- Almost all companies plan to increase investments in AI next year
- Hybrid AI popular to address regulatory and privacy issues
- The biggest priorities for the coming year include AI PCs and agent AI.
New data from Lenovo has claimed that we are actually at the stage of widespread AI adoption, where almost half (46%) of proof of concepts are already in production and the majority (96%) of companies plan to further increase investments in AI.
However, just over a quarter (27%) have a comprehensive governance framework in place, suggesting investments are not being looked at holistically – and this could spell disaster given the potential scale expected in the future, with some CIOs projecting returns on investment of up to 179%.
And it’s not just weak governance that could present obstacles: poor data quality, legacy systems and skills shortages threaten to prevent companies from realizing the full benefits of AI.
CIOs predict huge return on investment in AI, but they are not prepared. What’s next?
Organizations have been aware of the obstacles for a long time, with countless other studies highlighting the same factors, but we are only now starting to see companies lay the framework for addressing the challenges and hybrid AI is emerging as a front-runner 62% of the time.
This approach addresses concerns about data privacy and sovereignty, security and compliance, and flexibility to optimize infrastructure in the cloud, on-premises, and at the edge, Lenovo notes.
Looking ahead, CIOs see local inference as essential to improving productivity, reducing latency and improving security, with AI-enabled PC deployment emerging as the number one IT investment priority in 2026.
Moving from generative to agent AI is also another goal for 2026, as only one in five (21%) CIOs use agent AI at scale today.
“As AI priorities shift toward agent AI, the next phase will not reward experimentation, but rather will reward those able to put AI into practice in hybrid environments with built-in confidence and scale,” summarized Lenovo Solutions and Services Group President Ken Wong.
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