitiveness
As AI adoption accelerates, the research highlights that organizations are scaling their AI investment strategy to remain competitive and generate sustained business value.
The study, which surveyed 1,505 executives from large global enterprises, reveals that 38% of organizations have already operationalised generative AI use cases, while nearly six in ten are exploring agentic AI applications.
China is leading the adoption of agentic AI, with nearly half of its organizations piloting or deploying such applications, ahead of counterparts in the US and Europe.
Two-thirds of business leaders believe that failing to scale AI at the pace of competitors could result in missed strategic opportunities and erosion of competitive advantage.
Also Read: Capgemini World Payments Report 2026: 40 Per Cent of Merchants Plan Shift to PayTechs
AI Investment Strategy Expands Measures of Success
The research notes a shift in how organizations evaluate returns from their AI investment strategy. While productivity gains and cost reduction remain important, business leaders are increasingly measuring AI success through revenue growth, customer experience, risk management, compliance, and knowledge management.
Control over critical digital assets has also emerged as a priority. More than half of surveyed organizations now place strong emphasis on data sovereignty, ensuring sensitive and regulated data remains under their direct control.
AI Investment Strategy Focuses on Governance, Skills, and Infrastructure
Looking ahead to 2026, organizations are planning to accelerate AI investments while becoming more selective. Nearly two-thirds of respondents reported pausing lower-value AI initiatives to redirect resources toward high-impact areas with measurable outcomes.
On average, organizations expect to allocate 5% of their annual business budgets to AI initiatives in 2026, up from 3% in 2025.
Key focus areas include digital infrastructure, data foundations, governance frameworks, and workforce upskilling, signalling a transition from short-term experimentation to long-term enterprise value creation.
Pascal Brier, Chief Innovation Officer at Capgemini and Member of the Group Executive Committee, said organizations have entered a more realistic era of AI-driven transformation, where the focus extends beyond productivity to revenue growth, customer experience, risk management, innovation, and decision-making.
He emphasised that leadership readiness, alongside strong data and governance foundations, will play a critical role in successfully embedding AI into enterprise operations.
AI Investment Strategy Reshapes Executive Decision-Making
The spotlight report, How AI Is Quietly Reshaping Executive Decisions, surveyed 500 CXOs, including 100 CEOs, and found that more than half are already using AI to support strategic decision-making. This includes active and selective use, with adoption expected to more than double over the next three years.
Currently, CXOs primarily use AI for tasks such as research, analysis, document preparation, emails, and meeting summaries. However, within three years, leaders expect AI to increasingly augment and challenge strategic thinking rather than simply support administrative tasks.
Also Read: On-Demand Tech Growth Threatened by Rising Costs and Governance Gaps: Capgemini Report
AI Investment Strategy Delivers Early Gains but Trust Remains Measured
Early adoption is already yielding tangible benefits. More than half of CXOs reported reduced time and costs in decision-making, along with improvements in creativity and foresight.
Despite these gains, executives continue to view AI as a support tool rather than a replacement for human judgment. Only 1% believe AI could autonomously make certain strategic decisions within the next one to three years.
Trust remains a key concern. Only 41% of CEOs, CFOs, and COOs report an above-average level of trust in AI for executive decision-making, citing legal, security, and explainability risks.
Additionally, just 11% of CXOs currently disclose or plan to disclose the use of AI in business decisions, largely due to reputational concerns and uncertainty over stakeholder perceptions.
Methodology
The Multi-Year AI Advantage report is based on a survey of 1,505 executives from organizations with over $1 billion in annual revenue across 15 industries and multiple global regions. The survey was conducted in November 2025.
The decision-making spotlight report draws on insights from 500 C-suite executives at organizations with revenues exceeding $10 billion, across 16 countries and 13 industries. This survey was conducted in August and September 2025 and supplemented by in-depth interviews with six C-level executives.
