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There’s a gap between optimism and execution when it comes to technology investments, AI achievements, and measurable innovation in company operations, according to PwC’s 2026 Digital Trends in Operations Survey.
In fact, 85% say they’re ahead of most competitors in digital transformation, yet 89% say their tech investments haven’t fully delivered the expected results.
“Done right, however, AI could—and should—be an equalizer,” the study says. “Competitive advantage won’t come from isolated pilots or incremental upgrades but by moving from fragmented progress to bold, integrated reinvention.”
Key takeaways:
- More than four-fifths (83%) of respondents say AI agents and automation will accelerate the breakdown of traditional functional silos. But only 27% have fully embedded an AI strategy across business units, and just 37% are comfortable assigning AI agents to execute full end-to-end processes in operations.
- While data foundations are stronger, only 30% report significant improvement in data quality and reliability, and 87% say poor data quality has hampered their progress in achieving value for digital initiatives.
- Nearly all intend to reorganize their operations, but while 94% of those with siloed or partially integrated operating structures expect to shift toward a more horizontal, networked model, only 41% of companies operate that way today.
- 72% rank automating operations as a Top 3 AI investment focus. 30% rank scalability of solutions and end-to-end capabilities among the Top 3 outcomes when evaluating ROI from digital investments, and just 24% rank reducing enterprise complexity as a top 3 factor influencing their build versus buy decisions when investing in digital operations or supply chain technologies.
- 89% of respondents give at least one reason why tech investments haven’t fully delivered the expected results, and a substantial majority cite integration complexity tops, data issues and user adoption challenges.
- An overwhelming majority agree or strongly agree that emerging AI and cloud technologies allow organizations at any level of digital maturity to leapfrog industry leaders (91%), and that affordable cloud- and AI-enabled data tools help smaller firms reach parity with digital leaders (93%).
- Only about half (51%) of all respondents say their companies establish a clean, structured data foundation before scaling digital initiatives, while 60% tell us that poor data quality has had some impact on achieving value for those initiatives.
- But 58% say improvement is only slight, and only 30% say it’s significant.
- Most respondents agree that actionable data is more important than comprehensive data (89%) and that they’ve become comfortable making decisions even when data isn’t perfect (84%). In addition, 73% agree that data doesn’t need to be perfect to drive value.
- More than four-fifths (83%) of survey respondents say AI and automation will accelerate the breakdown of traditional functional silos. But this survey also found multiple barriers to achieving a horizontal, networked organizational model.
- Only 41% of all respondents say their companies operate with collaborative, horizontal structures today.
- Just 4% report success in AI fully embedded enterprise-wide, no significant barriers to scaling autonomous agents, a collaborative and horizontal operating structure, and technology investments that are fully delivering expected results.
- 87% of leaders say their companies have integrated digital capabilities end to end, enabling technologies to operate across workflows of internal teams, suppliers, and customers rather than inside functional silos.
- 73% have achieved broad organizational impact from digital investments.
- 74% deploy AI-native or agentic platforms in R&D.
- 83% measure both operations and financial impact of recent digital investments.
- 63% say the overall quality and reliability of their data has significantly improved in the past 2-3 years.
