Deloitte report: AI is shifting from pilot and experimentation to scaling

Rotterdam, 21 January 2026

The Deloitte AI Institute today unveiled the 2026 edition of its "State of AI in the Enterprise" report. The report describes how organizations are currently engaging with AI and the impacts, changes, and considerations this technology is introducing. The findings are based on a survey of over 3,000 executives worldwide with direct involvement in their companies' AI initiatives. The report explores AI's transformational potential and momentum, with critical actions for leaders to consider as they continue their AI journey.

"Across the enterprise, we're seeing massive ambition around AI. Organisations are starting to pivot from experimentation to integrating AI into the core of the business. 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." – Nitin Mittal, wereldwijd AI‑lead bij Deloitte.

"Organisations succeeding with AI aren't just investing in automation and algorithms, they're investing in their people. By strengthening both the capabilities of their talent and their AI tools, teams can adopt new ways of working and create sustainable competitive advantage." – Jorg Schalekamp, AI lead Deloitte Nederland. 

Bridging the pilot-production gap

Moving from pilot to production is a crucial step in capturing AI value. The survey found that only 25% of respondents have moved 40% or more of their AI pilots into production. Organisations are faced with competing priorities: the need to run their core business with current technology while 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.

Redefining AI's value beyond productivity

AI's real-world 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: AI should not only optimise existing processes but also enable fundamentally new possibilities for the business.

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.