AI strategy has become the defining factor in corporate survival, a newly conducted survey of hundreds of CEOs has revealed. Moreover, most executives agree that AI agents could do a better job than them.
The study, conducted by The Harris Poll for an AI platform Dataiku, surveyed over 500 CEOs in the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Germany.
The “Global AI Confessions Report: CEO Edition” exposes the candid admissions and revelations of global chief executives as they face a new reality of living and working with AI.
The results sound, to say the least, worrying for the executive class. Not only do the CEOs think they absolutely need to have an effective AI strategy in place – they also seem to be aware that AI agents could actually provide better business decisions than human leaders.
Shockingly, 94% of CEOs agree that an AI agent could provide equal or better counsel on business decisions than a human board member, and 89% believe AI can develop a better strategic plan than one or more of their own executive leaders, a cohort ranging in title from VP to C-suite.
Globally, CEOs already admit that AI has influenced a strategic decision 33 times on average over the past year. Clearly, the question is no longer whether AI belongs in leadership but how far its influence will reach.
Because AI success now seems a career-defining mandate for top executives, the solution would, of course, be to try and tame these tools to stay ahead of the pack. But it’s not so easy, the survey has revealed.
Eighty-seven percent fail to recognize the “AI commodity trap,” expressing confidence that off-the-shelf AI agents will be as effective as custom-built agents for industry or domain-specific applications, such as R&D and Go-to-Market strategy.
Worse, CEOs estimate that over a third (35%) of their AI initiatives amount to mere “AI washing” for optics and reputation, but offer little to no real business value at all.
Thirty-seven percent also report that their AI initiatives have been delayed, and 32% report AI initiatives that have been abandoned entirely – all due to regulatory uncertainty.
For CEOs, the challenge isn’t just deploying AI, but proving its impact. So what happens when the board demands results? Well, 74% of CEOs admit they could be out of a job within two years if they fail to deliver measurable AI-driven business gains.
And 70% of surveyed CEOs say a failed AI strategy will result in a fellow executive being ousted by the end of 2025.
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