A new study by IBM’s Institute for Business Value reveals that the accelerated pace of AI adoption is leading company CEOs to rethink the structure of senior management positions to generate greater business impact throughout the organization.
In the foreword to the IBM study, IBM Vice President Gary Cohn writes: “The role of the CEO has always been to lead in times of disruption. What AI changes is the speed and consequences of leadership.
Successful companies will operate by prioritizing AI, not as a technological layer, but as a new operating model. Decision cycles will become shorter. The boundaries between functions will dissolve. The advantage will go to those who can learn, adapt and act faster than their competitors. IBM’s annual CEO study, which surveyed 2,000 CEOs around the world, reveals that as AI becomes more widespread in businesses, CEOs are under increasing pressure to rethink how management teams operate, how decisions are made, and how organizations are structured.
Among the main conclusions are:
- 82% of the organizations surveyed in Spain now have a CAIO (Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer) in 2026, compared to 22% in 2025 alone. This figure is higher than 76% globally.
- Analysis shows that organizations around the world that have taken an AI-centric approach to building their leadership team have implemented 10% more enterprise-wide AI initiatives than their peers.
- In Spain, 60% of CEOs surveyed say they feel comfortable making important strategic decisions based on information generated by AI, compared to 64% of CEOs around the world.
- 88% of Spanish CEOs surveyed agree that AI sovereignty is essential for business strategy, compared to 83% globally, which points out the importance of having adequate controls as AI takes on an increasingly relevant role at the business level.
- CEOs surveyed in Spain say that only 25% of staff regularly use AI as part of their work – a figure almost identical to the international average of 25% – despite the fact that 83% believe their employees have the skills to collaborate with AI (86% globally).
“AI is changing the way we work, bringing people and software together in new ways, and changing the way people interact in the workplace,” said Mohamad Ali, senior vice president at IBM Consulting. “CEOs who are seeing real results from AI transformation are not only deploying AI faster, they are redesigning their organizations to bring together the best people with the best technology.”
New challenges require different types of leadership
- 83% of respondents in Spain (85% globally) say that all functional managers must become technology experts in their field, indicating that responsibility for AI is expanding beyond specialized positions.
- Among organizations that have a CAIO, all CEOs surveyed worldwide and in Spain expect the influence of this position to increase between now and 2030, as does the influence of all members of the management team.
- 66% of CEOs surveyed in Spain affirm that the influence of the human resources director (CHRO) will increase in the coming years, a figure that exceeds the world average, which is 59%.
As Spanish CEOs turn to AI-based decisions, governance and controls become more important
- By 2030, CEOs surveyed in our country predict that 47% of operational decisions (48% globally) in which consistency and security limits can be codified will be made by AI without human intervention, compared to 23% today.
- 80% of Spanish managers surveyed confirm that they are decentralizing decision-making and distributing responsibility, as AI takes on a more important role throughout the company, a trend that is reflected almost identically worldwide at 79%.
Organizations rely on people to drive AI success
- 85% of CEOs surveyed in Spain affirm that the success of AI depends more on adoption by people than on technology, a vision shared by 83% of CEOs worldwide
66% of CEOs surveyed in Spain affirm that the influence of the human resources director (CHRO) will increase in the coming years
- Between 2026 and 2028, national respondents predict that 28% of employees will need retraining to perform a different role and that 51% will need to upskill to perform their current role more effectively, very similar to the 29% and 53% reported globally.
- Globally, organizations surveyed that have redesigned five key business areas—technology, finance, human resources, operations, and cross-functional collaboration—are four times more likely to have met their business objectives.
- 87% of Spanish CEOs say that talent and technology leadership roles are converging, suggesting closer integration between talent, technology and business strategy, higher than the global average of 77%.
