Speed matters in treating artificial intelligence (AI). Enterprises that hesitate risk losing ground as the technology, competitive landscape and customer expectations evolve. But speed of adoption is not the same as speed of value creation. Deploying more tools, launching more pilots or adding AI to existing processes may create incremental gains; it will not, by itself, create lasting advantage. That will come from a harder and more consequential task: reinventing how every enterprise works around its priorities, capabilities and risk appetite.

The KPMG Global Tech Report 2026 shows just how quickly AI has moved into the mainstream, more than 90% of technology organisations report active deployment across core business functions. The barrier is no longer access or intent. Organisations are using AI to automate processes, enhance decision-making and improve forecasting. Yet the number of deployments says little about whether AI has fundamentally changed how effectively organisations operate, scale and create value.

This is the real execution gap. Many organisations still face shortages of internal AI expertise, uneven data and uncertainty about returns. More fundamentally, they are trying to layer a transformative technology onto structures designed for a different era. When fragmented workflows, legacy decision rights and organisational silos remain untouched, AI can accelerate individual tasks while leaving the enterprise itself largely unchanged.

The report makes the distinction clear. 83% of technology companies generated more than US$50 million in digital value over the previous 12 months, and 62% generated more than US$100 million, yet only 10% reported consistent ROI across multiple AI use cases.

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