Dive Brief:
- U.S. companies are investing more heavily in emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence than their global counterparts, spending an average of $190 million annually compared to the global average of $174 million, KPMG said in a recent report.
- American firms reported seeing financial returns of $293 million on average in the past 12 months, higher than the $265 million global average, according to the findings released last month. Despite out-investing their global peers and seeing higher financial returns, U.S. companies are struggling to achieve full maturity in their emerging technology strategies due to hurdles such as cost concerns, the Big Four accounting and consulting firm said.
- “The survey data says that scaling emerging technology investments is taking longer than initially anticipated,” Marcus Murph, head of technology consulting at KPMG US, said in a press release.
Dive Insight:
On average, organizations globally expect to allocate 5% of their annual budget to AI initiatives in 2026, up from 3% in 2025, Paris-based technology consulting firm Capgemini said in a January report.
“As AI moves from experimentation to enterprise-scale deployment, organizations face a new challenge: translating rapid advances in AI capabilities into sustained business impact,” the report said. Over the next 12 months, organizations plan to accelerate investments in infrastructure, data, governance and workforce upskilling, with the goal of laying a strong foundation for “sustainable AI adoption,” according to the research.
KPMG found that U.S. companies in particular are planning this year to outspend global counterparts across various technology categories including AI, cybersecurity, data/analytics and “post-quantum cryptography,” which refers to new types of digital encryption designed to protect data from being cracked by future quantum computers.
While U.S. companies are scaling a wide range of emerging technologies, few have reached full operational maturity, with only 10% describing their tech implementations as “fully scaled and continually evolving,” down from 25% last year, the Big Four firm reported.
More than half (56%) of respondents told KPMG the cost of fixing technical debt prevented them from making investments in new technology programs.
The results show that companies are finding technology projects to be much more complex than anticipated, especially in areas such as data modernization, security and accuracy, according to Gary Plotkin, digital platforms lead at KPMG US.
“This complexity has led to cautious adoption, particularly within core business functions, as companies are unsure if the technology is mature enough for large-scale deployment,” Plotkin said in KPMG’s release.
