Business leaders keep betting on AI despite recession

KPMG has published a global survey showing that most senior business leaders will keep investing in artificial intelligence despite economic uncertainty. It found that 74 per cent would still treat AI as a top investment priority if a recession occurred within the next year.

The quarterly survey of 2,110 C-suite and senior executives across 20 markets suggests companies are continuing to commit large sums to the technology, even though many remain at an early stage of adoption. Leaders said they planned to invest a weighted global average of USD $186 million in AI over the next 12 months, with the highest expectations in ASPAC at USD $245 million, compared with USD $178 million in the Americas and USD $157 million in EMEA.

At the same time, the data points to a gap between spending and results. While 64 per cent of organisations reported that AI was already delivering meaningful business value, only a small minority had moved from pilots to scaled use of AI agents across functions.

That group, labelled AI leaders in the survey, accounted for 11 per cent of respondents. Among them, 82 per cent said AI was already delivering meaningful business value, compared with 62 per cent of other organisations.

Value gap

The findings suggest a widening divide between businesses that have woven AI into core operations and those still testing isolated use cases. The strongest returns were in productivity, cost savings, revenue growth and decision-making, but those gains were far more common among companies that had scaled AI alongside workforce and governance changes.

Confidence in talent pipelines appeared to be one of the clearest markers of success. Companies confident in their supply of relevant talent were nearly four times as likely to report meaningful value from AI: 77 per cent, versus 20 per cent for those without that confidence.

The survey also found that companies with stronger outcomes were more likely to change their hiring and training approaches. AI leaders were more likely than peers to recruit for AI-specific roles, pursue acquihires for specialist talent and introduce AI-agent shadowing programmes as these tools became more embedded in daily work.

Business leaders also said the skills they want are changing. Adaptability and continuous learning were cited by 52 per cent, followed by critical thinking and problem-solving at 49 per cent, and creative and strategic thinking at 41 per cent.

Agent adoption

Use of AI agents is spreading, although broad orchestration across the business remains limited. The survey found that 32 per cent of organisations were deploying and scaling agents, while another 27 per cent were orchestrating multiple agents across the business.

Across functions, technology and IT were the most common areas for agent deployment at 66 per cent, followed by operations at 55 per cent and marketing and sales at 43 per cent. The role of these systems is shifting from narrow task automation to coordinating work across teams, routing decisions, identifying problems early and surfacing insights from across the organisation.

Regional differences were also evident. Scaling of AI agents was highest in ASPAC at 49 per cent, followed by the Americas at 46 per cent and EMEA at 42 per cent. ASPAC also led in orchestrating and deploying agentic systems, at 33 per cent.

Risk concerns

Despite heavy spending plans, executives were most concerned about data-related risk. Nearly three in four said they were somewhat or greatly concerned about data security, privacy and risk, making it the most frequently cited issue in the survey.

Confidence in managing those risks increased with organisational maturity. Only 20 per cent of companies still experimenting with AI said they felt confident handling AI-related risks, compared with 49 per cent of AI leaders.

The survey also highlighted regional differences in barriers. In ASPAC and EMEA, 24 per cent of respondents cited a lack of leadership trust and buy-in as a key obstacle to deploying AI agents, compared with 17 per cent in the Americas.

"The first Global AI Pulse results reinforce that spending more on AI is not the same as creating value. Leading organisations are moving beyond enablement, deploying AI agents to reimagine processes and reshape how decisions and workflow flow across the enterprise," Steve Chase, Global Head of AI and Digital Innovation at KPMG International, said.

"But ultimately, there is no agentic future without trust and no trust without governance that keeps pace. The survey makes clear that sustained investment in people, training and change management is what allows organisations to scale AI responsibly and capture value," Chase added.