A new survey by accounting firm KPMG US found a contradiction in how CEOs are thinking about AI: though a full quarter of the 100 execs polled said they believe we’re in the midst of an AI spending bubble, an overwhelming 80 percent said they plan on pouring money into the tech anyway.
“The sentiment about deploying AI is most certainly accelerating,” KPMG US CEO Tim Walsh told Business Insider of the dissonant findings.
There was also a pretty stunning gap between what CEOs felt about their companies and about the economy overall. Though 83 percent of those surveyed had confidence in their company’s continued growth over the next year, just 55 percent felt the same about the US economy, the report found.
That survey comes on the heels of another survey by Boston Consulting Group in January, which canvassed 2,360 executives across nine industries. In all, a whopping 94 percent of CEOs said they’ll continue investing in AI at similar or higher levels this year compared to 2025 — even if the investments fail to pay off.
In sum, the average company surveyed by BCG planned to double their spending on AI in 2026, up from the $37 billion spent on AI in 2025. Troublingly, a larger share of Western executives surveyed cited pressure or fears of falling behind than their counterparts in other areas of the world.
“Despite economic uncertainty, this anticipated surge in spending reflects how much of a priority AI has become in the business world,” BCG CEO Christoph Schweizer told China Daily.
For better or worse, the surveys clearly outline the attitude of executives in the tech industry and beyond: the AI spending will continue until revenue improves — or the whole thing explodes, whichever comes first.
More on the AI bubble: Tech CEOs Say AI Is Ushering in an Age of Abundance, But Instead the Evidence Shows That It’s Pushing Down Wages