Report Finds AI Investment Lags Before Deals

Technology services companies devote little AI investment to scoping, pricing and proposals, even as buyers assess vendors before signing contracts, according to the 2026 Global Service Dynamics Report. The report followed 613 IT and technology leaders across the customer relationship. Just 8% rank those pre-deal activities among the areas most likely to benefit from AI investment over the next year, the lowest share across eight stages. Only 32% can point to a measurable increase in win rates from AI deployments.

The report says AI use and specialist hiring are concentrated after deals close. Outcome-based and usage-based pricing are already common, and leaders expect subscription and outcome-based models to expand over the next year. The author says AI and pricing plans are often developed by teams that have not compared them. The report argues that scoping and pricing are an underfunded point in the customer lifecycle.

After a contract is signed, technology companies report integration challenges as their leading operational problem, ahead of fragmented workflows and poor visibility across teams. Disconnected data and unclear ownership affect AI and automation work especially: 49% of technology leaders say those areas are hit hardest. Forecasting-data confidence is 75% at organizations that are largely disconnected and 78% at fully connected organizations, while partly connected organizations report 38%. Aligned or fully connected organizations report improved profit margins at 54%, compared with 41% among siloed organizations. Organizations reporting genuine AI success are three times as likely to describe themselves as fully integrated as those reporting mixed results.

AI is already in production across common delivery uses, including internal knowledge tools and client-facing agents. Seventy percent of leaders call deployments a moderate or significant success, but only 29% can identify measurable return on investment (ROI, a measure of financial gain relative to cost). Productivity and accuracy gains are tracked more often than ROI. Compliance concerns and internal skills gaps remain the largest obstacles. Executives rate deployments as successful at 69%, compared with 53% among delivery teams.

Technology companies report estimated average net revenue retention of 74.7%, while real net expansion remains rare. Executive Leadership owns the retention figure in 66% of cases, compared with 46% for Services and Delivery. Leaders credit cross-functional collaboration among Sales, Delivery, Finance and Customer Success with improved retention in 54% of cases and improved satisfaction in 62%. Customer success, renewals and expansion rank second among the eight areas for AI investment. The report recommends giving Services and Delivery a formal retention goal. It says investment is lightest before deals are won, handoff gaps affect AI work, and delivery teams have less formal accountability for renewals than executives.

Technology services companies devote little AI investment to scoping, pricing and proposals, even as buyers assess vendors before signing contracts, according to the 2026 Global Service Dynamics Report. The report followed 613 IT and technology leaders across the customer relationship. Just 8% rank those pre-deal activities among the areas most likely to benefit from AI investment over the next year, the lowest share across eight stages. Only 32% can point to a measurable increase in win rates from AI deployments.

The report says AI use and specialist hiring are concentrated after deals close. Outcome-based and usage-based pricing are already common, and leaders expect subscription and outcome-based models to expand over the next year. The author says AI and pricing plans are often developed by teams that have not compared them. The report argues that scoping and pricing are an underfunded point in the customer lifecycle.

After a contract is signed, technology companies report integration challenges as their leading operational problem, ahead of fragmented workflows and poor visibility across teams. Disconnected data and unclear ownership affect AI and automation work especially: 49% of technology leaders say those areas are hit hardest. Forecasting-data confidence is 75% at organizations that are largely disconnected and 78% at fully connected organizations, while partly connected organizations report 38%. Aligned or fully connected organizations report improved profit margins at 54%, compared with 41% among siloed organizations. Organizations reporting genuine AI success are three times as likely to describe themselves as fully integrated as those reporting mixed results.

AI is already in production across common delivery uses, including internal knowledge tools and client-facing agents. Seventy percent of leaders call deployments a moderate or significant success, but only 29% can identify measurable return on investment (ROI, a measure of financial gain relative to cost). Productivity and accuracy gains are tracked more often than ROI. Compliance concerns and internal skills gaps remain the largest obstacles. Executives rate deployments as successful at 69%, compared with 53% among delivery teams.

Technology companies report estimated average net revenue retention of 74.7%, while real net expansion remains rare. Executive Leadership owns the retention figure in 66% of cases, compared with 46% for Services and Delivery. Leaders credit cross-functional collaboration among Sales, Delivery, Finance and Customer Success with improved retention in 54% of cases and improved satisfaction in 62%. Customer success, renewals and expansion rank second among the eight areas for AI investment. The report recommends giving Services and Delivery a formal retention goal. It says investment is lightest before deals are won, handoff gaps affect AI work, and delivery teams have less formal accountability for renewals than executives.