Most CEOs fear underinvesting in AI. Here’s what they’re missing

Why AI infrastructure keeps winning the budget fight

That’s not where the money is going, though. Infrastructure modernization topped CEOs’ list of technology priorities for 2026, with 40% of respondents naming it their top concern, ahead of upskilling their teams for AI workloads. Tavis said that emphasis on infrastructure over upskilling traces back to how the market rewards executives, particularly in the U.S.

“The market in the way it operates in this late stage capitalism in this country rewards infrastructure investment, but not investing in people,” she said. “In fact, layoffs are the signal to the market that they’re downsizing, they’re becoming efficient. Which is often the opposite of what’s actually going on.”

Tavis cautioned against reading the survey’s aggregate numbers as a single, uniform story. She said the pace of AI adoption, and what companies choose to prioritize within it, varies significantly by industry and even by the personal commitments of individual CEOs.

“I think we’re going to see a different pace at which they’re going to be progressing in their AI adoption journey,” she said. “I think we need to be a little bit more discerning around what industry they represent. The industry really defines how much, and in what particular areas of AI adoption, they’re prioritizing.”

As an example, Tavis pointed to how some large consulting firms have approached the shift differently. She described one government-focused consultancy whose chief learning officer received a mandate to retrain the majority of its consultants within two weeks of ChatGPT’s public release.