Despite their willingness to embrace AI-driven decision-making, many CEOs remain dangerously unaware of critical pitfalls. 87% fail to recognize the “AI commodity trap,” expressing confidence pre-built off-the-shelf AI agents will be as effective as custom-built agents for industry or domain specific applications, such as R&D and Go-to-Market strategy. Worse, CEOs estimate that over a third (35%) of their AI initiatives amount to mere “AI washing” for optics and reputation, but offering little to no real business value at all.

AI governance challenges and deficiencies further complicate the landscape. 94% of CEOs suspect employees are secretly using generative AI tools without official approval, in direct violation of most standard AI policies and compliance measures. Meanwhile, 37% report that their AI initiatives have been delayed and 32% report AI initiatives have been canceled/ abandoned entirely — all due to regulatory uncertainty. This only further underscores the need for clearer and more confident frameworks for AI decision planning as regional AI legislation continues to take shape worldwide.