Edition sponsored by

Welcome executives and professionals. AI is everywhere, accelerating progress and becoming essential infrastructure to power the intelligence that drives every industry forward.

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.

In today’s briefing:

• NVIDIA’s annual state of AI.

• From SaaS to agentic AI.

• Microsoft’s Copilot Cowork

• Where nations sit in the AI stack.

• Transformation and technology in the news.

• Insights for Executive+ members.

• Career opportunities & events.

Read time: 4 minutes.

MARKET INSIGHT

NVIDIA’s annual state of AI

Brief: NVIDIA’s annual State of AI report, based on over 3,200 global responses, examined how firms are adopting AI, where it’s delivering ROI, and the key challenges, and priorities shaping enterprise AI strategies.

Breakdown:

• Among large companies (>1,000 employees), 76% report active AI use, 22% are assessing AI, while 2% are not using it.

• 34% said AI created operational efficiencies, 33% said it improved employee productivity, and 24% said it enabled new opportunities.

• 88% said AI has increased annual revenue in some or all parts of their business, with 30% reporting the gains were greater than 10%.

• 48% of C-suite/VPs said optimizing production AI workflows is their top spending priority, followed by identifying additional use cases.

Why it’s important: AI adoption continues to accelerate as firms move beyond experimentation and into production deployments. Companies are building specialized AI systems to solve industry-specific challenges, while improving productivity, reducing costs, and increasing revenue.

TOGETHER WITH RESOLVE

What's IT downtime costing your organization?

Brief: Resolve closes the gap between an employee hitting a wall and getting back to work; autonomously. Every failure path mapped. Every fix executed before a ticket opens. Your people stay productive, and your spend reflects it.

The Resolve Platform edge:

• Answers delivered before employees stop moving.

• Self-healing systems that act before anyone notices.

• Measurable TCO reduction from day one.

Calculate your Zero Touch Resolution ROI.

PLATFORM STRATEGY

From SaaS to agentic AI

Brief: Kearney explored the emerging agentic AI software infrastructure market, outlining how the stack is forming, and where investors and enterprises can find value as the ecosystem matures.

Breakdown:

• Like the shift from on-premises software to SaaS between the late 1990s and mid-2010s, agentic AI is introducing a new software delivery model.

• The emerging agentic AI infrastructure landscape can be broken into functional layers/components forming a new stack (image above).

• Agent development reflects a shift combining prompt engineering with conventional software development practices.

• The report outlines eight investment theses from agentic AI as a service to operations, governance, and risk management converging.

Why it’s important: An attractive long-term strategy is assembling an integrated agentic stack over time: begin with an orchestration anchor, add governance and registries, layer financial controls, expand through MCP and integrations, and extend into agentic marketplaces as the ecosystem matures.

ENTERPRISE INNOVATION

Microsoft’s Claude-powered Copilot Cowork

Brief: Microsoft introduced Copilot Cowork, a new M365 feature built on Anthropic’s Claude tech that runs tasks across apps in the background, launching with a $99 enterprise bundle and a platform for governing AI agents.

Breakdown:

• Cowork runs in the cloud, drawing on emails, meetings, files, and chats across M365, unlike Claude Cowork’s current desktop-only model.

• Microsoft leveraged Anthropic Claude Cowork technology while embedding it within M365’s enterprise security and compliance layers.

• Users define a desired outcome, and Cowork breaks it into steps, producing deliverables like slides and briefing documents.

• Cowork launches in a limited research preview with a $99-per-user E7 tier bundling Copilot, agent management, and security tools.

Why it’s important: Rather than competing directly with emerging AI agent platforms, Microsoft integrates them into its ecosystem. Embedding Anthropic’s tech within M365’s security and compliance layers gives Copilot Cowork enterprise context across millions of users’ emails, files, and calendars.

TOGETHER WITH THE BOARDROOM

Become a board member

Brief: A private membership delivering proven AI transformation insights, including step-by-step blueprints you won’t find anywhere else. $250/year (~$21/month), with a 33% launch-week discount.

What’s inside The Boardroom:

• Executive AI Transformation Blueprints.

• The Executive AI Index.

• Extended version of Enterprise AI Executive.

Lock in your launch rate.

GLOBAL AI RACE

Where nations sit in the AI stack

Brief: Franklin Templeton outlined where global economies sit in the AI stack, introducing a global AI vibrancy index and analyzing how capital, infrastructure, and enterprise deployment shape worldwide AI competition.

Breakdown:

• US companies still lead in AI capital flows and frontier model development, but global leadership is not defined by a single leaderboard.

• In 2024, US private AI investment reached $109 billion, far outpacing China and the United Kingdom, which remain distant runners-up.

• As investment shifts from model creation to infrastructure and enterprise deployment, value creation increasingly flows beyond the USA.

• This transition has significant implications for investors evaluating global equity exposure across the various layers of the AI stack.

Why it’s important: AI leadership is not a single race. From chips and power infrastructure to frontier models and industrial deployment, different economies capture value across distinct layers of the AI stack. Understanding where value accrues will guide the next phase of global AI competition.

Deloitte outlined how banks can strengthen oversight and governance to stay ahead of evolving risks as agentic AI begins reshaping banking operations.

BCG explained how retail banks can deploy AI agents, with the tech potentially increasing profits by 30% and cutting costs by 30–40% by 2030.

Forrester examined what it means as the leader in “agentic commerce” pulls back, while Anthropic doubles down on agentic AI for the enterprise.

Wipro and Intel shared an open, AI-ready, and sustainable blueprint designed to help enterprises modernize infrastructure for large-scale AI adoption.

Bain outlined why agentic AI requires a new enterprise architecture and how brands can adapt and grow in the emerging age of AI agents.

MIT Sloan analyzed how a global selloff is prompting investors to question whether AI strengthens enterprise software moats or quietly erodes them.

Anthropic rolled out Code Review for Claude Code in Team and Enterprise plans, using teams of AI agents to analyze repositories and flag potential bugs.

OpenAI acquired Promptfoo to integrate native agent testing and evaluation into its Frontier enterprise platform.

Anthropic fired back at the Trump administration with two lawsuits over the Pentagon’s “supply chain risk” label and a directive for agencies to drop Claude.

Nvidia is preparing NemoClaw, an open platform letting enterprises run AI agents across any hardware, with early pitches to Salesforce and Google.

Anthropic launched Claude Marketplace in limited preview, allowing enterprises to apply existing spend commitments toward partners like GitLab and Harvey.

a16z released its sixth Consumer AI Top 100, now including traditional apps with AI like Canva, while data shows ChatGPT still dominates usage.

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

Salesforce - CTO Agentic Process Automation

PwC - Responsible AI Director

KPMG - Global Emerging Tech Managing Director

EVENTS

IBM - The Future of Enterprise AI - March 11, 2026

Microsoft - Modernize with Agentic AI - March 12, 2026

Google - The AI Skill Shift - March 18, 2026

Reach enterprise AI decision-makers:

• 66% of readers are C-level executives or VP and Director-level leaders.

• 63.2% of the audience is based in the U.S., EU, UK, ANZ, and Singapore.

• Read by leaders at Microsoft, Deloitte, the Fortune 500, and more.

Guaranteed impression and custom sponsorship packages available, with post-send performance reporting.

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

We welcome your feedback.