Has AI crossed the threshold into becoming the operating system for business? Is the AI field ripe for harvesting profits and not just for trialing pilots?

The gap between AI leaders and laggards is widening at alarming speed, representing a massive untapped opportunity for superior revenue growth powered by AI-native workflows. 

NTT DATA’s 2026 Global AI Report sounds the boardroom wake-up call: only 15% of 2,567 senior executives surveyed from organizations across 35 countries and 15 industry sectors qualify as AI leaders with clear strategies, mature capabilities, and superior execution — highlighting that the field is ripe for moving from pilots to profits. 

According to the study carried out in September and October 2025, these leaders are 2.5x more likely to achieve higher revenue growth and nearly 4x better margins. Meanwhile, 22% are laggards at existential risk, and 65% remain stuck in the middle — not scaling beyond pilots.  

Key Insights: AI Leaders vs Laggards

  • GenAI to Agentic AI: Leaders build the full AI stack—GenAI creation, agentic execution, and sovereign protection — for adaptive workflows. Laggards remain stuck in early stages. 
  • Investment Flywheel: 68% of Leaders are investing heavily in AI and plan to significantly increase their investments, driven by strong early results. They are also more likely to adopt hybrid deployment models (50% vs. 35% for laggards). 
  • Workforce Shift: Leaders augment experts and create new AI roles with positive sentiment (73% vs 46% laggards) through strong change management. 
  • ROI Proof: Aligned strategies deliver major profits (84% vs 58% non-aligned). Leaders move fast and target high-value use cases.

As enterprises enter 2026, 65% remain stuck in the middle, creating the world’s largest innovation bottleneck. Converting just 10% into leaders unlocks disproportionate GDP growth and competitive advantage. 

“AI accountability now belongs in the boardroom and demands an enterprise-wide agenda,” said Yutaka Sasaki, President and CEO, NTT DATA Group. “Our research shows that a small group of AI leaders already are using AI to differentiate, grow and reinvent how humans and machines create value together.”  

Strategy
Leaders treat AI as a core growth engine and rewire their strategy accordingly: 

  • Strategic alignment and speed: AI leaders win by tightly aligning AI with business strategy and turning strategic focus and speed into outsized financial returns.
  • Focused end-to-end approach: Top performers focus on high-value domains that unlock disproportionate economic value and redesign workflows end to end. 
  • Flywheel effect: These front-runners create a cycle where initial investments fuel early success that drives reinvestment for further growth. 
  •  Core reinvention: Growth leaders rebuild core applications with embedded AI rather than limiting themselves to surface-level add-ons. 

Execution
AI leaders differentiate through resilient foundations, empowered humans, hardwired adoption and governance, and expert partners: 

  • Secure at scale: AI leaders build scalable and secure stacks, localize or relocate AI infrastructure for private/sovereign AI, and invest to eliminate infrastructure bottlenecks. 
  • Expert-first AI: These front-runners use AI to amplify the impact of experienced, highly skilled employees rather than replace them. 
  • Change that sticks: Top performers treat adoption as a company-wide change program and adopt constructive change management to reduce resistance. 
  • Governed for scale: Leading organizations centralize AI governance, formalize enterprise-wide oversight, and empower dedicated Chief AI Officers (CAIOs) to own risk and align innovation. 
  • Partner-powered growth: Best-in-class players lean on strategic external collaborators and are open to outcome-based gain-sharing models that accelerate AI value. 

“Once AI and business strategies are aligned, the single most effective move is to pick one or two domains that deliver disproportionate value and redesign them end-to-end with AI,” said Abhijit Dubey, CEO and CAIO, NTT DATA, Inc. “Supporting this focused, end-to-end approach with strong governance, modern infrastructure and trusted partners is how today’s AI leaders are turning pilots into profit and pulling ahead of the market.”