Welcome executives and professionals. AI is transforming the way work gets done, but it has yet to fundamentally change how most organizations operate. That’s about to change.

Since the previous edition, we have reviewed hundreds of the latest insights in agentic and generative AI, spanning best practices, case studies, market dynamics, and innovations.

This briefing outlines what is driving material value — and why it’s important.

Note: Enterprise AI Executive will be taking a break next week. Enjoy the holidays, and we look forward to returning to your inbox on Sunday, 4 January.

In today’s briefing:

• BCG: The CEO’s roadmap for agentic AI.

• Deloitte explores C-suite AI synergies.

• Accenture’s new platform strategy rules.

• LangChain: State of AI engineering.

• Transformation and technology in the news.

• Career opportunities & events.

Read time: 4 minutes.

CEO INSIGHT

BCG: The CEO’s roadmap for agentic AI

Brief: BCG shared its experience with early AI adopters, outlining what CEOs should do now, what to prepare for next, and the enduring principles to follow to capture the highest returns from AI.

Breakdown:

• If predictive AI is for logic/optimization, and generative AI for synthesis, agentic AI is the executive function that turns outputs into impact.

• Now, CEOs can redesign work using zero-based, outcome-driven processes, build the context fabric, and assemble a shared AI platform.

• Next, CEOs should prepare for a radically altered operating model and strategize their tech spending evolutions and AI partnerships.

• Enduring principles include concentrating ~80% on E2E workflow redesign/new offers, and 20% on deploying AI broadly.

• Follow the “10-20-70 rule,” ensure the business leads rather than IT, and build a robust data foundation (see image above).

Why it’s important: AI-native firms are already achieving 25 to 35 times more revenue per employee than traditional peers. CEOs need clarity on where to start, how to secure early wins, and how to scale momentum across the enterprise. The “Now, Next, and Always” helps leaders make those choices.

CXO INSIGHT

Deloitte explores C-suite AI synergies

Brief: Deloitte surveyed 550 business and technology leaders to understand how the degree to which a given C-suite leader owns IT decision-making corresponds with positive AI outcomes.

Breakdown:

• The study mapped which C-suite roles influence AI investment decisions, examining participation levels across senior exeuctives.

• Stronger CSO involvement in tech investment decisions is linked to higher returns across the full set of 46 operational and financial metrics.

• Greater CTO influence over tech investments correlates with higher AI maturity, while CFO influence drives higher profitability outcomes.

• No single role can deliver all outcomes alone; coordinated leadership from the CTO (or CIO), CFO, and CSO is required to unlock full AI value.

• CTOs and CFOs are more likely to expect that AI automation returns will come in the next three years, based on Deloitte's predictive modeling.

Why it’s important: C-suite leaders are being asked to strengthen their “nexus skills,” blending technical fluency, financial literacy, and market awareness. Achieving continuous AI value isn’t just about the right tech; but also ensuring the right mix of C-suite leaders are making decisions together.

PLATFORM REINVENTION

Accenture’s new platform strategy rules

Brief: Accenture surveyed more than 1,000 executives, identifying five priorities firms should address to build AI-ready, future-fit platforms that can scale intelligence and value (example case studies in brackets).

Breakdown:

• Architect for the future by building platform-aware infrastructure that enables AI to scale across the enterprise (Zurich Insurance).

• Design a fit-for-purpose foundation by modernizing the digital core for agility and real-time insight (Mascoma Bank).

• Articulate the interplay by defining clear roles for humans, platforms and agents to ensure orchestration/accountability (Western Sugar).

• Prepare for operating model reinvention by reimagining how work gets done to unlock new performance levels (Adecco).

• Transform culture by equipping people with the trust, fluency and mindset to lead in an AI-driven enterprise (Accenture Marketing).

Why it’s important: Accenture found that organizations aligning AI, platform, and business strategies outperform peers, doubling revenue growth and improving profitability by up to 37 percent. These leaders treat platforms not as static infrastructure but as living systems of intelligence.

