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Welcome executives and professionals. Professionals are changing how they work, yet gains from AI remain limited. Maximizing value requires holistic, enterprise-wide transformation.

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:

• Critical success factors for AI.

• From robotic to agentic automation.

• Managing hallucination risk.

• AI as a performance metric.

• Transformation and technology in the news.

• Insights for Executive+ members.

• Career opportunities & events.

Read time: 4 minutes.

ENTERPRISE TRANSFORMATION

Critical success factors for AI

Brief: The Conference Board published a 17-page report outlining how leaders should transform their organizations to maximize AI value, drawing on surveys of 214 enterprise leaders and 704 professionals.

Breakdown:

• Sustainable AI transformation requires an AI strategy that aligns leaders with business goals and enables innovation in how work is executed.

• Scaling AI successfully demands redesigned organizational structures and processes, agile teams, and seamless information flow.

• HR plays a critical role in AI transformation by shaping culture, building skills, and driving people-centered change management.

• A strong AI culture depends on transparency, inclusion, and shared purpose to support experimentation and collaborative co-creation.

• Navigating AI transformation complexity requires ongoing upskilling, workforce planning, and flexible reward systems.

Why it’s important: The future is uncertain, requiring organizational agility to pivot as new technologies and opportunities emerge. This agility should be mirrored in the enterprise operating model, building flexibility into structures, processes, and governance.

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BEST PRACTICE INSIGHT

From robotic to agentic automation

Brief: EY published a 24-page paper jointly with Automation Anywhere, presenting a framework for CXOs navigating the shift from robotic process automation (RPA) toward agentic process automation (APA).

Breakdown:

• Over the past decade, RPA has delivered efficiency, reduced errors, and strengthened compliance across high-volume, rules-based processes.

• Firms now require systems that can reason, adapt, and orchestrate outcomes end-to-end, marking a shift to intelligent operations.

• APA combines RPA execution with AI reasoning, contextual awareness, and autonomous orchestration to automate decisions at scale.

• APA extends existing automation investments, unlocking value from complex processes while preserving reliability, auditability, and control.

• The paper outlines how to adopt APA responsibly, and the implications for governance, architecture, and the future workforce.

Why it’s important: APA provides a path to greater agility, resilience, and customer-centric innovation. It elevates automation from a tool for efficiency into a strategic capability that supports smarter decisions, scalable growth, and long-term competitive advantage.

EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION

AI as a performance metric

Brief: Equilar, a leading provider of corporate leadership data, examined corporate disclosures to assess how companies are currently integrating AI metrics into executive compensation programs.

Breakdown:

• Most firms adopting AI metrics have embedded them in annual incentive plans, though Qorvo applies them within its long-term incentive plan.

• Qorvo disclosed a fiscal 2025 long-term incentive goal tied to exploring and deploying AI tools aimed at improving productivity across the firm.

• Juniper Networks included a strategic objective in its annual incentive plan to “win the AI opportunity,” weighted at 10% (image above).

• Juniper defined this goal around executing its AI strategy across networking/data centers, linking AI execution to revenue growth.

• Ralph Lauren excluded AI metrics from its latest plan but announced plans to introduce AI scorecard metrics into executive incentives.

Why it’s important: Although still early in the AI adoption curve, firms are increasingly embedding AI goals into executive incentives. Objectives now span efficiency, revenue growth, and competitive positioning, signaling that AI performance metrics will become more common in 2026 and beyond.

BEST PRACTICE INSIGHT

Managing hallucination risk

Brief: EY released a 27-page paper outlining recommended approaches to addressing hallucination risk in AI models, aligned to how mitigation is applied across the AI pipeline. It also provides a pathway for implementation.

Breakdown:

• LLMs are transforming service delivery and internal operations, unlocking new opportunities for efficiency and innovation.

• At the same time, LLMs introduce hallucination risk, where models generate factually incorrect or misleading information.

• Managing hallucination risk has become increasingly critical as firms deploy generative AI in high-stakes enterprise use cases.

• Regulatory frameworks such as the EU AI Act, alongside industry governance standards, require firms to proactively manage AI risk.

• The paper details hallucination types, impacts, and mitigations, offering a practical roadmap aligned to governance, compliance, and trust.

Why it’s important: Hallucinations are not a reason to avoid generative AI, but a risk that should be managed rigorously. Firms that succeed will focus on verifiable outputs, accountable processes, and a metrics-driven approach to continuously evaluating reliability and production readiness.

Salesforce published a 31-page State of IT report capturing AI and app development trends, drawing on more than 2,000 IT and engineering leaders.

Andreessen Horowitz argued software is not dying; AI changes how and who builds it, but demand will surge, requiring vastly more software.

Capgemini outlined market forces shaping CXO priorities and questions to address challenges across supply chain, finance, and operations.

Morgan Stanley explored AI as economic infrastructure, embedding directly into productive capacity in a way closer to electricity than consumer technology.

PwC examined AI’s impact on learning, highlighting immersive education models, key success factors, and what it takes to scale responsibly.

McKinsey explored the expanding CIO mandate, from agentic AI deployment to data monetization, rewiring organizations to drive growth.

Anthropic launched a fast mode for Claude Opus 4.6, delivering responses up to 2.5 times faster, though at significantly higher token usage and cost.

OpenAI‘s Altman reportedly told staff ChatGPT is growing 10%+ monthly, Codex usage is up 50%, and an updated model release is expected this week.

Anthropic is reportedly preparing to raise more than $20B in a new funding round, valuing the company near $350B, according to a Bloomberg report.

Harvey, the legal AI startup serving major law firms, is raising additional funding, increasing its valuation from $8B just two months ago.

The Motley Fool examined whether Anthropic’s agentic tool Claude Cowork has contributed to investor concerns and selloffs across the software sector.

OpenAI officially started testing ads in ChatGPT for U.S. users on its Free and Go tiers, a move the company has been circling for months.

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

OpenAI - Head of Sales Enablement

AstraZeneca - Enterprise AI Executive Director

Citi - Responsible AI Managing Director

EVENTS

World AI Cannes Festival - February 12–13, 2026

India AI Impact Summit - February 16–20, 2026

Anthropic Enterprise Agents - February 24, 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.

Standard 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.