Answer. The CEO, by two independent reads: 47 percent of finance-lane operators name the CEO as the signer of a new AI purchase (base 290) and 51 percent of investors say the CEO increasingly owns the decision across their portfolios (base 245). The CFO is named by 34 percent, rising to 43 percent in the August cohort. In 11 percent of companies no single seat owns it, and that share is 2 percent at the CEO seat and 30 percent at the technology seat, which means the vacuum is least visible from the top.
Source. Executive AI Leverage Report, Investor AI Report, 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. BCG AI Radar 2026: 72 percent of CEOs say they are the main decision maker on AI. External figures are context only; the source is not affiliated with this page and does not endorse it.
Questions to ask.
- Ask each seat separately who owns it; compare the answers
- Check whether the technology seat reports an unowned decision
- Confirm the CFO has seen every AI purchase over a threshold
- Name an owner and a metric on the same day
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.
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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.
Work These Questions with Dealmaking Peers
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