Key Takeaways

  • Business confidence in AI is rapidly strengthening as more companies move pilots into production and see returns on investment, according to KPMG's quarterly AI survey released Tuesday. The survey polled more than 2,100 senior technology decision-makers across 20 countries between April and May.
  • In the second quarter, 71% of organizations reported good progress toward full AI and human integration, up from 60% earlier this year. Nearly a quarter (about 24%) said they have embedded AI into daily workflows, up from 13% in the first quarter.
  • Steve Chase, KPMG's global leader for AI and digital innovation, noted in the report that organizations establishing leadership accountability for AI systems outperformed those that did not address AI culture at the C-suite level. "These companies achieved significantly better overall outcomes in terms of confidence, value realization, and return on investment," he said.

Deep Insights

Pressure for returns on enterprise-wide AI investments is rising as U.S. technology leaders expect to spend nearly double on AI this year compared to last year and believe that failing to produce results could impact their job security.

KPMG's first-quarter survey found a gap between companies in pilot phases and those that had fully scaled AI agents. By the second quarter, companies reported a 12-percentage-point increase in confidence that AI is delivering value to their organizations and an 8-point increase in confidence in their organizations' ability to secure AI strategy for the future.

KPMG's data shows that sponsoring AI implementation is not the same as being accountable for AI outcomes. The survey found that organizations that clearly defined accountability for AI outcomes were three times more likely to realize returns on investment than those that did not.

This quarter, more organizations reported their AI deployment strategies reaching maturity, with 29% saying they are in the "late stage," up from 21% earlier this year. Employee adoption of AI agents rose 3 percentage points from the first quarter to 28%.

The survey found that for maturing companies, questions surrounding AI adoption are shifting. Leaders are focusing on how to scale, with less debate over the technology itself and more time spent clarifying AI's role in the business.

"As maturity increases, this quarter we saw a shift toward pragmatism—leaders have moved beyond theoretical questions to practical ones: Where does AI create value? Who is accountable for outcomes? How does it change the way work gets done?" Chase said.

However, according to a study by Protiviti, perceptions of value are not fully aligned across the C-suite, with CIOs and other technology decision-makers reporting higher confidence levels than CEOs and board members.

KPMG found that as companies become more proficient with AI, priorities are shifting. Human-machine collaboration, responsible AI and governance, adaptability and resilience, and ecosystem partnerships all received higher priority than earlier this year.

But Chase said in the report that AI's value depends on understanding the costs of building, running, and scaling it. And many organizations are still building the capability to measure these metrics.

"It's not about rigid cost control, but about cost visibility," Chase said. "Be clear about where money is going, how AI is being used, and what outcomes those expenditures are producing."