# Companies Are Spending Trillions on AI, but Nobody Agrees on Who's Actually in Charge of It > A Pearl Meyer survey finds just 34% of C-suite executives are clear on who owns AI decisions, even as global AI spending is set to hit $2.5 trillion this year, according to Fortune. - Source: Money Standard - Canonical URL: https://moneystandard.co.uk/article/companies-are-fighting-over-who-actually-owns-ai-decisions - Author: Money Standard Newsroom - Section: Business - Published: 2026-08-22T01:49:15.781Z - Updated: 2026-08-22T01:49:15.781Z - Tags: Artificial Intelligence --- Companies are pouring unprecedented sums into AI, but a growing body of survey data suggests many of them cannot agree on who is actually in charge of those decisions, according to Fortune. Gartner projects global AI spending will hit $2.5 trillion in 2026, a 44 percent jump from the prior year, with that figure expected to climb further to $3.3 trillion in 2027. A survey from Pearl Meyer found that just 34 percent of C-suite executives say they clearly understand who owns AI decisions within their organization, the lowest confidence level of any group surveyed. Board members reported 53 percent clarity, and senior managers below the C-suite reported 57 percent, a pattern that leaves the executives closest to actually implementing AI the least sure of who has the authority to make the call. The disconnect runs deeper than decision rights. Pearl Meyer's report states plainly that ambition for AI outcomes is currently outpacing the leadership structure needed to deliver on them. CEOs and other C-suite executives largely agree that AI requires significant changes to how their organizations operate, with 88 percent and 79 percent respectively saying so, but only 42 percent of board directors share that view, leaving a wide gap between the people setting strategy and the people expected to execute it. There is a similar mismatch over how much change employees can actually absorb. Sixty three percent of CEOs believe their workforce can take on additional change without becoming overextended, but only 33 percent of C-suite executives and 40 percent of executives outside the C-suite agree, suggesting leadership at the very top may be underestimating the strain that AI driven change is putting on the rest of the organization. Brad Jayne, a principal at Pearl Meyer, warned that this kind of misalignment tends to surface once AI spending has to start justifying itself financially without a clear line to specific outcomes. He said he worries about finger pointing when that reckoning arrives, along with the kind of executive turnover that can follow when nobody is quite sure who owns the results. --- Originally published by Money Standard. Free to cite with attribution and a link to https://moneystandard.co.uk/article/companies-are-fighting-over-who-actually-owns-ai-decisions.