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Stanford HAI · April 2026

The 2026 AI Index Report

Stanford HAI's The 2026 AI Index Report (April 2026; fielded Data mostly through 2025, some to Mar 2026) found that 88% of surveyed organizations report some form of AI adoption.

Read the original report ↗Cite2 min read · Summary updated
Organizations using AI report innovation gains far more often than profit gainsPercent of respondents whose organizations regularly use AI saying AI improved each measure over the past year, 2025 (McKinsey survey data)
Innovation
64%
Employee satisfaction
45%
Customer satisfaction
45%
Competitive differentiation
45%
Cost
38%
Profitability
36%
Organic revenue growth
33%
Change in market share
25%
Source: Stanford HAI, The 2026 AI Index Report, 2026, p. 196, Figure 4.3.5.

Key findings

  1. 01
    Global corporate AI investment reached $581.7 billion in 2025, up about 130% from the prior year.
  2. 02
    About 70% of organizations use generative AI in at least one business function; AI agent deployment is in single digits across most functions.
  3. 03
    Employment among software developers aged 22–25 fell nearly 20% since 2024, per the report's labor chapter.

By the numbers

88%of surveyed organizations report some form of AI adoption
$581.7Bglobal corporate AI investment in 2025, up 129.9% from 2024
Nearly 20%drop in employment for software developers aged 22–25 since 2024
Most organizations report no AI agent use in each business functionPercent of respondents reporting no AI agent use at all, by function, 2025 (McKinsey survey data)
Manufacturing
91%
Supply chain/inventory management
88%
Strategy and corporate finance
85%
Human resources
82%
Software engineering
77%
Service operations
71%
IT
69%
Knowledge management
66%
Source: Stanford HAI, The 2026 AI Index Report, 2026, p. 198, Figure 4.3.8.

What it means for you Draft

For executives at $10–100M companies

The 88% adoption figure describes mostly large organizations and counts any use, so it says little about whether AI is changing results. The more telling detail for a firm our size is that agent deployment is still in the single digits almost everywhere. There is still time to learn deliberately rather than chase.

Limitations

High trust.Academic, transparent, cites underlying sources; adoption stat comes from a third-party survey skewed to large firms. Publisher does not sell AI.

The headline figure measures the “Tried it” stage of adoption (any use of ai).Why adoption numbers disagree

Cite the original

Stanford HAI. "The 2026 AI Index Report." April 13, 2026. https://hai.stanford.edu/ai-index/2026-ai-index-report

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