Analysis
McKinsey's 2026 State of AI report, based on a survey of 1,719 professionals and business leaders globally, found that 37% of respondents attribute at least some EBIT impact to AI use -- unchanged from the 2025 survey -- while only 6% qualify as "AI high performers," defined as organizations attributing 5% or more of EBIT to AI with significant impact, also flat year over year, The Register reported.
- 37% -- share reporting any EBIT impact from AI, unchanged from 2025
- 6% -- share qualifying as "AI high performers," also flat
- 80% -- AI users reporting improved individual productivity
- 20% -- cite AI operating costs as a constraint on further AI use
- 40% -- share of $1B-plus revenue companies scaling AI agents, up sharply from 27%
- 39% -- expect AI-driven job cuts, up from 32% in 2025
The gap between the 80% reporting individual productivity gains and the much smaller 37% seeing organizational financial impact is the report's central tension: McKinsey states plainly that "organizations' conviction in AI is growing faster than the immediate financial returns they can attribute to it." Spending keeps climbing regardless -- the share of large companies scaling AI agents jumped from 27% to 40% year over year -- even as the EBIT-impact numbers refuse to move.
The job-cuts expectation trend is worth separating from actual outcomes: 39% of respondents now expect AI-driven headcount reductions, up from 32% last year, but McKinsey notes actual 2025 workforce reductions came in well short of the prior year's predictions, meaning the anticipation of AI-driven layoffs is consistently running ahead of realized ones. Nearly one-third of surveyed companies chose to build AI coding tools in-house rather than buy software, a build-versus-buy split relevant to any startup selling into enterprise AI tooling budgets.
