Why are CEOs Developing Their own AI Upskilling Programmes?

Research from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) finds that nearly three-quarters of CEOs say they are their organisation’s primary decision maker on AI, double the number from 2025. 

The research, which surveyed 2,400 executives, including 640 CEOs, finds that leaders are seeing AI integration as a way to transform their organisations’ approach to strategy, operations, culture, risk and talent. 

Working across the business, the CEO is able to more effectively take ownership of these functions and coordinate with the wider management team.

However, this ownership comes with a downside.

Half of CEOs believe their role is at risk if AI innovation does not pay off – particularly as organisations plan to double their spending on AI in 2026, from 0.8% to 1.7% of revenues. 

Developing AI agents for business growth 

As AI capabilities develop, CEOs are becoming more confident in the technology. Four out of five CEOs surveyed are more optimistic about the return on investment on their AI spend than they were in 2025.

When asked why, the vast majority of CEOs cited the growth in AI agents, with nearly all of those surveyed believing these agents will produce measurable results in 2026. 

Leading organisations are deploying AI agents at scale, with Matt Garman, CEO of AWS, announcing at the December 2025 AWS re:Invent conference that the company envisions a future where “billions of agents” are capable of managing complex business processes. 

Sharing his vision on the future of AI agents at the conference, he says: “Frontier agents are a step function change, more capable than what we have today. One, they’re autonomous. You direct them towards a goal and they figure out how to achieve it. Two, they have to be massively scalable.”

The AI trailblazers

CEO attitudes captured in the BCG research suggest leaders are not planning to pull back on their AI strategies. More than 90% of those surveyed are planning to continue investing in AI at current or higher levels in future – even if their investments do not pay off in 2026. 

The research suggests that, despite this prioritisation of AI, the majority of leaders are not effectively engaging with the technology. 

Only 15% of CEOs are what BCG defines as trailblazers – decisive AI champions. These leaders have upskilled nearly three-quarters of their employees, and are defined as being focused on large-scale change.

Most likely to fall into the technology and energy industries, trailblazers are systemic in their approach to AI, making it a top priority. 

By investing at scale and proactively keeping their workforce up to speed with new advancements, BCG believes these CEOs are creating a ‘reinforcing cycle’: adopting faster leads to greater confidence, which in turn rewards the business with stronger returns. 

From there, the business is emboldened to explore new technologies, and the cycle begins anew. 

Trailblazer CEOs are already reporting gains in their productivity, speed and decision quality through AI, according to BCG, and their more agile approach to new technologies places them in a prime position for the next significant shift. 

These groupings are becoming increasingly important. Trailblazers are already reporting gains in productivity, speed and decision quality in areas where they have applied AI systematically. Their mindset and willingness to lead the charge place them in a stronger position as the next wave of AI arrives.

Discussing the BCG report and its findings, Sylvain Duranton, coauthor and Global Leader of BCG X, shares: “CEOs have a defining role in shaping how AI delivers value. The true competitive advantage lies with those CEOs who will reshape functions end-to-end and invent new products and services that drive growth. 

“The fact that nine out of ten CEOs tell us that by 2028 the measure of success for a company will be heavily tilted towards those that are able to get AI right reflects the significant change we are seeing in the market.”