Businesses are planning to invest more than $644 billion in AI this year. But as trade policy shifts stall investment plans and many early AI tools fall short of their promises, the boom is starting to show cracks. Many executives are under immense pressure to prove these investments will deliver–and fast.
It’s true that external pressures are weighing down on executives; however, the biggest barriers to AI success aren’t about technology or the economy. It’s about alignment. More than half (53%) of CEOs say their teams are struggling to align on strategy. Confidence in AI strategies specifically dropped 11 points since last year.
This isn’t an implementation challenge–it’s a leadership moment. AI offers a once in a lifetime opportunity for leaders to step up and gain an advantage. Our research shows that those companies using the secret sauce of putting people at the heart of their tech implementation can leapfrog.
There is nothing artificial about the secret to AI success. It is about putting people at the centre of the strategy. Human-centric AI will be winning AI.
AI is moving faster than executive alignment
AI has become a daily topic in the boardroom, but not enough leaders are building the personal fluency to truly understand the tools they’re betting their company’s future on. Only a third of executives have developed their own AI capabilities in the last 12 months, even as their organizations pour millions into new tools, pilots, and platforms.
That disconnect creates missed opportunities: when leadership teams develop a shared understanding, AI moves from a siloed initiative to a cross-functional driver of innovation. With greater alignment, companies can scale what works, reduce duplication, and unlock more value from their investments.
While 60% of leaders expect employees to proactively update their skills, roles, and responsibilities to adjust to the impact of AI, many organizations are only starting to build the policies and data foundations needed to guide that journey. Just 34% have a formal policy to guide AI use, and just one third are investing in the data needed to close skills gaps. But that also means there’s a huge opportunity ahead: with the right clarity, leaders can make smarter training investments, introduce AI where it can truly thrive, and create conditions for every employee to grow alongside the technology.
When understanding and foundation are missing, strategies lose momentum, innovation struggles to scale, and trust becomes harder to maintain–not because leaders lack vision, but because they haven’t yet built the shared understanding needed to move forward with confidence.
Leadership fluency, not technical mastery
Executives don’t need to become AI engineers. But they do need to understand how AI changes work, so they can explain it, champion it, and lead teams through it.
Consider how a life sciences company partnered with LHH, a business line of the Adecco Group, to help more than 3,000 leaders adapt to a new AI-powered operating model. Microsoft did the same–it partnered with LHH’s EZRA to develop leadership training for the rollout of Copilot, its enterprise AI assistant. When these widescale organizational changes occur, leaders need to have fluency to adjust accordingly.
The organizations making real progress are the ones doing three things well:
- Investing in AI fluency at the top and rewarding leaders who build it.
- Keeping their entire workforce informed by sharing a clear view of how AI supports the organization’s priorities, and what it means for each worker.
- Using real data, not instinct, to understand where employees are and how to support them.
Yet only 26% of companies have made significant improvements in upskilling and development in the last year, despite technology and digital skills shortages being the top barrier to digital transformation in 2025.
Step in, not aside
The message to leaders is simple: AI won’t wait for you to catch up. But it also won’t replace you, unless someone else who understands it gets there first.
Your strategy is only as strong as your understanding. The most effective CEOs in the AI era will be those who lead with purpose, invest in their own continuous learning, and create data-driven clarity for everyone around them.
This is not just a challenge–it’s an opportunity to build something better. For your company, your people, and the future of work.
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How the Adecco Group is empowering its employees for the future of work
