AI leadership: The ultimate competitive advantage in 2026 and beyond

Carlos Galve and Yuji Shono, Co-Leads, NTT DATA Global AI Office

If AI still feels like a future concern, you’re already behind. It’s embedded in organizations of all sizes, in every industry. And our latest research shows that those that have aligned their AI and business strategies are fast outpacing others in growth, margins, resilience and innovation.

NTT DATA’s 2026 Global AI Report: A Playbook for AI Leaders is based on comprehensive research spanning 35 markets, 15 industries and 2,567 decision-makers, 79% of whom hold C-suite positions.

A clear pattern emerging from the data is that AI leaders don’t treat AI as a side project but as core to the business itself. For them, AI doesn’t support their business strategy; it is the strategy.

These top performers aren’t just using AI to automate a few tasks or experiment on the edges — they’re rethinking how decisions are made, how products are designed and how teams work.

AI leaders are seeing business results

Our report classifies organizations as AI leaders if they have an AI strategy that is well-defined or in progress, a “mature” or “evolved” level of AI maturity*, and significantly higher profits realized from implementing AI than their peers. AI laggards are on the opposite side of the scale.

It’s evident from this select group that leading with AI isn’t about deploying more models or chasing the latest breakthrough. Rather, it’s about building an AI foundation that truly benefits the business and focuses on end-to-end change, leading to stronger growth, greater resilience and a clear edge over competitors.

Think of supply chain controls that anticipate and adjust for disruption before it hits, customer experience systems that adapt in real time instead of weeks later, or teams that spend less time wrestling with data and more time using that data to make decisions that matter. This is what happens when AI is designed to be strategic, responsible and human-centered from the start.

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AI requires organizations to rethink and rebuild

AI is increasingly becoming the system that organizations run on. This calls for a rethink of the fundamentals — how pricing decisions are made and risks are identified, or how customers’ needs are anticipated before they even pick up the phone or send an email.

In many cases, this means rebuilding core systems and processes, modernizing aging infrastructure and putting guardrails in place so AI can scale without creating new problems.

What’s also important is determining how AI gets woven into everyday decisions and behaviors. Teams need to trust the outputs, and leaders need to know when to push innovation and when to slow it down.

The organization as a whole has to agree on what “responsible AI” actually means in practice, not just in policy documents.

Characteristics that set AI leaders apart

Our research reveals nine distinguishing characteristics of AI leaders. These include:

1. Strategic alignment

AI is embedded in every business decision, not treated as a separate initiative. Leaders ensure that AI capabilities directly support their strategic priorities and create measurable business value.

What the report shows: 83.6% of “fully aligned” organizations report a profit increase of 5% or more from AI, compared with 58% of those that say they’re “not aligned.”

2. Infrastructure readiness

Forward-thinking organizations invest in sovereign and private AI solutions, in combination with spending to reduce technical debt, leading to strengthened data security and better-maintained operational control. This ready infrastructure forms the foundation for scalable, sustainable AI deployment.

What the report shows: 59.4% of AI leaders flag cross-geography data privacy or sovereignty as a top governance concern, while just 49.6% of AI laggards do the same.

3. Governance at scale

Centralized oversight — often under the Chief AI Officer or the CEO — signals AI’s strategic importance. Leaders establish clear frameworks for accountability, ethics and risk management that evolve alongside AI capabilities. Built-in governance allows for more agile AI adoption and scale.

What the report shows: 55.9% of AI leaders follow a centralized AI governance model, compared with 37.6% of other organizations and just 33.3% of AI laggards.

4. Hybrid workforce enablement

The future workplace will more closely integrate human expertise and AI agents. This requires new approaches to talent development, frameworks for the ethical use of AI, and workplace design that will empower employees while extending their capabilities.

What the report shows: 45.3% of AI leaders use effective change management to scope, scale and embed AI in workflows, while just 37.3% of other organizations do the same.

The evolving role of the board

Boards are stewards of responsible innovation. As AI agents take on more responsibility, effective governance starts to look a lot like talent management, in addition to classic financial management. Who do you “hire” to make decisions? How are decision-making systems trained? Who’s accountable when something goes wrong? The same discipline that applied to human leadership now applies to AI.

This expanded mandate is about managing risk, making ethical choices and earning trust — from customers, employees, regulators and the public.

Organizations that bring AI governance to the boardroom can better control whether it scales without surprises, remains aligned with values and holds up under scrutiny.

Your path forward with AI

As AI becomes an enterprise operating system, the next steps are clear: Act with clarity, invest with purpose and elevate both human and AI capabilities. Success is achieved through partnership — between technology and strategy, innovation and responsibility, and human expertise and AI augmentation.

Already, 39.3% of AI leaders are focusing on external collaborations to achieve their AI goals, compared with just 27.3% of AI laggards.

Is your AI approach bold enough to take your organization where it needs to go?

At NTT DATA, we partner with you to align your AI and business strategies as you build an AI-native business grounded in trust, responsibility and sustainable growth. Let us help you navigate complexity and transform with confidence.

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