Few companies have a documented AI strategy despite rising investments

Nearly 90% of companies plan to increase AI investment over the next three years, but only 9% have a basic AI vision statement in place, a late 2023 Gartner survey found. That gap has narrowed slightly: 14% of Global 2000 organizations now claim a documented AI strategy, according to a 2026 HFS Research and Altimetrik survey. Without a clear vision, organizations risk pouring resources into the wrong projects and facing legal liabilities down the road.

An AI vision statement helps companies align AI objectives with business goals, prioritize investments, and build a shared understanding of why and how AI will be used. This alignment lies at the heart of AI for Executives & Strategy. Save the Children CTO Ron Guerrier said the absence of a vision can create legal exposure. "We live in hyper-competitive society, where shareholder value still drives a lot of what we think and do. Envision a time when you're sitting in a deposition and someone asks how confident you were in leveraging AI to make a final decision," Guerrier said.

If AI makes a decision that regulators or auditors later scrutinize, organizations without a documented rationale for their AI use could face trouble. "If you feel like you can get past that audit or regulatory definition in two or three years, then that's the barometer we can use to question ourselves because the technology has grown so fast that the legal world hasn't caught up," Guerrier said.

The cost of skipping the AI vision

An AI Vision Working Group in Sweden, composed of business and public sector leaders, warned that operating without a vision means companies risk focusing too little on the most valuable projects or spending on the wrong ones. The pressure to adopt AI quickly, driven by the need to boost revenue and cut costs, makes a deliberate approach even more critical.

A three-phase framework for AI adoption

Satya Jayadev, former CIO at Skyworks Solutions and now CIO at Sandisk, advocates a three-phase approach to building an AI vision. The first phase targets productivity-using AI to reduce time, cut costs, and improve efficiency through tools like Microsoft Copilot for summarizing emails, generating reports, or assisting with code.

The second phase is differentiation. Here, companies use AI to distinguish themselves from competitors, capture more market share, or develop a faster go-to-market strategy. The third phase, still evolving as generative AI matures, is disruption, where the technology enables fundamentally different ways of designing, engineering, and manufacturing. "How can we use it to create a new way of doing something, rather than a different way of doing it," Jayadev said.

The CIO as change agent

Navigating the disruption phase falls squarely on the CIO, who must evolve beyond traditional IT operations. Jayadev said thought leadership becomes the most important ingredient. "The entire organization has to be the change agent," he added. For CIOs looking to sharpen this skill set, an AI Learning Path for CIOs offers a structured approach.

Guerrier believes the CIO role itself must transform. "CIOs will hate me for saying it, but what they need to do now is transform," he said. This goes beyond title changes-it demands a shift in focus toward data and away from solely managing IT infrastructure and legacy systems.

Why this matters for Executives and Strategy

An AI vision does more than guide investment-it protects against legal and operational missteps. Organizations that treat AI as a force multiplier, not just a cost-cutting tool, can build faster go-to-market and operational strategies. For executives, the message is clear: without a codified AI vision, today's spending could become tomorrow's liability.