Survey: IT Leaders Seeing Significant Amounts Of AI Progress
Techstrong.ai, Tuesday, January 27th, 2026
A global survey of 1,244 IT leaders published today finds three quarters (75%) work for organizations that have successfully deployed some type of artificial intelligence (AI) initiative, while another 23% said there have been a mix of success and failure.
Conducted by Hitachi Vantara, a provider of IT infrastructure platforms, the survey also finds that only 1% characterized their AI efforts as being a failure.
However, only 36% said AI is now part of critical functions, while another third (33%) said there is widespread adoption. Additionally, only just over a quarter (26%) rated their AI readiness as strong, while 31% said the quality of their data is also strong.
More challenging still, only 37% said they are able to calculate a return on investment (ROI) in AI. A full 71% said their organization today treats AI investments like a research and development expense. Nevertheless, 68% said AI investments are specifically aligned to revenue, cost savings, or customer experience improvements.