72% of CEOs see AI as competitive edge—IBM study
Businesses worldwide increasingly view artificial intelligence (AI) as a key driver of growth, with 72 percent of CEOs citing advanced and generative AI as their top competitive advantage, according to a new IBM study.
IBM Philippines chief technology officer Felicisimo Torres Jr. says businesses are no longer using AI for isolated tasks, but are integrating it into their broader growth plans.
“Last year, there was really no plan at all by the enterprise on how to scale this up and how to make it a growth factor,” Torres tells reporters. “[Now,] we not only solve a particular business process or business function, but we draw the road map with them.”
The study found that 85 percent of executives expect AI to unlock new business models, though 64 percent believe that adoption, not just technology, will determine success.
Torres adds that companies are increasingly seeing AI as essential to survival.
“Not doing it would mean it’s a matter of survival for enterprises,” he says.
Beyond AI’s role in growth, IBM expects several major developments in the technology by 2026.
Trust in AI will be central, with 95 percent of executives saying it will determine product success.
The study warns that brands risk losing customer trust if they hide their AI use, with 89 percent of consumers saying they want transparency in its adoption. Four in five customers are less likely to trust a brand that conceals its use of AI.
Data sovereignty is also expected to rise, with 80 percent of Asia-Pacific multinational firms projected to adopt sovereignty strategies by 2027. The sovereign cloud market could grow to $169 billion in 2028 from $37 billion in 2023.
IBM expects a rapid adoption of agentic AI—more autonomous systems capable of handling more complex tasks—with 64 percent of respondents saying a combination of humans and multi-agent systems will help them meet strategic goals.
Quantum computing, while still emerging, may also begin to gain ground in 2026, IBM said.
Uneven growth
Despite strong interest from large enterprises, Torres noted that there remain challenges to AI adoption among micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
“One of the challenges that we saw very early on is that they cannot really imagine or visualize how AI plays into their operation,” he says.
Cost is another major hurdle to integrating AI, Torres says. Many MSMEs also continue to operate on paper-based processes, making AI adoption more complicated.
“Enterprises may have their complex needs. In fact, the ones that are in the MSMEs, they’re the more complex because everything is not automated, it’s paper-based, so there’s no data to start with,” Torres says.
For Torrres, lifting MSMEs into the AI ecosystem requires broader cooperation.
“I don’t think IBM will be able to solve that alone. What I’m relying on as an IT practitioner is that the players or the IT vendors who cater to that kind of sector will have a solution that fits all factors like finance, complexity and relevant use case,” he says.
