Corporate AI Ambitions Clash With Stagnant Business Results

The 2026 Unisys AI & Cloud Insights Report, which surveyed 1,000 IT and business leaders, reveals a disconnect between technical readiness and commercial outcomes. While 90% of firms report successful deployment of automation and data-driven infrastructure—an 18-point jump from 2025—only 65% report that operational efficiency meets their goals, a sharp decline from the 80% reported last year.

This friction is exacerbated by a surge in digital vulnerability. Nearly half of the surveyed organizations suffered a cybersecurity breach in the last year, a threefold increase from the previous period. Consequently, security has become the primary gatekeeper for innovation: 93% of leaders now state that cloud security protocols directly dictate the level of autonomy granted to their AI systems.

Agentic AI remains largely in the pilot phase, with 75% of companies identifying it as critical for cloud management while only 23% have successfully scaled it. Mike Thomson, CEO of Unisys, suggests the solution lies in a strategic pivot. Organizations must stop viewing IT as a mere cost center and instead prioritize outcomes—such as customer experience and market speed—rather than focusing solely on technical modernization. With 42% of business leaders still categorizing IT as a cost center, the pressure to prove that AI investments translate into measurable growth is intensifying.