DALLAS, Sept. 15, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — ADAPTOVATE, the global business agility and AI transformation consultancy, today released, The Execution Gap: Where Ambition Outpaces Action in the AI Era, a new research study conducted with Wakefield Research surveying 300 C-suite executives, spanning CEOs, CFOs, COOs, CMOs, CPOs, CHROs, CIOs, CTOs, and CISOs, at U.S. and Canadian companies with at least $10 million in annual revenue, on AI transformation readiness.

The report’s central finding challenges how AI transformation stalls are usually explained: as a strategy or leadership buy-in problem. 78% of executives say they already know exactly what their organization needs to do to scale AI. And when Adaptovate asked the same executives an identical question with no mention of AI at all, 81% gave nearly the same answer: their organizations are better at identifying opportunities than acting on them. That instinct-over-follow-through pattern may help explain a trend many industries lived through this year: organizations that acted on AI’s promise by cutting roles, only to find themselves rehiring once the operational reality caught up. AI isn’t creating a new problem, it’s just the highest-stakes pressure test an old one has ever faced.

“After building Adaptovate across ten countries, I’ve now watched two transformations up close — Agile, and now AI — and this data confirms exactly what we see with clients every day: strategy isn’t the constraint anymore, it’s the ability to deliver it,” said Paul McNamara, CEO and Co-Founder of Adaptovate. “The firms that separate themselves over the next two years won’t be the ones with the best AI strategy. They’ll be the ones who stop treating execution as a downstream detail and start engineering for it from day one.”

Executives Are Their Own Canary in the Coal Mine

Executives are more certain about the danger to themselves than the danger to their companies. 83% say their own performance evaluation and job security already depend on their ability to scale AI — 22 points higher than the 61% who believe their company’s failure to embed AI within two years would be existential to the business. The math is personal before it’s institutional: a company can draw on years of data, customer relationships, and IP built over time; an individual has only a resume and a job market crowded with peers all making the same case for why they’re still needed.

That gap is widest, and most surprising, at mid-size companies. Mid-size executives report the same level of personal job-security risk as leaders at large firms (81%), but are 30 points less likely to believe their organization’s risk is existential, landing almost exactly at a coin toss (51%). Individually, they feel their careers on the line. Collectively, they can’t agree the threat to the company is even real.

Pilots Are Working. They Just Aren’t Spreading.

90% of executives are concerned that their most promising AI pilots aren’t scaling broadly across the organization, and 82% say internal gatekeepers — the people and processes that control how AI gets implemented, how models are overseen, and how workflows get redesigned — are actively slowing progress. But the friction may say less about gatekeepers holding pilots back, and more about how few AI pilots come in with the governance, clear metrics, and decision points needed to earn the right to scale. Only 19% of organizations have a company-wide plan to scale what works; 41% rely on a centralized transformation team, and 23% leave it to individual business lines with no throughline connecting them.

The Talent Paradox

55% of executives name a lack of skilled talent as their top barrier to AI progress, ahead of budget (47%), organizational resistance (44%), and unclear strategy (41%). Notably, access to AI tools didn’t register as a barrier at all. But the same executives are chasing talent they expect to become obsolete: 88% believe AI agents will eventually eliminate many of the management roles they’re currently struggling to hire for.

“The execution gap sits in the capability organizations deliberately build and set aside for change, and that’s a different thing entirely from the headcount running the business day to day,” said Ghaleb El Masri, Partner and Toronto Managing Director at Adaptovate. “Until that capability exists, the gap stays open regardless of how much talent or outside expertise an organization brings in.”

Why Change Doesn’t Stick

While 96% of executives have worked with management consultants, only 20% say those strategies were effectively implemented, most often citing poor cultural fit (43%), missing technical expertise (40%), and misdiagnosed problems (35%). Meanwhile, meaningful adoption inside a function typically happens because someone informally decided to own it, not because organizations built a deliberate mechanism for that ownership to hold. Executives are also split on where the friction really lives: 57% point to employees struggling with new workflows, 43% point to managers struggling to implement them. Most transformation plans only address one side.

AI’s Next Line Item

The same capacity gap shows up again in how organizations plan for AI’s cost, not just its rollout. 94% of executives have factored AI token costs into investment decisions, but only 23% do so on a regular, systematic basis. Token cost visibility has outpaced token cost governance; the decisions of what AI capability to build and what it will cost to run are typically made by different people on different timelines, which is how organizations end up approving capabilities they can’t afford to scale.

