AI / Introductory

KPMG AI Quarterly Pulse Survey

KPMG

March 2026

Summary

The KPMG AI Quarterly Pulse Survey is a series of reports that provide insights into the evolving landscape of Generative AI investment and adoption among business leaders. The survey tracks key trends, challenges, and opportunities as organizations move from experimenting with GenAI to scaling it for long-term growth.

Content

Q1 2026 Update:

Investment and AI Agent Deployment Surge as Execution Becomes the Differentiator

Capital continues to flow into AI, with organizations projecting average AI spending of $207 million over the next 12 months, nearly double figures from the same period last year, according to the KPMG US Q1 AI Quarterly Pulse. Over the past two years, organizations have moved from making the case for AI to putting it to work. What began as a push to validate and secure initial funding quickly progressed into experimentation and pilots and has since accelerated into broad deployment of AI agents across the enterprise.

AI’s potential value is no longer in question. However, realizing that value depends on how effectively and securely organizations can reengineer work at enterprise scale. With 65% citing difficulty scaling use cases (up from 33% last quarter) and 62% pointing to skills gaps (up from 25%) as the top barriers to demonstrating ROI, advantage is determined by the ability to execute – and execution runs through people, processes and operating models.

"Investment in AI is at the highest level we’ve seen yet and it continues on a sharp upward trajectory, with AI agent deployments accelerating,” said Steve Chase, Global Head of AI & Digital Innovation at KPMG. “The harder question organizations are now facing is whether they can move fast enough, sufficiently reimagine entire areas of their business, and do it all responsibly.”

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