Most executives say AI has moved beyond pilot phase

A survey by AI Infra Summit of senior technology and business leaders found that most respondents have moved beyond AI pilot projects, while views were split on whether AI will expand or reduce headcount.

The survey covered 29 C-suite and vice president-level respondents from large companies. Attendees at the closed-door event included leaders from Amazon, Dell Technologies, FedEx, Hitachi, Lenovo, MasterCard, Mercedes-Benz, Wayfair and Zoom.

Almost all respondents said AI is now in active use rather than testing. The findings showed 95% of organisations had moved beyond the pilot phase, while 40% had embedded AI into core products and strategy.

Another 55% said they were running live AI use cases delivering measurable value, pointing to a shift from experimentation to operational deployment among the executives surveyed.

Hiring split

The results showed no consensus on AI's effect on jobs. Some leaders expect the technology to support expansion or keep teams stable through higher productivity, while others expect it to reduce staffing needs.

In the poll, 14% said AI would lead to business expansion and net new hiring, while 38% expected to produce more with the same headcount. By contrast, 10% said they would replace a significant number of roles with AI agents, and 38% anticipated reducing headcount through AI automation.

That leaves 52% expecting teams to grow or remain the same size, versus 48% expecting a smaller workforce. The findings suggest senior executives see AI less as a uniform jobs story than as a trigger for broader organisational redesign.

Ed Nelson, strategy director and co-founder of AI Infra Summit, said participants were broadly optimistic. "The tone at the recent CEO event was positive - Fortune 500 and 1000 leaders were very bullish on the potential of AI and that it was nowhere near its peak," Nelson said.

He also described changes some executives said were already taking place inside their businesses. "Some leaders were discussing how AI has already saved their organisations hundreds of millions of dollars. The consensus was that high-level discussions have moved on from whether AI works to understanding how agents can be used effectively. It was agreed that the real transformational benefits of AI will go beyond augmenting existing roles, to re-designing work to make it AI-native," Nelson said.

Budget pressure

The survey indicated that AI spending is beginning to reshape broader technology budgets. More than a third of respondents said their organisations were cutting traditional IT spending to make room for AI investment.

Specifically, 36% said AI is cannibalising traditional IT spend. At the same time, 46% said their companies were securing new budgets earmarked for AI, suggesting many businesses are funding the technology through a combination of fresh investment and internal trade-offs.

The data also pointed to a common model strategy. Most respondents said their organisations use a mix of external foundation models and internally developed tools or layers.

That hybrid structure was cited by 85% of those surveyed, reflecting a preference for platforms from large providers while retaining some proprietary control. For large organisations, the approach may offer a way to use established models without giving up differentiation in products or internal processes.

Agents in focus

Views were more one-sided on agentic AI. Three-quarters of respondents said autonomous AI agents either live up to the current attention around them or are still underestimated.

Within that group, 50% said the hype was justified and 25% said agentic AI was under-hyped. A quarter said it was over-hyped, leaving a minority with the more sceptical view.

Nelson said the debate at senior level has moved beyond basic questions of viability. "At the event, the leaders were divided on what the future of work would look like. No one doubted the capabilities of AI, and they said that we are nowhere near the peak of its potential. Now the big question for them is how to transform their organisations for the AI era. Work will fundamentally have to be redesigned but the major blocker to this is the organisations themselves - it's less about the technology, but rather their people and culture," Nelson said.

Participants also discussed which workers may benefit most as AI tools take on more tasks. According to the event account, some leaders argued that broader problem-solving skills and adaptability may become more valuable than narrow specialisation.

Nelson linked that to the poll's headcount findings. "The survey revealed that 52% thought headcount would either increase or stay the same. While there was 48% who thought it would decrease, no one was arguing that AI would result in a wholesale elimination of jobs. There was a lot of discussion about the types of skills that would be useful as more roles get augmented with AI agents. It was argued that generalists will prevail in this environment - those with lateral thinking, an open mind, the ability to analyse and make connections - rather than those with deep domain expertise," Nelson said.

He added that the challenge for large companies goes beyond software deployment. "The jury is still out on what the implementation of AI means for the future of work for the world's largest companies. This isn't about sprinkling AI on top of poor processes, however. Integrating AI is a human resources issue, but it shouldn't be framed as simply an upskilling and retraining exercise; it is a massive operational challenge as well," Nelson said.