CEO respondents named the CEO at 84 percent. Finance respondents named the CFO at 61 percent. Technology respondents named the CIO or CTO ahead of every other seat. Every operating seat named itself the signer more often than any other seat named it. We call it the Self-Attribution Effect.

Two outside views break the tie. Investors, looking across whole portfolios with no chair in the fight, put the CEO at 51 percent. The network-wide operator average puts the CEO at 44 percent. So the CEO's lead is real, and it is also smaller than the CEO believes.

Every operating seat named itself the signer more often than any other seat named it. The signature looks closest from the chair that holds it.

The finding is funny until you sit in a budget meeting. If three seats each believe they hold the pen, the AI purchase process is contested even as it consolidates, and the contest explains some of what we see elsewhere in the data: the doubling of unowned decisions, the rise of finance as the fastest-growing sign-off seat, and the seller-side report that the pitch increasingly runs through two doors before it closes.

Ask your own team the question this week. If the answers disagree, the August data says you have company.

Full numbers: CEO AI Leverage Report and Executive AI Leverage Report, August 2026.

Last updated: August 3, 2026

Murray Newlands
Murray Newlands
Founder, Open Future Forum

Murray Newlands has been building executive communities in Silicon Valley since 2019. Open Future Forum hosts private dinners and events for C-suite leaders and board directors navigating the AI era, grounded in a give-first philosophy.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Self-Attribution Effect?
The pattern in which every operating seat names itself the AI signer more often than any other seat names it: 84 percent of CEO respondents name the CEO, 61 percent of finance respondents name the CFO, and the technology seat names the CIO or CTO first.
Who signs off on AI purchases in 2026?
The CEO is the most-named signer at 44 percent of late-July finance-room answers, with the CFO or finance second at 33 percent and rising. Business-unit sign-off is collapsing.
Do investors agree the CEO owns AI buying?
Yes: 51 percent of 245 investor respondents say the CEO increasingly owns the AI buying decision across their portfolios.
Is AI purchasing centralizing?
Yes, but incompletely: business-unit sign-off halved through July while "no single owner yet" doubled to 14 percent.
CEO Research

Ask Your Team the Question

The CEO and Executive AI Leverage Reports, August 2026, carry the full seat-by-seat tables. If your team's answers disagree, the data says you have company.

Read the CEO AI Leverage Report Read the Executive Synthesis