As financial uncertainty continues into 2026, enterprise leaders are searching for alternatives to extend stability and firm worth. More and more, that requires making their organizations much more adaptable and resilient. Regardless of a majority of firm leaders reporting excessive impacts from altering market situations, many are already pursuing new initiatives to take care of their steadiness and foster development within the yr forward.
At Personiv, we see six main value-creation and flexibility traits rising from knowledge collected in our 2025 Government Outlook Pulse Survey in August 2025. The survey discovered that 62% of organizations endured “extraordinarily vital” technique and execution impacts as a consequence of financial shifts within the first half of 2025. In response, a majority of these surveyed have already begun investing in areas to strengthen their flexibility and agility.
AI deployment and enlargement
The commonest focus areas for funding are enlargement of AI use instances and improved operational methods, to take care of steadiness and make progress in uneven financial waters.
Primarily based on survey responses, 76% of public firms are already utilizing AI in some operational capability, with 70% utilizing AI for finance operations reminiscent of payroll, expense reporting and compliance. Forty-five % of personal firms are utilizing AI in related methods. A lot of that AI is probably going for automation, however agentic AI is rising as a strong useful resource for companies that need to make their operations extra resilient.
The World Financial Discussion board not too long ago highlighted the enterprise utility of AI brokers. These brokers can study to behave as “custodians of particular domains,” reminiscent of compliance or provide chain administration, to not solely orchestrate advanced processes but in addition to “interpret and draw inferences from that area.” That gives new potential for future-looking methods.
Forecasting and strategic planning
The fast-improving means to gather and analyze knowledge insights with AI helps one other development we anticipate to proceed by means of 2026: a powerful give attention to data-driven forecasting and planning. Near a 3rd of survey respondents rated forecasting and state of affairs planning as a precedence, maybe partially as a result of forecasting was the realm most strongly affected by financial modifications in 2025.
Nevertheless, lower than a 3rd of survey individuals reported the usage of AI in additional than half of their finance and accounting capabilities. That underutilization suggests forecasting and strategic planning might be an space the place AI adoption provides doubtlessly massive accuracy and effectivity beneficial properties within the coming yr, particularly if financial situations proceed to fluctuate.
Provide chain optimization
It isn’t simply inner operations that have been affected by the financial atmosphere; financial coverage modifications affected greater than half of firms’ provide chains this yr. Because the provide chain is already weak to elements like geopolitical instability and climate occasions, this added uncertainty heightens the necessity for danger administration. Survey respondents ranked provide chain disruptions among the many three largest rising monetary dangers they’re making ready for transferring ahead.
Many organizations are already adopting AI to cut back provide chain danger, management prices and handle complexity. AI-powered automation can even speed up standardized provide chain processes, since AI brokers have the potential to observe real-time situations, foresee potential disruptions and shortly counsel alternate situations to reduce the impression of these disruptions.
CapEx and OpEx funding
One other method companies will proceed to construct resilience subsequent yr is thru strategic capital and operational expenditures. Greater than half of the survey respondents reported elevated CapEx and OpEx spending in 2025, whereas 1 / 4 deliberate to extend their spending in these areas. This development is mirrored throughout the U.S. economic system, with CapEx development racing forward of gross sales development this yr. AI-related investments are driving the general enhance in CapEx spending, and that is more likely to proceed by means of 2026.
Many organizations are constructing capital, operational and technical foundations for a stronger yr forward. Translating these investments into better resilience requires expertise, nevertheless, which is one other space the place many firms are investing.
Expertise sourcing and optimizing
Discovering expert, skilled finance and accounting expertise has been more and more troublesome for the previous few years, however efficiently filling these roles stays crucial. In at the moment’s market, finance and accounting groups spend most of their time serving to their firms alter to situations as they alter, which suggests staffing gaps can have an effect on an organization’s means to pivot as wanted.
Many of those groups already preserve their expertise through the use of AI automation to deal with repetitive, high-volume processes reminiscent of payroll processing, accounts receivable and accounts payable. However many organizations are additionally hiring, and due to this fact ought to contemplate potential purposes of AI within the recruitment course of. Thirty-eight % of survey respondents mentioned they plan to extend headcount within the subsequent six months, on high of the 34% who already employed extra folks in 2025. Utilizing AI for standardized processes will enable these workers to give attention to serving to their firms adapt as situations change.
Cybersecurity prioritization
Threats to organizations’ cybersecurity have been the highest risk-related concern amongst survey respondents: Thirty-two % reported that it is an important rising danger for which they’re making ready. Executives and leaders are particularly involved about phishing, social engineering, ransomware and knowledge breaches. Such assaults have gotten extra frequent but in addition harder to determine as a result of criminals are leveraging AI to make their assaults more practical.
Fortuitously, AI can be leveraged for elevated protection, and we anticipate to see extra firms use AI-backed cybersecurity instruments to guard their funds and knowledge. That development is already in movement. This yr, the worldwide common value of an information breach dropped by 9% from 2024, to $4.4 million, partially as a result of extra firms are utilizing AI-backed safety instruments to detect and cease assaults quicker.
AI is a thread that runs by means of all these traits, from forecasting and provide chain optimization by means of capital investments, expertise optimization, and cybersecurity and danger administration. AI can equip enterprise management with the insights wanted for good forecasts and planning, whereas liberating up finance and accounting groups to adapt to modifications within the economic system. When deployed thoughtfully, the worth that AI can present turns into a key ingredient for constructing resilient firms this yr.
