Edition in partnership with

Welcome executives and professionals. A select group of companies are realizing more than AI cost savings; they’re achieving growth, especially from sector convergence opportunities.

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:

• What AI leaders do differently.

• Microsoft’s frontier firm experience.

• Next-level robot-human collaboration.

• Defending your enterprise from AI.

• Transformation and technology in the news.

• Insights for Executive+ members.

• Career opportunities & events.

Read time: 4 minutes.

MARKET & BEST PRACTICE INSIGHT

What AI leaders do differently

Brief: PwC benchmarked 1,217 companies across 25 sectors globally, finding AI value is currently concentrated in a small cohort: 20% of surveyed firms capture 74% of AI-driven returns.

Breakdown:

• PwC found the most AI-fit companies deliver AI-driven revenue growth and efficiency gains that are 7.2 times higher than peers.

• Companies that strengthen AI foundations such as strategy, data, governance, workforce, and investment gain more as use expands.

• Leading firms use AI as a reinvention engine, reshaping business models and embedding it broadly, deeply, and in more sophisticated ways.

• AI leaders are 2-3x more likely to collaborate across sectors to unlock value, e.g. cars equipped with real-time driver health sensors.

Why it’s important: When AI is trusted, aimed at reinvention, supported by targeted foundations, and scaled through repeatable patterns across workflows and decisions, the results go beyond incremental improvement, they add up to a compounding performance premium.

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH DEX

Put Dex to Work: Exclusive pilot offer

Brief: Following the launch of the world’s first autonomous IT engineer, the Dex team is now introducing an opportunity for IT leaders to Put Dex to Work, a hands-on program designed for real environments, not demos.

The Dex advantage:

• Executes IT tasks across platforms like M365 and Google Workspace

• Meets users where they already work in Microsoft Teams or Slack

• Handles everything from slow computers to complex, multi-step requests

• Resolves up to 90% of issues before they ever become a ticket

Exclusive pilot offer:

• 3 months unlimited use to automate your operations at scale.

• Dedicated onboarding engineer to ensure seamless integration.

Click Put Dex to Work to learn more.

BEST PRACTICE INSIGHT

Microsoft’s frontier firm experience

Brief: Microsoft shared how it became a “frontier firm” by pairing machine intelligence with human judgment to build AI-operated, human-led systems, and offered a practical guide for deploying AI agents at scale.

Breakdown:

• Microsoft established a six-pillar program, Agents at Microsoft, to drive end-to-end agentic transformation across the company (image above).

• The guide outlines Microsoft's experience as Customer Zero for agents across six chapters and how firms can apply those lessons internally.

• Readers can follow the journey to govern agents safely, deploy them effectively, and track their impact through effective measurement.

• Microsoft also shares readiness checklists and resources that can help you advance agentic maturity at your organization.

Why it’s important: Becoming a frontier firm took Microsoft three years of deliberate planning and disciplined execution. It also invested early in clear internal communications so employees understood what agents are, why they matter, and how to use them safely.

MARKET & BEST PRACTICE INSIGHT

Next-level robot-human collaboration

Brief: Capgemini published a 140-slide report based on global survey of 1,678 executives and interviews across the physical AI and robotics ecosystem, providing a view of adoption timelines, use case maturity, and more.

Breakdown:

• By enabling machines to perceive, reason, and act autonomously, physical AI is reshaping what robots can do and where they can operate.

• 67% of executives see physical AI as game changing, moving robots beyond pre-programmed systems to adaptive context-aware machines.

• 60% of executives say physical AI will unlock previously impractical use cases, expanding productivity, resilience, safety, and growth.

• While transformational, the average timeline to scale humanoid robots is seven years, reflecting ongoing cost and acceptance challenges.

Why it’s important: Physical AI moves AI beyond screens and into the physical world, advancing human-robot collaboration. The report is relevant for CTOs, CIOs, CDOs, CROs and executives shaping robotics and automation strategies across industrial, service, and consumer-facing environments.

BEST PRACTICE INSIGHT

Defending your enterprise from AI

Brief: Google shared best practices for defending enterprises as AI models find vulnerabilities faster, covering the evolving attack lifecycle, likely threat actor use, and a roadmap to modernize security strategies.

Breakdown:

• Historically, finding new vulnerabilities and building zero-day exploits required significant time, specialist expertise, and resources.

• Today, advanced AI models can identify vulnerabilities and help create exploits, lowering the barrier to entry for threat actors.

• Google outlines an 8-step roadmap with modernization priorities for firms seeking defense at AI-enabled operating speeds (image above).

• It also provides a 7-step foundational approach for firms still building core vulnerability management capabilities.

Why it’s important: While access to the publicly known, most capable frontier models is currently restricted to responsible actors, the availability of these technologies to a broader audience is inevitable. For defenders, this signals a likely surge in vulnerability management demands.

Anthropic shared how PayPal is rolling out Claude Cowork with role-based access, spend caps, and analytics for controlled AI use.

BCG published a 41-page executive playbook on AI-first healthcare companies and how AI agents are transforming retail merchandising.

Andreessen Horowitz argued that physical AI in robotics, science, and interfaces is the next major tech flywheel.

IBM shared its 2026 guide to AI agents, covering practical applications, use cases, and deeper understanding for leaders.

Sapphire Ventures argued that vertical AI moats thrive where labor costs, not software spend, define total addressable markets.

Cursor explored whether developers do more existing tasks with AI, or if better models unlock work previously beyond reach.

Anthropic released Claude Opus 4.7, its top public model beating GPT-5.4 and Gemini 3.1 Pro in agentic coding but lagging the unreleased Mythos Preview.

OpenAI updated Codex into a unified ChatGPT, Atlas and Codex app with background computer use, parallel agents, browser and image generation.

Salesforce introduced Headless 360: Everything on Salesforce is now an API, MCP tool, or CLI command, and agents can use all of it.

Accenture invested in General Robotics to advance physical AI-powered robotics in manufacturing and logistics.

Windsurf launched 2.0, adding an Agent Command Center for fleets of parallel cloud and local agents, plus Devin in IDE workflows.

Google released Gemini 3.1 Flash text-to-speech, a new model with audio tags that can steer tone, pace, and accent.

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

Allianz - Head of AI Transformation

BCG - AI Strategy Director

OpenAI - McKinsey Alliance Director

EVENTS

Deloitte - Agentic AI Executive Dinner - April 22, 2026

Palantir-Deloitte - AI-First ERP Migration - April 23, 2026

Google Cloud - Enterprise AI Defense - April 30, 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.