MARKET INSIGHT

LangChain: State of AI engineering

Brief: LangChain surveyed more than 1,300 professionals, including respondents from enterprises (10,000+ employees), to understand how they are using AI agents and handling agent engineering challenges.

Breakdown:

• Among enterprises, 67% have agents in production and 24% are actively developing with plans for deployment.

• Internal productivity is the top enterprise use case at 26.8%, followed by customer service at 24.7% and research/data analysis at 22.2%.

• For enterprises, quality remains the top barrier to production deployment, while security ranks second at 24.9%, surpassing latency.

• Across all firms, 89% have implemented agent observability. Only 52.4% run offline evaluations and 37.3% use online evaluations.

• While 67.8% use OpenAI’s GPT models, most deploy multiple models, including Gemini, Claude, and open-source options.

Why it’s important: As we enter 2026, organizations are no longer debating whether to build AI agents, but how to deploy them reliably and at scale. Enterprises are moving faster than smaller firms from pilots to production, driven by greater investment in platform teams, security, and infrastructure.

WEF and Cognizant published a 40-page report examining how AI, data, and digital skills supply and demand will shape future growth and innovation.

Andreessen Horowitz released a roadmap for safe and competitive US federal AI legislation, alongside its State of Consumer AI 2025 report.

BCG explored how AI is reshaping the cyber landscape faster than firms can respond, and asked what happens when AI stops asking permission.

Bain shared signals for enterprise leaders from NeurIPS 2025, highlighting "living" agents, "AI for building AI," fit-for-purpose models, and explainability.

Salesforce released an AI agent checklist and outlined five AI trends shaping business in 2026, including enterprise general intelligence (EGI).

Stanford published an 18-page report analyzing China’s diverse open-weight AI ecosystem beyond DeepSeek and the resulting policy implications.

Google released a 49-page report detailing five ways AI agents will transform work in 2026, from productivity gains to major advances in security.

Capgemini published a 34-slide report outlining AI trends, use cases, and challenges as enterprises seek to master agentic AI scaling.

Google rolled out Gemini 3 Flash, a speed-optimized version of its latest flagship model that preserves frontier-level intelligence for fast enterprise use.

OpenAI released GPT-5.2 Codex with stronger cybersecurity for coding, alongside GPT Image 1.5, delivering image generation up to four times faster.

Amazon is reportedly in talks to invest $10B in OpenAI, valuing the company above $500B and potentially tied to use of Amazon’s Trainium AI chips.

Adobe integrated Photoshop, Acrobat, and Express into ChatGPT, enabling users to edit images, design assets, and PDFs through conversational prompts.

Nvidia introduced Nemotron 3, a family of open models built for multi-agent AI systems, marking its strongest move yet into frontier model development.

Lovable, the vibe coding platform, announced a $330M Series B, valuing the company at $6.6B as demand accelerates for AI-native development tools.

Klarna launched the Agentic Product Protocol, an open standard that makes 100M+ products instantly discoverable by AI agents.

Stanford HAI released its 2026 AI outlook, predicting a healthcare “ChatGPT moment” and a shift from hype toward what AI can actually deliver.

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

Adobe - Enterprise AI Strategy Director

JPMorgan - AI Content Transformation Executive Director

Sears - Head of Agentic AI

EVENTS

AI & RegTech for FS - January 22 - 23, 2026

Gartner - CEO AI-Driven Growth - January 28, 2026

HFS Research - Agentic AI Roundtable - March 5, 2026

Originally conceived as a practical communication for executives the editor, Lewis Walker, has worked with, this briefing now serves as a trusted resource for thousands of senior decision-makers shaping the future of enterprise AI.

If your AI product or service adds value to this audience, contact us for information on a limited number of sponsorship opportunities.

We also welcome feedback as we continue to refine the briefing.