Practically half of huge organisations have narrowed, delayed or paused their AI agent deployments after working prices started to exceed the worth produced, in response to survey findings KPMG revealed on Wednesday, June 24, 2026. Solely 7 p.c of the two,145 senior leaders polled mentioned their organisation had reached established return on funding.

The Global AI Pulse Q2 2026, launched from London, describes a market the place adoption continues to be climbing and the flexibility to show a monetary return shouldn’t be. Deliberate AI funding held at a weighted common of US$188 million over the following twelve months, successfully flat in opposition to the US$186 million recorded within the first quarter. Confidence rose on each measure the research tracks. What didn’t transfer was the share of organisations in a position to say the cash got here again.

The findings resurfaced this month in wider monetary commentary. Reuters Breakingviews columnist Sebastian Pellejero drew on the 7 p.c determine in a bit filed from Las Vegas on August 7, 2026, reporting from the Ai4 convention and describing company decision-makers caught between technological progress and calls for for monetary self-discipline.

Deployment selections flip selective

Essentially the most concrete quantity within the report considerations behaviour somewhat than sentiment. Requested whether or not their organisation had questioned, delayed or scaled again deployment of AI brokers as a result of anticipated prices started to outweigh the worth generated, 24 p.c of respondents mentioned they’d scaled again or narrowed a deployment and 25 p.c mentioned they’d delayed or paused additional rollout. These two classes mix into the 49 p.c headline. An extra 22 p.c mentioned they’d questioned the choice with out altering course. Solely 24 p.c reported that prices and worth remained aligned, and 5 p.c had not but deployed brokers in any respect.

In accordance with KPMG, these actions don’t point out falling confidence within the expertise. The report frames them as a rising willingness to differentiate between deployments that create worth and deployments that don’t, with funding concentrating the place anticipated returns are strongest.

That studying is defensible, however the operational impact on distributors is similar both manner. A narrowed deployment is a smaller contract. A paused rollout is deferred income. For promoting expertise companies promoting agentic functionality into enterprise advertising departments, the survey quantifies a buying sample that has been seen anecdotally for months.

Adoption climbs whereas returns keep flat

The AI maturity curve KPMG makes use of runs throughout six phases, from analysis and improvement by means of to established ROI. The driving-adoption section, outlined as embedding AI throughout the organisation, rose from 13 p.c within the first quarter to 22 p.c within the second, a nine-point bounce described within the report as the biggest motion noticed wherever on the curve.

Each different stage both fell or held. Analysis and improvement dropped two factors to 9 p.c. Experimentation fell three factors to 19 p.c. Strategic planning stayed at 21 p.c. Scaling the expertise declined 4 factors to 22 p.c. Established ROI, the terminal section, slipped one level to 7 p.c.

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The form is uncommon. Organisations moved out of the sooner phases and stacked up within the second-to-last one, with out the ultimate section absorbing them. Confidence measures rose in parallel: 76 p.c of leaders mentioned AI is at the moment delivering significant enterprise worth, up twelve factors from the primary quarter; 78 p.c mentioned they will future-proof their AI technique, up eight factors; and 79 p.c mentioned AI would stay a prime funding precedence even in a recession, up 5 factors.

Significant enterprise worth and established ROI are separate constructs within the survey instrument. The primary captures tangible outcomes similar to productiveness features, value financial savings, income progress and improved decision-making. The second requires that these outcomes demonstrably justify the funding. The gap between 76 p.c and seven p.c is the gap between the 2 definitions.

Simon Benson, Regional AI Lead for ASPAC at KPMG Australia, characterised the shift when it comes to what leaders are asking. “One of many clearest indicators of AI maturity is that the questions change,” he mentioned within the report. “Early adopters ask whether or not they need to transfer ahead. Leaders ask scale.”

Token economics reaches the board

The report attributes a lot of the associated fee stress to token economics, which KPMG defines in a footnote as the best way AI is priced, consumed and managed at scale, with fashions charging by items of textual content, knowledge, reasoning and interplay processed throughout a process.

Visibility into that spending is skinny. Requested how seen the working prices of their AI programs are right now, 35 p.c of respondents mentioned absolutely seen and actively monitored. One other 42 p.c described prices as considerably seen, 13 p.c mentioned prices grew to become seen solely after billing, 8 p.c known as them largely invisible and three p.c have been not sure. Roughly two-thirds of the pattern due to this fact operates with out a full real-time view of what its AI programs value to run.

The related end result hole is the research’s sharpest correlation. Organisations with full visibility into AI working prices reported established ROI at 15 p.c, in opposition to 3 p.c for these with out it, a fivefold distinction.

Controls are being put in erratically. Price assessment as a part of AI approval processes was reported by 54 p.c of organisations and AI cost-monitoring dashboards by 53 p.c. Utilization or token budgets reached 40 p.c, and structure or immediate design requirements 39 p.c. 5 p.c had none of those in place.

