CEOs Are Betting Big on AI — and Rethinking Who Does the Work
Artificial intelligence is no longer a future consideration for the world's largest companies — it is a present-day operational reality. According to a sweeping new survey from EY-Parthenon, the business transformation arm of Ernst & Young, the C-suite is moving faster than ever to integrate AI into every corner of the enterprise. With 1,200 CEOs across 21 countries participating, the findings paint a clear picture: AI investment is accelerating, workforce strategies are being overhauled, and the pressure to upskill and reskill employees has never been more intense.
AI Investment Is Accelerating Despite Uncertainty
One of the most striking findings from the EY-Parthenon CEO Outlook Global Report is that 80% of surveyed CEOs have accelerated their AI investment this year compared to the prior year. This is happening even as many executives acknowledge that the return on investment from AI remains difficult to measure with confidence. Companies are spending big before the benefits are fully proven — a calculated risk that many leaders feel they cannot afford to avoid.
Nearly all CEOs surveyed — a remarkable 99% — expect that AI will fundamentally change their workforce strategy over the next three years. This near-universal consensus signals that AI-driven transformation is not a niche concern limited to tech companies. It touches manufacturing, financial services, healthcare, retail, media, and every other sector represented in the survey.
One CEO from an American media and entertainment company captured the underlying tension well: "AI is moving quickly, and companies are under pressure to keep up without overspending. It is driving competition, lifting expectations for personalization, and demanding investment before the benefits are proven, while also increasing data privacy risks."
That tension — between the urgency to invest and the uncertainty of outcomes — is defining executive decision-making in 2026.
The Skills Gap Is Holding Companies Back
Despite enthusiasm for AI at the top, one of the most significant barriers to generating real value from AI investments lies within the workforce itself. Twenty percent of CEOs identified limited AI skills among employees as a primary constraint to unlocking AI's potential. This is not a minor operational hiccup — it represents a structural challenge that threatens to widen the gap between companies that can execute on AI ambitions and those that cannot.
The skills gap is multifaceted. It is not simply about knowing how to use a specific AI tool. It encompasses data literacy, prompt engineering, the ability to critically evaluate AI-generated outputs, understanding of AI ethics and bias, and the capacity to collaborate effectively with automated systems. These competencies are not built overnight, and most traditional corporate training programs were never designed with them in mind.
Nearly Half of CEOs Are Prioritizing Upskilling and Reskilling
In response to this challenge, 42% of CEOs say they are actively thinking about reskilling and upskilling initiatives to equip their existing workforce with the capabilities needed to work alongside AI. This represents a significant strategic commitment — an acknowledgment that the answer is not simply to hire new talent, but to invest in the people already inside the organization.
Reskilling refers to training employees for entirely new roles, often in response to automation making previous responsibilities redundant. Upskilling, by contrast, involves enhancing existing employees' capabilities so they can take on more advanced tasks in their current functional areas. Both approaches are necessary, and leading companies are pursuing both simultaneously.
Meanwhile, 44% of CEOs are going a step further by redesigning roles altogether — restructuring job functions to combine human judgment and AI capabilities in ways that maximize the strengths of each. This hybrid model of work recognizes that AI is most effective not as a replacement for human workers, but as a force multiplier when paired with skilled, adaptable people.
Redesigning the Human-AI Collaboration Model
The move toward redesigned roles reflects a broader philosophical shift in how companies think about human labor in the age of AI. Rather than asking "which jobs will AI replace?", forward-thinking executives are asking "how can we redesign work so that humans and AI complement each other?" This reframing has profound implications for talent management, organizational design, hiring practices, and learning and development strategy.
Companies embracing this model are investing in what some experts call "augmented intelligence" — environments where AI handles high-volume, repetitive, or data-intensive tasks, while human employees focus on relationship management, creative problem-solving, ethical oversight, and strategic decision-making. The competitive advantage goes to organizations that can make this transition smoothly and quickly.
Regulatory Frameworks Remain a Significant Concern
Even as investment accelerates, many CEOs remain deeply uncomfortable with the regulatory environment surrounding AI. Only 19% of surveyed leaders expressed satisfaction with the AI regulatory frameworks currently in place. This dissatisfaction spans multiple dimensions: concerns about inconsistent rules across jurisdictions, unclear liability frameworks, insufficient guidance on data governance, and the pace at which regulators are moving relative to the speed of AI development.
The regulatory uncertainty adds another layer of complexity to workforce planning. Companies must design training programs and role structures that can adapt not only to technological change, but to shifting legal requirements around AI use, transparency, and accountability.
What This Means for the Future of Work
The EY-Parthenon findings confirm what many workforce strategists have been warning for years: the companies that will win in an AI-driven economy are not necessarily those with the most advanced technology, but those with the most adaptable, AI-literate people. Upskilling and reskilling are not HR activities happening on the periphery of business strategy — they are central to competitiveness.
- Organizations must treat AI fluency as a core workforce competency, not an optional add-on.
- Learning and development budgets need to reflect the urgency that 99% of CEOs say they feel about AI's impact.
- Role redesign should be a collaborative process that involves employees, not something imposed from the top down.
- Companies should build feedback loops between AI deployment teams and frontline workers to continuously refine how human and AI capabilities are combined.
The bottom line is this: AI is changing the nature of work faster than most organizations are changing the way they develop their people. The CEOs who close that gap — by investing seriously in upskilling, reskilling, and thoughtful role redesign — will be best positioned to turn AI spending into sustainable competitive advantage. Those who do not risk falling behind, regardless of how much they spend on technology.
As artificial intelligence continues to evolve, the most important asset any company holds is not its AI platform or its data infrastructure. It is a workforce capable of learning, adapting, and growing alongside the machines they increasingly work with.