Stanton Chase’s Executive Survey Panel surveyed 214 C-suite executives and board members across 45+ countries and found that 77% of organizations have not moved AI beyond experimentation, 65% cannot show measurable financial returns, and 62% say their leadership teams lack vision beyond tactical AI implementation. Despite these gaps, 59% of executives are more confident in AI than they were a year ago, even though 66% have not experienced a single AI incident. On the workforce side, 43% have not told employees how AI will affect their jobs, 62% expect 6 to 30% of their workforce to need to exit or transition within five years, 27% plan to maintain current compensation as AI-driven productivity increases, and 27% have no clear AI talent strategy. The full report includes cross-tabulations by executive title, industry, and region, respondent quotes, and seven questions for executive teams and boards to consider.
214 executives across 45+ countries, nine industries, and eleven C-suite and board roles told us how their organizations are really handling AI.
The full report is available as a free PDF download on the right of this page. Here is a preview of what the respondents told us.
The Headline Findings
Download the Full Report
These are just the headlines. The full PDF breaks every finding down by executive title, industry, and region, with cross-tabulations that reveal where the gaps are widest and where organizations are furthest ahead. It includes respondent quotes, seven questions every executive team and board should be asking, and an honest look at who owns AI transformation, who benefits from it, and who has been told nothing about it.
About the Stanton Chase Executive Survey Panel
The Executive Survey Panel is a quarterly research initiative from Stanton Chase. Each quarter, we survey C-suite executives and board members across our global network on the forces changing their roles and organizations. The Q1 survey on AI and Talent Transformation was conducted between February and March 2026, receiving 214 responses across nine industries and four regions.
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