New survey reveals this surprising fact about companies that successfully use AI

A lot has been written about how AI is coming for your job, but EY’s latest AI survey found some surprising results.

Out of 500 top executives at major U.S. companies who said artificial intelligence was boosting productivity at their companies, only 17% of those polled actually turned around and laid off workers or cut their jobs.

Instead, the new survey found they are reinvesting those gains back into the company.

“Executives are plowing productivity gains right back into more AI tools and more talented people,” EY America’s consulting leader Colm Sparks Austin said. “The real breakthrough isn’t automation—it’s amplification. Leading companies are using AI to scale human capacity at a pace we’ve never seen before.”

The EY US AI Pulse Survey, the fourth in a series of polls, surveyed 500 key U.S. business decision-makers (senior vice presidents and above) across sectors, and found nearly all organizations investing in artificial intelligence are experiencing some amount of AI-driven gains in productivity (96%), including 57% that say their gains are “significant.”

However, among those organizations experiencing AI-driven productivity gains, only 17% say these gains led to reduced headcount; far more reported reinvesting those gains into existing AI capabilities (47%), developing new AI capabilities (42%), strengthening cybersecurity (41%), investing in R&D (39%), and upskilling and reskilling employees (38%).

“While AI readily raises the floor by improving efficiency, the transformative potential comes from raising the ceiling,” according to Dan Diasio, EY global consulting AI leader. “Organizations that shift from a productivity mindset to a growth agenda are using AI to drive innovation, create new markets and achieve what was previously considered impossible.”

Diasio said the survey results reveals that successful companies are reinvesting their gains today to build the businesses of the future, not just optimizing the current operations.

Greater investment, greater returns

The survey also found the amount of money a company invested in AI influenced how much productivity gain it saw in 2025.

For example, senior leaders at organizations currently investing $10 million or more in AI across all business units or teams were more likely than those investing less than $10 million to say their organization has seen significant AI-driven productivity gains over the past year, at 71% versus 52%.

Finally, when asked about the impact of AI investments on their financial outcomes, a majority of the senior leaders (56%) who have seen positive ROI from AI investments report it has led to significant measurable improvements in overall financial performance.

As a result, that performance is leading to increased planned AI spend by companies. While 27% of respondents investing in AI currently commit a quarter or more of their IT budget to AI, that figure is set to roughly double to 52% in 2026. And the group spending half or more of their total IT budget on AI is expected to quintuple, jumping from just 3% in 2025 to a whopping 19% in 2026.

The businesses investing the most in AI today will likely be leaps and bounds ahead of the competition in the future, says the report.

“The companies out in front on AI investment are pulling farther ahead,” Whitt Butler, EY Americas vice chair of consulting, explained. “The magnitude of investment matters: the organizations committing more funding to AI are seeing the strongest productivity gains, showing that AI is moving beyond pilots to become a true driver of enterprise value.”

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