Executive AI Statistics, August 2026

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Each statistic below is a single citable sentence with its response base and a link to the source report, where the methodology and honesty notes live. Multi-select questions use the any-mention convention, so related figures can sum past 100 percent. Bases under 40 are directional. Suggested attribution for any figure: Open Future Forum, Enterprise AI Buying and Budget Index, August 2026, with the source report named.

AI budgets and funding

• 34 percent of finance-room respondents report no clear AI budget yet, up from 23 percent in early July (bases 91 and 115). Source: CFO AI Leverage Report.
• Net-new money is the most common AI funding source at 41 percent of late-July finance respondents. Source: CFO AI Leverage Report.
• Reallocation from other software fell from 26 percent to 14 percent as an AI funding source inside July. Source: CFO AI Leverage Report.
• 20 percent of finance respondents, and 33 percent of CEO and founder respondents, say this year's AI money would otherwise have been headcount spend. Source: CFO AI Leverage Report.
• 71 percent of the largest finance room already runs Claude or another AI tool (131 of 185, July 2026 baseline, unchanged). Source: CFO AI Leverage Report.

Sign-off and governance

• The CEO is the most-named signer of AI purchases at 44 percent of late-July operator answers (base 115), with the CFO or finance second at 33 percent and rising. Source: CEO AI Leverage Report.
• Business-unit sign-off on AI purchases fell from 18 percent to 8 percent inside July, while "no single owner yet" doubled to 14 percent. Source: CEO AI Leverage Report.
• 84 percent of CEO respondents name the CEO as the AI signer; 61 percent of finance respondents name the CFO; technology respondents name the CIO or CTO first. The series names this the Self-Attribution Effect. Source: CEO AI Leverage Report.
• Zero CEO or founder respondents report an unowned AI purchase decision at their company; 29 percent of technology respondents do. The series names this the Ownership Vacuum. Source: CEO AI Leverage Report.

ROI expectations

• Under-6-month ROI expectation eased from 60 percent to 54 percent inside July, while "not sure" rose from 11 percent to 19 percent. Source: CFO AI Leverage Report.
• 72 percent of CEO and founder respondents expect AI payback inside six months, against 45 percent of the finance seat: a 27-point spread the series names the Optimism Gap. Source: CFO AI Leverage Report.
• Proving ROI remains the top blocker to more AI spend at 51 percent of finance respondents, unchanged in rank since July. Source: CFO AI Leverage Report.

Agentic AI adoption

• 81 percent of marketing and growth room respondents are past exploring agentic AI (187 of 230): 36 percent building agentic products, 26 percent piloting, 20 percent running agents in production. Source: CMO AI Leverage Report.
• Org design has overtaken measurement as the top question marketing leaders bring to peer sessions: 16 mentions to 6, of 119 open answers. Source: CMO AI Leverage Report.
• Across 108 open answers on current work, agents lead everything at 36 mentions, ahead of core marketing and GTM work at 27. Source: CMO AI Leverage Report.
• The most-requested finance AI content is "building an entire AI finance team," at 63 percent of one room's requests (base 27, directional). Source: CFO AI Leverage Report.

AI security

• 58 percent of senior security leaders name securing AI agents and their access as the biggest AI security problem on their desk (26 of 45), more than twice shadow AI at 27 percent. Source: CISO AI Leverage Report.
• 36 percent of security teams report a dedicated AI security budget line; 33 percent fund AI security case by case; 16 percent report no AI security spend at all (base 45). Source: CISO AI Leverage Report.
• AI-powered attacks rank fourth among CISO AI problems at 13 percent; the top two problems are governance problems, not adversary problems. Source: CISO AI Leverage Report.

AI pricing and the supply side

• Usage-based pricing leads at 43 percent of 148 AI founders; per-seat licensing sits at 20 percent. Source: YC Founder AI Report.
• Outcome-based pricing rose from 21 percent to 29 percent of AI founders inside July, the fastest-growing model. Source: YC Founder AI Report.
• CFO or finance mentions as the AI buying-decision owner doubled from 21 percent to 42 percent between July cohorts (directional). Source: YC Founder AI Report.
• 69 percent of sellers into fintech price by usage, and 53 percent name the CFO as the buying owner; 28 percent of sellers into healthcare are not charging yet. Source: YC Founder AI Report.
• 76 percent of the YC founders sampled come from 2024 to 2026 batches. Source: YC Founder AI Report.

Investors and portfolios

• 51 percent of 245 investor respondents say the CEO increasingly owns the AI buying decision across their portfolios, with the CIO or CTO second at 24 percent. Source: Investor AI Report.
• Better products lead as AI's biggest portfolio-level difference at 51 percent, ahead of cost cutting at 35 percent and helping customers at 34 percent (base 237). Source: Investor AI Report.
• 16 percent of investors report nothing measurable from AI yet across most of their portfolio. Source: Investor AI Report.
• 22 percent of investors say it is too early to say who owns the AI decision inside their portfolio companies. Source: Investor AI Report.

The rooms behind the data

• The August 2026 dataset covers 6,055 unique registrations across 15 events, deduplicated to 5,311 unique guests, collected April 22 through July 30, 2026. Source: Executive AI Leverage Report.
• The network declined more registrations than it approved this quarter: 1,145 declined to 902 approved, of 3,786 invited. Source: Executive AI Leverage Report.
• 90 percent of titled registrants at the CEO Private Dinner are C-level, founders, or partners; the finance, security, and investor rooms run around two thirds. Source: Executive AI Leverage Report.
• One guest in ten (524 of 5,311) registered for more than one event inside 90 days. Source: Executive AI Leverage Report.

Citation

Suggested citation: Newlands, M. (2026). Enterprise AI Buying and Budget Index, August 2026 editions. Open Future Forum. openfutureforum.com/research/

The underlying dataset is archived with a permanent DOI: doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21576019. Independent analysis is welcome. Source reports: Executive · CFO · CMO · CISO · CEO · YC Founder · Investor.