KPMG's report: "Global AI Pulse Q2 2026"
• 76% of senior leaders say AI is already delivering meaningful business value, up 12 points in one quarter, yet only 7% say they have reached established ROI.
• Employee resistance to AI rose sharply in the US, jumping from 5% to 20% in one quarter, even as global resistance fell slightly to 14%.
• Enterprise adoption is moving fast: 22% are now embedding AI across their organizations, up from just 13% in Q1, the biggest movement anywhere on KPMG's AI maturity curve.
• Nearly half of organizations, 49%, have already delayed, narrowed or otherwise rephased AI-agent deployments after expected costs began outweighing the value.
• Only 35% have full visibility into AI operating costs, but those organizations report established ROI at 15%, versus just 3% among companies without full cost visibility.
• 78% expect AI fluency to become more important and believe roles will change for employees who fail to develop it, while 71% say they are already making good progress toward an integrated AI-human workforce.
• Access to lower-cost, high-fidelity AI models became the fastest-rising influence on corporate AI strategy, climbing from 15% to 22% in just one quarter.