The State of AI in the Enterprise: The Untapped Edge

The Deloitte AI Institute unveiled its “The State of AI in the Enterprise: The Untapped Edge  - 2026 AI report” revealing how organisations are currently engaging with AI and the impacts, changes and considerations this technology is introducing. For this report, Deloitte surveyed 3,235 business and IT leaders across 24 countries, at director to C-suite-level members with direct involvement in their companies’ AI initiatives during August and September 2025.

The study explores AI’s transformational potential and momentum, with critical actions for leaders to consider as they continue their AI journey. It goes on to unveil how AI is quickly moving from experimentation to broad deployment, yet the “untapped edge” of AI’s potential remains, as only a minority of organisations are operationalising AI at true enterprise scale or fundamentally redesigning work and business models. It goes on to identify key challenges and offers actionable steps for leaders looking to activate AI at scale, reimagine work, and build competitive advantage in a landscape where technology adoption is now a core element of strategy and resilience.

“Across the enterprise, we’re seeing massive ambition around AI, with organisations starting to pivot from experimentation to integrating AI into the core of the business with a focus on scale and impact. As organisations look to unlock AI’s full value, leaders should enable enterprise value by consciously weaving AI into the fabric of their business workflows and through the better coupling of people and machine intelligence”, says Nitin Mittal, Deloitte Global AI leader.

Bridging the pilot-production gap

Moving from pilot to production is a crucial step in capturing AI value, yet while AI experimentation is accelerating, the survey found that only 25% of respondents have moved 40% or more of their AI pilots into production. However, the pathway to value appears to be clear and achievable, with 54% expecting to reach that level in the next three to six months. Organisations are faced with competing investing in the innovation required to compete in the future. Communicating a clear strategy can help reduce “pilot fatigue” and move AI deployments past experiment mode.

Reimagining AI’s value beyond productivity

AI’s real-world business impact is rising fast, with 25% of leaders reporting that AI is having a transformative effect on their companies; more than double from a year ago. Productivity gains are widespread, but only 30% of organisations are redesigning key processes around AI and 37% report only using AI at a surface level with little or no change to underlying business processes. Success with AI will likely hinge on achieving strategic differentiation and lasting competitive edge, which means using AI to reimagine what is possible for the business rather than optimising what already exists.

For Agentic AI, governance and growth go hand in hand

Agentic AI is poised for growth with close to three-quarters of companies planning to deploy Agentic AI within two years. Yet only 21% of those companies report having a mature model for agent governance. Companies seeing the most success are taking a measured approach, starting with lower risk use cases, building governance capabilities and scaling deliberately. In the AI era, governance is more than guardrails—it’s the catalyst for responsible growth.

Physical AI and sovereign AI on the rise

Resilience in the age of AI increasingly depends on sovereign AI readiness, and organisationsare taking note. Today, 77% of companies now factor country of origin into their vendor selection and nearly 3 in 5 now build their AI stacks primarily with local vendors. Physical AI is rapidly becoming integral to operations worldwide, with manufacturing, logistics and defence leading the way globally. Adoption is projected to hit 80% within two years, setting the pace for the next wave of industrial automation.

The Stateof AI report is available for download here.