Growing adoption signals progress as cost visibility and accountability drive AI value: KPMG Global AI Pulse survey

• More organizations have reached the stage where AI is part of everyday work — rising to 22 percent, up from 13 percent in Q1, the biggest move of any stage on the AI maturity journey.
• One-third of leaders (33 percent) cite limited understanding of usage costs, as a key deployment challenge for AI agents.
• Organizations where CEOs are accountable for decisions based on AI outputs, report higher confidence in their AI strategy, (60 percent vs. 22 percent), are more likely to realize meaningful business value (57 percent vs. 21 percent) and report established ROI (14 percent vs. 4 percent).
• Leaders with strong cost visibility are five times more likely to achieve ROI (15 percent vs. 3 percent).

London, UK (July 1, 2026) – Organizations are entering a pragmatic phase of AI, where success is no longer defined by experimentation, but by how effectively leaders turn investment into real business value, according to KPMG’s Q2 2026 Global AI Pulse Survey of more than 2,000+ business leaders across 20 countries at organizations with annual revenues exceeding US $50+ million.

While AI remains a top priority, cited by 79 percent of leaders as a key investment area (up from 74 percent last quarter) and with spending holding steady at $188M ($186M in Q1), there is greater emphasis being placed for global leaders to measure and demonstrate value as token economics^[1] add new complexity, driving a sharper focus on control, financial discipline and leadership accountability.

“We’re seeing a clear divide between organizations with leadership accountability at the top and those without,” said Steve Chase, KPMG Global Head of AI and Digital Innovation, KPMG International. “These companies are seeing materially better results across the board such as greater confidence, higher value realization and established ROI.”

“AI is now as much a financial management priority as it is a technology one,” Rob Fisher, Global Head of Advisory, KPMG International. “The real risk isn’t investing in AI but doing so without cost visibility and an understanding of the economics of AI. Organizations that have visibility into their costs and maintain strong oversight are the ones translating AI investment into real, measurable value.”

Key findings at glance

AI momentum builds as leaders prioritize people to unlock value

AI adoption is accelerating, particularly in the driving-adoption phase, which increased to 22 percent up from 13 percent in Q1 — the largest shift on the AI maturity curve, signaling momentum. However, turning that momentum into measurable returns remains concentrated to only 7 percent of leaders who report establishing ROI, even as nearly one in four (24 percent) face pressure to prove value to investors.

In response, leaders are shifting focus from technology to the people who use it. As organizations move from experimenting toward broader deployment, they are making progress in human-AI collaboration (71 percent, up from 60 percent in Q1) and choosing to upskill their workforce (48 percent). By putting AI directly into the hands of their people, organizations are better positioned to translate adoption into real business value.

Leadership accountability drives stronger results

Clear ownership is becoming an important differentiator in AI outcomes. Yet in many organizations, ownership remains unclear. Only 24 percent of leaders say the CEO is accountable for AI-driven business outcomes, while 29 percent point to the broader C-suite, suggesting responsibility often stops at the sponsorship level rather than true accountability. Without clear accountability, decision-making can be fragmented, making it harder to track impact and demonstrate value.

Organizations with clearly defined accountability for AI informed decisions, especially at the CEO level, report stronger results and greater value than their peers. These companies report higher confidence in their AI strategy (60 percent vs. 22 percent), realize meaningful value (57 percent vs. 21 percent) and report established ROI (14 percent vs. 4 percent).

AI value begins with cost visibility

As AI adoption scales and AI usage-based models increase, cost visibility is becoming both more complex and more critical to realizing value. Yet many organizations still lack a clear view of how spending accumulates. Nearly a quarter of leaders (23 percent) struggle with usage-based costs, and 42 percent have only partial visibility into AI spending. This is compounded by challenges in understanding AI costs structures (including tokens)—cited by 33 percent of leaders, making it harder to predict, manage and optimize spending.

Managing token economics has become a core management discipline. To better manage AI costs, organizations are putting governance controls in place such as monitoring and spending controls. More than half of global leaders’ report having AI costs monitoring dashboards (53 percent) and embedding cost reviews as part of AI approval processes (54 percent), enabling stronger control and decision making. As a result, these organizations are five times more likely to report established ROI (15 percent vs. 3 percent). These findings highlight that AI is no longer just a technical capability; it is a cost, margin and operating model priority.

Notes

1. Token economics describes how AI is priced, consumed, and managed at scale. AI models charge based on “tokens” — units of text, data, reasoning, and interactions processed during a task.

About the Survey

The KPMG Global AI Pulse survey, conducted between 28 April and 25 May 2026 surveyed n=2,145 C‑suite and senior business leaders to provide timely insights into how organizations are adopting and investing in AI, as well as their strategic priorities and emerging risks. This study is a global expansion of KPMG U.S. AI Pulse, which has been conducted for the past two years, extending its insights to a broader international context.

Respondents represent companies with annual revenues of at least $100M or more for Canada, US, UK, China, Germany, India, Japan, Singapore, Korea (Republic), and Saudia Arabia. $50M or more, for smaller countries companies’ revenues. Participants were drawn from 20 markets across US, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, UK, Ireland, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, China (People’s Republic of China, including Hong Kong, SAR and Taiwan), Japan, Korea (Republic), Singapore, India, Australia. Respondents were screened for seniority (Managing Director level or equivalent and above including > 40% C-Suite).

About KPMG

KPMG is a global organization of independent professional services firms providing Audit, Tax and Advisory services. KPMG is the brand under which the member firms of KPMG International Limited (“KPMG International”) operate and provide professional services. “KPMG” is used to refer to individual member firms within the KPMG organization or to one or more member firms collectively. KPMG firms operate in 138 countries and territories with more than 276,000 partners and employees working in member firms around the world. Each KPMG firm is a legally distinct and separate entity and describes itself as such. Each KPMG member firm is responsible for its own obligations and liabilities. KPMG International Limited is a private English company limited by guarantee. KPMG International Limited and its related entities do not provide services to clients. For more information, visit www.kpmg.com.

Source: KPMG International

Tags: Artificial Intelligence (AI), KPMG, survey, technology investment