The State of AI in the Enterprise 2026

2026-09-10 · Industry Analysis

Deloitte’s 2026 State of AI in the Enterprise suggests enterprise AI is entering a new phase: the central challenge is shifting from gaining access to AI and running pilots towards redesigning organisations to generate value from AI at scale. Based on a survey of 3,235 senior business and technology leaders across 24 countries, Deloitte finds rapidly expanding adoption but a significant gap between organisations’ AI ambitions and their operational readiness. Employee access to sanctioned AI tools increased by roughly 50% during 2025, from below 40% to around 60%. Yet fewer than 60% of employees who have access use AI in their daily workflow. Similarly, only 25% of organisations have moved at least 40% of their AI experiments into production, although 54% expect to reach that threshold within three to six months. More fundamentally, AI remains primarily an optimisation technology rather than a transformation technology for most organisations. Deloitte finds that 34% are beginning to use AI to deeply transform their businesses, while 30% are redesigning important processes and 37% are making relatively superficial changes.