AI is starting to cause cracks in the C-suite

After three years of experiments and pilots, and as talk of an AI bubble looms, companies are getting serious about ensuring their AI efforts are actually driving results. 61% of CEOs say they’re under increasing pressure to show returns on their AI investments compared to a year ago, and leaders like Asana CEO Dan Rogers tell me understanding AI ROI is a top priority.

My latest feature, The big AI New Year’s resolution for businesses in 2026: ROI, published yesterday in Fortune, dives deep into this shifting paradigm. It includes new data around how much companies are actually spending on AI tools and the specific challenges with understanding AI ROI. One aspect of it all I find particularly interesting, however, is the misalignment in the C-suite.

Nearly three in four CEOs said short-term ROI pressure undermines long-term innovation, and 65% said they aren’t aligned with their CFO on long-term value, according to Kyndryl’s recent Readiness report, for which it surveyed 3,700 business executives.

“A CFO might want to look at it from a balance sheet perspective. The business leader wants to make sure the business model changes. The technology leader—like a CTO—wants to make sure I’m innovating, I’m applying all the latest technologies, that I have the talent and the skills in my team so I’m really able to realize value,” Manisha Khanna, senior product manager for AI and generative AI at analytics firm SAS, told me for the story. “And these three [C-suite leaders] are on completely different pages right now with regard to the expectation.”

The 3 trends that dominated companies’ AI rollouts in 2025

This story offers perhaps the deepest look yet into my world reporting on AI transformation. For Fortune, I broke down the themes that have emerged time and time again in my conversations with business leaders, shaping which find success with AI and which struggle. In short, AI for back-end tasks is booming, it’s about people just as much as it’s about tech, and companies are failing when they lead with the idea of AI and finding success when they lead with the problem they’re trying to solve.

How upcoming business leaders are using AI to prep for high-stakes deal negotiations—and everyday interactions

At American University’s Kogod School of Business, students learning the art of negotiating are getting a little help from AI. Over the past year and a half, Alexandra Mislin, professor of workplace diplomacy, has been incorporating AI into her curriculum increasingly each semester, guiding students in how to use AI chatbots to prepare for and practice negotiations big and small. I spoke to her about the benefits and what this looks like in practice.

AI coding tools exploded in 2025. The first security exploits show what could go wrong

AI coding tools proliferated widely across technical teams in 2025. They also caught the interest of another group: malicious actors. While a breach of the tools hasn’t so far caused a wide-scale attack, there have been a few exploits and near-misses, and cyberthreat researchers have discovered critical vulnerabilities in several popular tools that make clear what could go horribly wrong. I broke down why security researchers view these tools as particularly risky — and what companies should do to protect themselves.

How classic digital transformation lessons apply to AI—and what’s different this time around

George Westerman, a senior lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management, has been researching digital transformation for decades. The lessons he’s learned still largely apply to the current AI boom, but he also believes there are key differences. I broke down his main takeaways for companies navigating the change, including the most critical skills for leaders, what organizations are underestimating, and what they need to do differently to succeed with AI.

I would hardly describe any panel I’ve ever attended as riveting. But this one about the impacts of AI on HR and talent acquisition, which I had the pleasure of moderating at the recent From Day One conference in NYC, truly brought the heat.

I take no credit: it’s all thanks to the panelists who passionately debated with each other over 40 minutes in the packed ballroom, fervently disagreeing about where AI can offer impact and the best ways to approach it. Some advocated for focusing on personal productivity and targeting specific use cases, while others argued you have to tackle the organization’s overall work architecture as a whole. And like the above, they also disagreed on when it’s time to move beyond experimentation to implementation and real results.

AI champions wanted

Are you a developer or engineering leader who believes positive inspiration is the the best way to drive adoption of AI tools? For a story in LeadDev, I want to talk with AI champions who are mentoring their technical coworkers on how to best use AI tools, as well as business and engineering leaders championing this approach.

Chatbots 🤝 humans

What impact does talking to chatbots have on your social battery? Introverts, does it drain you? Extroverts, does it fulfill some of your social needs? Is this affecting you in the workplace, or affecting how you use chatbots? Honestly, I’m just curious!

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