Now in its third year, WSI’s AI Business Insights research explores strategy, governance, skills, search visibility, and quantifiable business outcomes.
The real question is no longer whether companies have adopted AI. Every organization can answer that with a yes.”— Valerie Brown-Dufour, President of WSI
WSI has launched its 2026 AI Business Insights Survey, asking business leaders whether their AI strategy has evolved at the same rate as their adoption. This global study examines AI strategy, governance, skills, and search visibility. Participants will receive a benchmark comparing them to similar organizations by size, industry, and region once the results are released.
Now in its third consecutive year, the survey arrives at a moment when confidence in AI continues to outstrip the readiness of businesses to deploy it effectively. In WSI’s 2024 findings, 72% of respondents believed AI could support their business objectives. That figure rose to 81% by 2025, yet only 40% of business owners had participated in any formal AI training, despite 78% of managers and 77% of employees already using AI tools on a daily basis.
The revised 2026 survey evaluates businesses across five dimensions: how cohesive their AI strategy truly is, who is responsible for AI governance and risk, how employees are developing AI competencies, how well they grasp and control their visibility in AI-driven search, and whether AI is delivering measurable outcomes. Together, these questions shift the discussion beyond whether a company uses AI, toward whether it has the framework to achieve tangible results with it.
"AI adoption isn't the interesting question anymore," said Valerie Brown-Dufour, President of WSI. "Every business can already say yes to it. The real test is whether that yes turns into a plan someone owns, whether people know what to do with the tools they've been handed, and whether a customer looking for a business like yours can actually find you. That's the difference between the businesses getting ahead this year and the ones still catching up."
The survey requires seven to eight minutes to complete. Businesses can access the 2026 AI Business Insights Survey here.
ABOUT WSI
Founded in 1995 and headquartered in Toronto, Canada, WSI is a premier global network of digital marketing and AI consultants: a community of agencies, each grounded in its local market and supported by knowledge shared across the network. For more than three decades, WSI has served as a strategy-first partner to businesses through every major digital shift, from search to AI, pairing pragmatic strategy with hands-on execution rather than isolated campaigns. Driven by its mission to unlock a world of possibility for those it serves, WSI helps businesses leverage digital and AI to strengthen the people and relationships behind them, not replace them. That principle is at the core of its tagline: Embrace Digital. Stay Human.
Cheryl Baldwin
Director, Marketing & Communications Department, WSI World
+1 905-678-7588 ext. 1283
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