Cisco AI Research reveals that business leaders are increasingly optimistic about artificial intelligence, but many fear they are not investing quickly enough to keep pace with its rapid evolution.

According to Cisco’s latest study, 91% of CEOs are more optimistic about AI’s potential than they were a year ago. At the same time, 65% now worry they are underinvesting in the technology, up from 53% in 2025. Furthermore, 69% of CEOs believe AI adoption is now mandatory for modern businesses.

The findings come from Cisco’s second annual CEO survey, which gathered insights from 2,500 CEOs across 23 countries. The study explores how leaders view AI, what they expect from it, and the challenges they face when scaling deployments.

As organizations prepare for the future, CEOs increasingly see AI becoming part of the workforce rather than replacing employees. Deploying AI agents to work alongside staff ranks among the top three priorities for 2026.

By 2030, nearly all CEOs expect AI to play a role in business operations. However, most do not foresee AI operating independently. Instead, 72% envision AI supporting or executing tasks under human direction, judgment, or governance.

Business leaders cite several reasons for maintaining human oversight. These include ensuring security, improving productivity within human-AI teams, and addressing ethical considerations around AI-driven decisions. One CEO summarized the approach by saying organizations should move quickly with AI while keeping decisions anchored in human values.

Meanwhile, CEOs have become significantly more confident in their understanding of AI. The share of leaders who said limited AI knowledge held them back in boardroom discussions fell to 47%, down from 74% a year earlier. Similarly, the proportion who believed a lack of understanding prevented informed decision-making declined from 74% to 49%.

However, growing confidence has also highlighted the complexity of successful AI implementation.

Infrastructure remains a major concern. More than half of CEOs, 53%, fear infrastructure limitations could slow their AI ambitions. As a result, upgrading infrastructure to support AI workloads has become the top priority for 2026. Upskilling employees for AI readiness closely follows on the agenda.

At the same time, trust remains a significant challenge. As organizations accelerate plans to deploy AI agents, security and control of these autonomous systems have emerged as CEOs’ leading concern.

Data issues are also limiting progress. Around 34% of CEOs identify fragmented data, along with challenges related to data quality, accessibility, and centralization, as the biggest obstacle to achieving successful AI outcomes.

Notably, these concerns align with findings from Cisco’s 2026 AI Readiness Index, which surveyed more than 8,000 IT leaders worldwide.

The index found that fewer than a quarter of organizations, 22%, believe their networks are fully optimized for AI workloads. In addition, only 31% feel prepared to secure and manage AI agents effectively. Furthermore, just 19% report having fully centralized and AI-accessible data.

Organizations that have successfully addressed infrastructure, security, and data challenges are gaining a competitive advantage. Meanwhile, those that have not risk falling behind as AI adoption accelerates.

The research was conducted in January 2026 among 2,500 CEOs from companies with more than 250 employees across Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, South America, and Africa. The findings from Cisco AI Research highlight both the growing confidence in AI and the urgent need for stronger infrastructure, security, and data foundations to support its future growth.

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