Spanish executives predict that 63% of investment in AI will be allocated to innovation in 2030, compared to the current 47% that focuses on efficiency. It is one of the main conclusions obtained from the new study carried out by the IBM Institute for Business Value, which reveals that eight out of ten (80%) executives surveyed in Spain expect AI to contribute significantly to their income by 2030 – being 36% currently.
Spanish respondents predict that investment in AI will increase by 156% between now and 2030. At the same time, 70% of executives fear that their AI initiatives will fail due to lack of integration with core business activities.
“AI will not only help businesses, it will shape their future,” said Mohamad Ali, senior vice president at IBM Consulting. “By 2030, companies that know how to integrate AI into their decisions and operations will advance faster than their competitors, bring innovation to market sooner, and deliver real, easy-to-measure business results using technology and automation.”
IBM’s global study, titled “The Enterprise in 2030,” is based on information from 2,000 senior executives. Respondents believe AI is emerging as a critical driver of business growth through 2030. The results suggest that future success will depend on companies’ abilities to take on more ambitious bets, even though many executives surveyed face a gap between expectations and results. Among the main findings, the following stand out:
Executives in Spain look beyond the efficiency of AI
• Although currently almost half of spending on AI (47%) is allocated to improving efficiency, Spanish executives predict that in 2030, 63% of investment in AI will be dedicated to innovation.
• More than half of the managers surveyed (54%) consider that, between now and 2030, competitive advantage will come mainly from innovation, rather than from the optimization of resources.
• 72% of executives surveyed plan to reinvest the value generated by AI-powered productivity improvements into business growth and expansion initiatives.
• Managers surveyed expect AI to increase productivity by 42% by 2030, and 80% expect to capture the majority of AI-enabled productivity gains by then.
Competitive advantage will depend on the appropriate technological bets
• While the majority of executives surveyed in Spain (52%) say their competitive advantage will come from the sophistication of the AI model, only 18% have a clear vision of what AI models they will need in 2030.
• 88% of Spanish managers surveyed expect their AI capabilities to be multi-model by 2030, and 64% expect small language models (SLM) to outperform large language models (LLM).
• Globally, surveyed organizations that scale AI across multiple workflows using smaller, custom, and core AI models anticipate 24% productivity gains and 55% higher operating margins by 2030.
Managers surveyed expect AI to increase productivity by 42% by 2030
• Although 52% of respondents in Spain affirm that quantum-based AI will transform their industry by 2030, only 28% expect to use quantum computing by that time, a gap that highlights the opportunity for organizations that get ahead and act today.
AI is redefining leadership and the skills that matter most
• By 2030, surveyed Spanish executives expect 26% of business boards to have an AI-based advisor. Additionally, 92% believe that investing in AI will redefine leadership roles across the organization, and 58% believe that AI will lead to new leadership roles.
• 60% of those surveyed in Spain affirm that jobs are becoming shorter. In this context, 50% expect the majority of current employee skills to be obsolete by 2030, and 72% agree that mindset will be more important than technical skills.
• Additionally, 74% of Spanish executives surveyed expect AI to eliminate resource and skill limitations that currently hold back their organization.
• Globally, organizations that prioritize AI are 48% more likely to create new jobs and 46% more likely to redesign their organizational structure to achieve greater value in AI.