Entry to lower-cost, high-fidelity fashions was the fastest-rising affect on AI technique, climbing seven factors from 15 p.c to 22 p.c quarter over quarter. Power use, carbon considerations and macroeconomic situations every rose six factors. Stress to display worth to traders or the board rose from 19 p.c to 24 p.c. Knowledge safety, privateness and danger held at 33 p.c, nonetheless the biggest single concern.

Rob Fisher, International Head of Advisory at KPMG Worldwide, framed the publicity in monetary phrases. “AI is now as a lot a monetary administration precedence as it’s a expertise one,” he mentioned. “The actual danger is not investing in AI however doing so with out value visibility and an understanding of the economics of AI.”

Accountability separates the outcomes

Govt sponsorship is near common within the pattern. Round three-quarters of organisations, 75 p.c, mentioned their chief govt actively owns AI as a strategic precedence. Formal accountability is a special matter.

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Requested who’s in the end accountable for enterprise selections knowledgeable or executed utilizing AI outputs, 24 p.c named the CEO or govt committee and 29 p.c named a selected C-suite govt similar to a chief working officer, chief AI officer or chief data officer. Enterprise unit or perform leaders accounted for 15 p.c. Centralised AI governance or danger committees and shared accountability throughout a number of roles every took 13 p.c. Three p.c mentioned accountability is unclear or not formally outlined, 1 p.c mentioned AI programs function autonomously inside permitted limits, and a couple of p.c have been not sure.

The place the CEO is accountable, outcomes diverge sharply. Confidence within the skill to future-proof AI technique ran at 60 p.c in opposition to 22 p.c. Reported significant enterprise worth ran at 57 p.c in opposition to 21 p.c. Established ROI ran at 14 p.c in opposition to 4 p.c, a distinction of greater than thrice.

Operational governance lags the chief layer. Throughout 4 practices measured within the report, solely round a 3rd of organisations described their preparations as very clear and nicely managed: 35 p.c on accountability for AI knowledge high quality and refresh cycles, 35 p.c on the place people are anticipated to override or appropriate AI outputs, 35 p.c on how simply workers can intervene or pause AI-driven selections, and 34 p.c on understanding the continued working prices of AI as soon as embedded in workflows. Between 1 / 4 and 28 p.c reported unclear preparations or outright gaps in every class.

Samantha Gloede, International Head of Danger Providers and International Trusted AI Chief at KPMG Worldwide, tied the 2 layers collectively within the report, arguing that governance can now not sit on the sidelines and that the organisations creating probably the most worth are constructing accountability into how selections get made.

Workforce knowledge cuts in opposition to the pattern in a single market

Worker adoption of AI brokers rose from 25 p.c to twenty-eight p.c globally, whereas reported resistance declined to 14 p.c. America moved the opposite manner, with resistance rising from 5 p.c to twenty p.c. KPMG notes the distinction with out providing a proof for it.

Elsewhere the workforce indicators level upward. Seventy-one p.c of organisations reported good progress towards a completely built-in AI-human workforce, up eleven factors from the primary quarter, and 78 p.c anticipated AI fluency to develop into extra essential, with roles altering for workers who don’t develop these capabilities.

Priorities shifted in an identical course. Productiveness features fell seven factors to 35 p.c as a acknowledged AI precedence and sooner, higher selections fell 5 factors to 36 p.c. Human-AI collaboration and fluency rose to 30 p.c, accountable AI and governance to twenty-eight p.c, adaptability and resilience to twenty p.c, and ecosystem and partnerships to 16 p.c.

Benedikt Höck, Regional AI Lead for EMEA at KPMG in Germany, put the emphasis on work design somewhat than deployment. “The following problem shouldn’t be deploying AI. It’s redesigning work for a world the place people and AI function collectively,” he mentioned within the report.

The place the supply paperwork diverge

Three inconsistencies throughout the revealed supplies are price recording.

The press launch describes the pattern as “greater than 2,000+ enterprise leaders throughout 20 nations at organizations with annual revenues exceeding US $50+ million.” The KPMG internet web page for the report says greater than 2,100 senior leaders. The methodology part of the report itself specifies n=2,145 and units eligibility at US$50 million or extra in income for the worldwide pattern, with the US monitoring pattern utilizing US$1 billion or extra. The press launch footnotes add an extra tier, citing a US$100 million threshold for Canada, america, the UK, China, Germany, India, Japan, Singapore, Korea and Saudi Arabia.

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On accountability, the press launch states that 24 p.c of leaders say the CEO is accountable for AI-driven enterprise outcomes “whereas 29 p.c level to the broader C-suite.” The report chart defines that second class extra narrowly as a named C-suite govt accountable for AI outcomes.

On value literacy, the press launch highlights cite 33 p.c of leaders reporting restricted understanding of utilization prices as a deployment problem for AI brokers. The report physique attributes the identical one-third determine to AI value and financial literacy abilities as a problem, with a separate 29 p.c reporting issue understanding and controlling working prices as programs scale. The press launch additionally introduces a 23 p.c determine for leaders battling usage-based prices and a 42 p.c determine for partial visibility into AI spending, neither of which seems within the report deck.

