Companies have more than doubled their spending on artificial intelligence (AI) in less than a year, as businesses increasingly treat the technology as a company-wide investment rather than an experimental IT project, according to new research by Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
Corporate AI spending has risen from about 1.7% of revenue in late 2025 to 3.3%, with more than 80% of the spending now taking place outside enterprise IT budgets, BCG said in its Applied AI Index 2026.
The findings are based on a survey of 1,330 C-suite executives and senior business leaders.
Companies are beginning to see value from AI
The research found that nearly half of companies are now generating meaningful value from AI, challenging the view that large-scale corporate investment in the technology has yet to produce significant returns.
Michael Grebe, managing director and senior partner at BCG, said companies that continue to treat AI solely as an IT expense may be underestimating both the scale of investment and the potential returns.
The shift suggests that AI is increasingly being funded and deployed across business functions rather than being limited to technology departments.
AI skills spreading beyond technology companies
The increase in spending is also changing where companies develop AI capabilities.
Jeff Walters, managing director and senior partner at BCG, said non-technology companies are increasingly developing capabilities that were previously concentrated in technology businesses.
These include product management and workflow design, as businesses need employees who can identify which processes should change and determine what AI agents should be built to perform them.
“The agentic and software toolkit is now so important, no matter what industry you’re in,” Walters said during a briefing on the report.
He said the shift is visible across industries, including mining and offshore oil, where AI capabilities are becoming increasingly relevant despite those businesses not traditionally being technology-driven.
AI could reshape corporate workforces
The growing use of AI is also expected to change the composition of corporate workforces.
Companies surveyed by BCG expect overall headcount to decline by about 10% to 15% by 2030, while the share of workers in dedicated AI-related roles is expected to increase from 7% in 2026 to 22%.
Walters cautioned that the figures should not be interpreted as a forecast that economies will lose 10% to 15% of all jobs.
Instead, they reflect what companies currently expect based on their experience with AI. The eventual impact, he said, will depend on how existing jobs change and what new roles emerge.
Middle management faces pressure
The research suggests that AI-related workforce changes could be concentrated around coordination and middle-management tasks.
At the same time, demand is expected to grow for workers with the skills to design AI-powered workflows, build and manage AI agents, develop AI systems and architecture, and establish safeguards for autonomous AI. Companies will also need professionals who can determine how best to integrate AI into existing business processes.
This points to a shift in the skills companies may prioritise as AI becomes more deeply embedded in everyday operations.
Companies face an AI governance challenge
The rapid deployment of AI is also creating concerns around governance and control.
BCG found that 42% of companies expect to give AI agents genuine decision-making authority by 2030.
However, only 5% currently have the full set of controls required to deploy such systems safely.
Walters said companies will need to strengthen safeguards around autonomous AI while ensuring that governance requirements do not become a barrier to useful deployment.
AI becomes an enterprise-wide investment
The findings point to a broader change in how companies approach artificial intelligence.
Rather than treating AI as a technology expense controlled primarily by IT departments, businesses are increasingly allocating capital across departments, redesigning workflows and building new capabilities around the technology.
For workers, the shift could mean greater demand for AI-related skills and new roles, alongside pressure on some traditional coordination and management functions.
For companies, it means that decisions about AI are increasingly becoming decisions about how the entire organisation operates, spends money and structures work.
Source: Businessday