HTEC launched The HTEC AI Value Realization Report 2026 on October 15, reporting that AI investment is growing faster than many organizations’ ability to measure, govern and consistently realize its value. The independent study found that 79% of organizations increased AI investment over the past year, with spending rising by 31% on average. Yet 77% of executives said people and processes constrain AI value more than technology. HTEC Chief Marketing Officer Alex Rumble said the challenge has shifted from finding places to deploy AI to proving that investments produce meaningful business outcomes. He said organizational adoption, operating models, measurement and governance require deliberate attention.

The report found that only 18% of executives rank cost reduction among their most important AI outcomes. Improved decision-making, productivity, customer experience, innovation and faster time-to-market rank more prominently, but organizations have not settled on a common way to measure those benefits. Only 27% have clearly communicated AI’s purpose and expected outcomes across their business. Measures in use span strategic outcomes, financial returns, operational performance, employee measures and customer outcomes. In addition, 71.5% lack comprehensive enterprise-wide visibility into AI adoption, usage patterns and outcomes; they rely on partial or function-level tracking, anecdotal feedback, or have no visibility. Around a quarter of executives report higher AI usage costs because of insufficient tracking, and 26% cite increased reliance on external partners as an unexpected consequence of adoption.

Governance is another reported gap as AI systems become more autonomous. Only 14% of organizations systematically measure AI risk across their portfolio, and human oversight approaches remain fragmented. HTEC Chief Strategy Officer Lawrence Whittle said AI increasingly acts as well as informs, raising the need to define risk, oversight and accountability clearly.

The study found differences by industry. In telecommunications, 52% of organizations are scaling established initiatives or describe themselves as AI-native; in healthcare, 28% remain at early exploration. Financial services and telecommunications emphasize decision quality, manufacturing prioritizes productivity, and automotive, healthcare and life sciences emphasize faster time-to-market. Nearly a third of manufacturing executives identify data availability as their main measurement challenge; automotive organizations cite tooling limitations, while retailers struggle to attribute outcomes to AI. HTEC said forthcoming industry reports will examine financial services and insurance, healthcare, automotive, telecommunications, retail, semiconductor, and manufacturing and utilities. Censuswide independently surveyed 1,500 C-suite executives in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates during July 2026. Respondents represented technical and non-technical leadership across the listed industries.

HTEC launched The HTEC AI Value Realization Report 2026 on October 15, reporting that AI investment is growing faster than many organizations’ ability to measure, govern and consistently realize its value. The independent study found that 79% of organizations increased AI investment over the past year, with spending rising by 31% on average. Yet 77% of executives said people and processes constrain AI value more than technology. HTEC Chief Marketing Officer Alex Rumble said the challenge has shifted from finding places to deploy AI to proving that investments produce meaningful business outcomes. He said organizational adoption, operating models, measurement and governance require deliberate attention.

The report found that only 18% of executives rank cost reduction among their most important AI outcomes. Improved decision-making, productivity, customer experience, innovation and faster time-to-market rank more prominently, but organizations have not settled on a common way to measure those benefits. Only 27% have clearly communicated AI’s purpose and expected outcomes across their business. Measures in use span strategic outcomes, financial returns, operational performance, employee measures and customer outcomes. In addition, 71.5% lack comprehensive enterprise-wide visibility into AI adoption, usage patterns and outcomes; they rely on partial or function-level tracking, anecdotal feedback, or have no visibility. Around a quarter of executives report higher AI usage costs because of insufficient tracking, and 26% cite increased reliance on external partners as an unexpected consequence of adoption.

Governance is another reported gap as AI systems become more autonomous. Only 14% of organizations systematically measure AI risk across their portfolio, and human oversight approaches remain fragmented. HTEC Chief Strategy Officer Lawrence Whittle said AI increasingly acts as well as informs, raising the need to define risk, oversight and accountability clearly.

The study found differences by industry. In telecommunications, 52% of organizations are scaling established initiatives or describe themselves as AI-native; in healthcare, 28% remain at early exploration. Financial services and telecommunications emphasize decision quality, manufacturing prioritizes productivity, and automotive, healthcare and life sciences emphasize faster time-to-market. Nearly a third of manufacturing executives identify data availability as their main measurement challenge; automotive organizations cite tooling limitations, while retailers struggle to attribute outcomes to AI. HTEC said forthcoming industry reports will examine financial services and insurance, healthcare, automotive, telecommunications, retail, semiconductor, and manufacturing and utilities. Censuswide independently surveyed 1,500 C-suite executives in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates during July 2026. Respondents represented technical and non-technical leadership across the listed industries.