The survey was fielded on-line between April 28 and Might 25, 2026, throughout 20 nations, territories and jurisdictions, overlaying respondents at managing director stage or above, with greater than 40 p.c drawn from the C-suite.

The KPMG knowledge lands on a query the promoting business has been circling for many of 2026: who pays for inference, and the way is it billed.

Company holding corporations have began treating AI tokens as a margin business, negotiating wholesale charges with mannequin suppliers and reselling capability to shoppers at a markup, in a construction that mirrors principal media shopping for. Omnicom chief govt John Wren informed analysts on July 29, 2026 that the market has not but seen what AI truly prices, with the group reporting third-party service prices of virtually $2.9 billion within the first half of 2026 in opposition to $1.7 billion a yr earlier. PMG has deployed a instrument throughout its enterprise beneath a $50-a-day token cap per user.

Engineering groups are attacking the identical invoice from the structure facet. A Dutch company revealed a diagram in August arguing that agentic media shopping for inherited the mistaken chain of command, collapsing twelve separate protocol calls into a single buyer agent to carry context load down. The income facet of that equation stays modest: Magnite chief govt Michael Barrett placed 2027 protocol-based advertising spend somewhere below $700 million, a determine he characterised as small in opposition to whole programmatic quantity.

Purchase-side analysis has been converging on the identical ratio KPMG measured. TransUnion analysis revealed on August 5, 2026 discovered only 53 percent of senior US marketing leaders reporting meaningful ROI from AI whereas 89 p.c count on to extend AI spending over the following 12 to 24 months. Gartner forecast in June 2025 that more than 40 percent of agentic AI projects would be cancelled by the end of 2027, naming escalating prices and unclear enterprise worth among the many causes. Typeface knowledge revealed in June 2026 discovered AI had made campaign cycles slower rather than faster for advertising operations groups.

The governance half of the image has been measured too. DigiCert analysis revealed on July 7, 2026 discovered 78 percent of organisations had experienced an AI-related security incident or vulnerability whereas roughly half lacked formal governance. Sector-level returns range: Snowflake knowledge revealed in March 2026 confirmed advertising and media firms outperforming every other industry on generative AI returns, which suggests the 7 p.c world determine understates the place of some advertising organisations whereas flattering others.

On the Ai4 convention in Las Vegas, held from August 4 to August 6, 2026 and drawing greater than 12,000 attendees from over 90 nations in response to organisers, software program group Dataiku described an audit that discovered greater than 400 self-directed AI brokers inside a consumer organisation whose chief data officer had anticipated roughly 40, in response to the Reuters Breakingviews account. That hole between assumed and precise agent counts is the operational model of the visibility downside KPMG measured. The place funds house owners can not see what number of brokers are working, the token invoice arrives as a shock.

Steve Chase, International Head of AI and Digital Innovation at KPMG Worldwide, summarised the research’s central division. “We’re seeing a transparent divide between organizations with management accountability on the prime and people with out,” he mentioned. “These corporations are seeing materially higher outcomes throughout the board.”

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Timeline

Abstract

Who: KPMG Worldwide surveyed 2,145 C-suite and senior enterprise leaders with direct information of AI use at their organisations. Findings have been introduced by Steve Chase, International Head of AI and Digital Innovation, and Rob Fisher, International Head of Advisory, with commentary from regional AI leads Simon Benson, Benedikt Höck and Priya Emmanuel, and from Samantha Gloede, International Head of Danger Providers.

What: The International AI Pulse Q2 2026 discovered 49 p.c of organisations had scaled again, narrowed, delayed or paused AI agent deployments after anticipated prices started to outweigh anticipated worth, whereas solely 7 p.c reported established ROI. Deliberate AI spending held at a weighted common of US$188 million over twelve months. Organisations with full visibility into AI working prices reported established ROI at 15 p.c in opposition to 3 p.c for these with out.

When: Fieldwork ran on-line from April 28 to Might 25, 2026. The report and accompanying press launch have been revealed on June 24, 2026. Reuters Breakingviews cited the 7 p.c ROI determine on August 7, 2026 in protection of the Ai4 convention, held in Las Vegas from August 4 to August 6, 2026.

The place: The survey lined 20 nations, territories and jurisdictions: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China together with Hong Kong SAR and Taiwan, France, Germany, India, Eire, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and america. The press launch was issued from London.

Why: The findings matter to advertising and promoting organisations as a result of they put a quantity on a buying sample that has been reshaping agentic advert tech procurement by means of 2026. Enterprise patrons aren’t abandoning AI, with 79 p.c saying it will stay a precedence even in a recession, however they’re narrowing deployments the place the working value can’t be traced or justified. For distributors promoting agent-based marketing campaign administration, retail media assistants and generative inventive tooling, value transparency and demonstrable return have develop into gating situations somewhat than differentiators. For businesses now reselling mannequin capability, the survey signifies that the client-side scrutiny of these expenses is already beneath manner.


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