Only 10% of Spanish CEOs estimate that AI currently generates between 1% and 10% of their company's revenue, compared to 27% in Europe and worldwide. This figure reflects broad adoption but still limited monetisation.
Spanish CEOs are raising the bar on artificial intelligence. It is no longer enough to launch projects: they demand quantifiable results, real integration into processes, and justification of investment. This trend is reflected in the CEO Agenda 2026, prepared by Oliver Wyman Forum together with NYSE based on 415 top executives from around the world, as published by laecuaciondigital.com.
The sample represents approximately 10% of global market capitalisation and includes companies equivalent to around 30% of the Ibex 35. The study confirms that the deployment of AI is progressing, but its ability to produce a quantifiable return remains uneven.
The gap is visible when measuring the technology's contribution to revenue. Only 10% of the surveyed Spanish CEOs estimate that AI generates between 1% and 10% of their organisation's revenue. In Europe and globally, that percentage hovers around 27%.
In Spain, use cases are more concentrated on productivity and risk control, while the development of new products and services carries less weight. This pattern explains why the economic impact appears earlier in internal variables, such as execution times, costs, or process efficiency, rather than in new revenue sources.
The study does not identify large-scale AI deployments in analytics and forecasting among the Spanish sample. In strategic planning, exploration and pilot phases still predominate. Extending a technology from specific cases to complete processes remains one of the barriers to achieving results.
Global data shows that this maturity gap has economic consequences. Among the most advanced organisations in AI deployment, 49% of CEOs state that investments meet or exceed their return expectations, compared to 17% among companies in less developed phases.
Scaling involves more than just increasing users. It requires integrating systems into business processes, having adequate data, modifying workflows, and establishing metrics to verify whether an application reduces costs, increases productivity, improves decision-making, or generates additional revenue.
This step raises the demands on general management. Growth remains among the priorities, but it shares resources with efficiency and operational excellence. In Europe, 61% of CEOs place cost management among their priorities for the next one or two years. Spain shows a marked orientation towards long-term transformation: 60% include it among their top three priorities, and 50% highlight organic investment in new revenue sources.
“The CEO agenda demands growth from a stronger operational base, with greater risk control and a much more realistic approach to the impact of technology”
This was summarised by Alberto Mateos, partner and leader of the AI and Financial Services platform at Oliver Wyman for Spain and Portugal, during the La Toja-Atlantic Link Forum held on October 2. The panel on the Spanish economy also included Fina Lladós, president of Farmaindustria, and David Bláquez, head of Public Policies at AWS for Spain and Portugal.
The extension of AI into operational processes increases dependencies on data, infrastructure, and corporate systems. Cybersecurity and data protection are already concerns for 40% of the European CEOs included in the study.
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