Research
AI Priorities Study
In its third year, this research was conducted to gain an understanding of how organizations are leveraging AI and generative AI, specifically looking at their investment and implementation levels, use cases, measures of success and challenges.
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anticipate adding new vendors in 2026 because of the growing availability of AI products, services, or capabilities.
agree that generative AI is allowing for employees to refocus on high value-adding tasks.
of ITDMs say that industry specific vendors/products deliver better results for their organization compared to generic AI vendors.
Key findings
Making room for AI in the tech budget
For the second consecutive year, organizations are carving out dedicated AI budgets. Nearly two-thirds of ITDMs (65%) report having a dedicated technology budget for AI this year — up from 49% last year and 36% the year prior. Another 97% say they are either investing in or planning to invest in AI tools, signaling a shift from research to implementation. More specifically, ITDMs are prioritizing foundational investments to build effective AI capabilities internally. The top areas of investment this year include data storage and management, skills development platforms, and tools to track and optimize model performance.
IT leaders facing implementation challenges
While this year’s survey shows progress in areas like filling skills gaps through hiring, implementation remains a hurdle. Nearly all ITDMs (97%) report challenges when implementing new AI initiatives, with IT infrastructure/systems integration (governance, maintenance, security) being the top challenge to AI deployment this year. Cost is another major challenge, with 36% reporting high costs associated with integrating AI into the existing IT technology stack. Close behind are lack of in-house expertise for deployment (33%) and difficulty determining ROI (33%).
AI initiatives increasing employee productivity
Fifty-five percent of respondents report that improving employee productivity is the top business objective driving AI investments at their organization this year, with strengthening data protection and privacy through AI and improving customer support following close behind. Another 48% of ITDMs cited employee productivity as the top area of achieved benefits. Cost savings and efficiency also ranked highly, as did process automation – both cited by 45% of IT decision-makers.
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