A brand-new survey from multinational consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers revealed genuinely shocking insights from CEOs about AI investments, according to The Register.
What's happening?
Artificial intelligence was disruptive across the board in 2025, from the job market to the energy landscape.
In the latter half of the year, talk of an "AI bubble" escalated, and PricewaterhouseCoopers' newly-released 29th Global CEO Survey "pour[ed] more cold water on the hyperbole," The Register stated.
PwC surveyed 4,454 CEOs from 95 countries and territories to gather input on the global economy, emerging threats and opportunities, and their views on the demonstrated value of AI.
As The Register reported, AI deployment and adoption remained "limited" when the survey was conducted, but not so limited that CEOs had nothing to say about it.
A scant 30% believed AI had increased revenue, and only 26% felt its integration lowered costs.
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By contrast, 56% of CEOs "saw neither benefit," meaning AI neither boosted profits nor reduced expenditures — and 22% admitted AI integration raised the cost of doing business with zero measurable revenue increases to offset it.
A stunning finding showed that a mere "one in eight" CEOs, or 12% of those surveyed, attributed lower costs and higher revenue to AI.
"Clearly, we're in the early stages of the AI era," PwC's report hedged, before acknowledging alarmingly low rates of adoption across sectors, which hovered around 20%.
"Consider also that in PwC's Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey 2025, only 14% of workers said they were using generative AI daily," PwC added.
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Why is this survey concerning?
The specter of an AI bubble loomed large in late 2025, and Michael Burry, the legendary prescient investor who predicted the 2008 housing crash, expressed strong reservations.
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Every day 💯 While Burry is known for clear-eyed analysis, Google CEO Sundar Pichai also acknowledged that fears of an AI-related crash were both credible and a risk to the moneyed search giant.
To date, AI's potential to lower costs and increase revenue has yet to be realized, leading some analysts to liken the investing environment to a "Schrödinger's bubble," a reference to the thought experiment known as "Schrödinger's cat."
As investors wait to see whether the literal billions poured into an arguably speculative technology bear fruit, AI and the data centers that power it have become discrete issues.
Irrespective of profitability, AI is incredibly resource-hungry; its massive data centers consume significant amounts of municipal water and grid energy.
It's no coincidence that the data center boom is driving sky-high electricity bills nationwide, saddling ratepayers with the collateral costs of a technology that has yet to prove its worth.
What's being done about it?
Ultimately, only 30% of CEOs surveyed had a positive outlook for the coming year, with the question of whether AI would make money likely a significant factor.
The general public has started pushing back against data centers, stalling and halting projects planned for their communities in recent months.
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