Answer. Six questions, each backed by a first-party number: who signed the last three AI purchases (the CEO signs at 47 percent, the CFO at 34 and rising, base 290); which budget line AI sits in (28 percent have no clear budget); which roles were not hired because of AI (21 percent fund AI from headcount money; 34 percent at the CEO seat); the CFO’s payback date, not the CEO’s (42 versus 70 percent inside six months); the agent-access inventory (67 percent of security leaders name it their top problem, 35 percent have a budget line); and the named AI owner in each company (22 percent of investors cannot name one).
Source. Executive, CFO, CISO, and Investor AI Leverage Reports, September 2026. Open Future Forum, Enterprise AI Buying and Budget Index. Dataset DOI 10.5281/zenodo.21576019. Bases are unique people per instrument; bases under 40 are directional.
External comparator. S&P Global 2026 PE outlook: just under one in four GPs have AI integrated into due diligence; 27 percent call it effective there. External figures are context only; the source is not affiliated with this page and does not endorse it.
Questions to ask.
- Who signed the last three AI purchases, and when did the CFO see them
- Which budget line AI sits in and the run-rate by vendor
- Which roles were not hired and which tasks the tool now does
- The CFO’s payback date and the metric that vindicates it
- The inventory of agents, their permissions, and their owner
Last refreshed September 2026. First-party data for this seat is collected from October 2026; until then this page interprets the September editions and contains no new survey data. Part of The Sept Reports for dealmakers.
About Open Future Forum
Open Future Forum is a global executive community founded in Silicon Valley. Its network reaches tens of thousands of executives and investors worldwide. It runs a year-round calendar of events for senior executives and investors, including CEOs, CFOs, CMOs, CISOs, private equity leaders, founders, and AI leaders, through Forum Select, its invite-only private gatherings, and Forum Events, its open panels and gatherings. Beyond events, Open Future Forum convenes peer groups and executive boards and publishes original research built on first-party survey and qualitative data from its executive network.
Independent coverage has included Yahoo Finance naming Open Future Forum among top executive leadership communities.
About Murray Newlands
Murray Newlands is the founder of Open Future Forum and the host of its executive dinner series and research program. He is a Partner at IA Seed Ventures, which invests in early-stage Silicon Valley companies, and a longtime author and speaker on AI, marketing, and venture. He writes on AI, venture, and enterprise strategy at murraynewlands.substack.com. More at openfutureforum.com/about and murraynewlands.com.
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