Conclusion: Execution Is the Strategy

Across scaling, talent, change management, and now cost, the same pattern holds. Adaptovate’s conclusion: the organizations that close this execution gap won’t be the ones with the sharpest AI strategy. They’ll be the ones that treat execution capacity as the primary design problem, not an afterthought. The report includes a four-question framework executives can use to pressure-test their own organization’s readiness:

  1. Where will the business build its own AI capability, and where will it buy it? Category-by-category clarity on build-vs-buy prevents ad hoc, inconsistent decisions later.
  2. Which parts of the business are expected to produce materially more output, rather than simply work with new tools?
    Distinguishes real productivity gains from surface-level adoption.
  3. Which workflows specifically need to run leaner — not just which individuals need to be more productive, but which processes need fewer people or fewer steps? 
    Forces a structural answer instead of an individual-performance one.
  4. Who has the authority to track progress against these decisions and clear blockers when they appear? 
    Without a named owner, even a good plan has no mechanism to move.

The full report, including the complete four-question diagnostic framework,  is available now at Adaptovate.com/AIReport2026.

By the Numbers

  • 78% know what to do; only 19% have a company-wide plan to do it
  • 83% risk of personal exposure vs. 61% company-level existential risk (a 22-point gap)
  • 90% say their best pilots aren’t scaling; 82% blame internal gatekeepers
  • 55% cite talent as the #1 barrier; 88% believe AI will eventually eliminate the roles they’re hiring for
  • 96% hired consultants; 20% say it worked
  • 94% factor AI token costs into investment decisions; only 23% do so systematically

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Adaptovate’s “Execution Gap” report?

A new survey commissioned by Adaptovate and conducted by Wakefield Research, examining why C-suite executives who understand what AI transformation requires still can’t get their organizations to execute on it.

How many executives were surveyed, and who conducted the research?

Wakefield Research surveyed 300 C-suite executives at U.S. and Canadian companies with at least $10 million in annual revenue, on behalf of Adaptovate, between May 28 and June 8, 2026.

What is the “execution gap”?

The distance between an organization’s AI strategy, which most executives say is already settled, and its ability to act on that strategy. 78% of executives know what needs to change; only 19% have a company-wide plan to actually do it.

Is this an AI-specific problem?

No. When Adaptovate asked the same executives an identical question with no mention of AI, they gave nearly the same answer: their organizations are better at identifying opportunities than acting on them. AI isn’t creating a new execution problem, it’s exposing one that already existed in how these organizations turn strategy into action.

What’s the single biggest barrier executives report?

A lack of skilled talent and AI-proficient employees (55%), ahead of budget constraints, organizational resistance, and unclear strategy. Access to AI tools was not cited as a barrier.

What are Adaptovate’s four questions for assessing AI execution readiness?

Where will you build AI capability vs. buy it? Which parts of the business must produce materially more output? Which workflows need to run leaner? And who has the authority to track progress and clear blockers? Adaptovate’s report includes a full diagnostic framework built around these four questions.

What should organizations do about the execution gap?

Treat execution capacity — not strategy — as the primary design problem of AI transformation, and use a structured framework to diagnose where their own organization’s gap is forming.

Methodology

This report was conducted by Wakefield Research on behalf of Adaptovate among 300 C-suite executives at U.S. and Canadian companies with a minimum annual revenue of $10 million USD, between May 28 and June 8, 2026, using an email invitation and an online survey. Quotas were set by country (80% U.S. / 20% Canada) and company size (under 100 employees ~33%; 100 to under 500 employees ~40%; 500+ employees ~27%). Results of any sample are subject to sampling variation; the margin of error for the full sample is plus or minus 5.7 percentage points.

About ADAPTOVATE

ADAPTOVATE partners with organizations to turn strategy into measurable impact. Acting as an extension of your team, we combine local collaboration with global expertise to simplify complexity, accelerate transformation, and build the strategy, technology and people capabilities that help businesses adapt faster by putting people at the center of AI-enabled transformation. The firm operates across 10 countries, including headquarters in Sydney, Australia and Costa Mesa, California, with additional offices in Canada, Poland, the UK, Singapore, and the Philippines. For more information, visit Adaptovate.com

Media Contact:
Kennedy Trinkaus
adaptovate@talkshopmedia.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d0ddfbd8-6d5a-4c8e-af5d-bea80b522852


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