Fueled by the “AI revolution,” executives are under pressure to make their organizations ready for a digital future. Investors, customers, and employees - everyone expects major leaps forward. As our current study of more than 200 companies shows, 54 percent anticipate clearly positive EBIT effects from further AI implementation.
Two thirds of companies have increased their digitalization budgets for 2026, by an average of 30 percent. AI technologies and tools now account for one third of total digitalization budgets.
Disappointment Is All but Guaranteed
In many cases, it is questionable whether this activism and expenditure will pay off. This is not only because top management is currently too focused on AI, as seven out of ten respondents in our study complain, nor because aggressively advertised applications often fail to deliver what providers promise, as three quarters of respondents state.
Rather, almost all digitalization initiatives show that the wheat quickly separates from the chaff when it comes to holistic approaches, clean system integration, and the consistent determination of benefits and value contribution.
Most Companies Are Flying Blind Strategically
As our latest analysis reveals, only every second company has a holistic digitalization strategy that sets out specific and overarching goals. The other half either has only partial strategies, works with area-specific goals only, or operates with no strategy at all.
However, the “dark figure” is likely to be much higher, as the study shows a strong discrepancy between the statements of board members and those of operational management levels. For example, 75 percent of the board members surveyed say that there is a comprehensive, concrete strategy. At the operating management level (C-1), this figure is only 30 percent. Desire and reality, appearance and substance – there is a huge gap between the two.
To put it bluntly:
Companies talk about digital breakthroughs — but many are still at an elementary level.
Just as the effort and complexity of digital transformation projects are often underestimated, so are the strategic prerequisites. In Germany, this is evident in the fact that digital transformation is still too heavily focused on the CIO role. Digitalization is equated with IT and seen very technically, even though it is a strategic business topic. In 70 percent of German companies, the CIO holds primary responsibility for digitalization. In the U.S., it is only 33 percent; there, digitalization is predominantly a “top management issue” and anchored in the CEO (52 %).
Learning from the Best — How Digital Transformation Champions Do It
What distinguishes organizations that achieve measurable, quantifiable benefits from digitalization initiatives? Based on our study data, we derived the success formula for digital transformation and summarized it for the CxO News:
1. A Defined Digital Strategy with Clear Objectives
A real (!) digitalization strategy includes clearly defined goals. It answers what the company wants to achieve with digitalization - for example, increasing productivity, enhancing customer satisfaction, enabling innovation, or reducing costs. It outlines how this will happen, what the milestones and benchmarks are, and how measures will be cascaded top-down into the organization.
2. Clear Accountability and Personal Goal Setting
Closely linked to the strategy is the question of which roles are actually responsible for successful implementation. At the management level, digital goals should be embedded in personal performance evaluations. Companies that generate real value through digitalization do this in four out of five cases - compared to less than half (46 %) of all other companies. This is a true game changer!
3. Transparent and Continuous Measurement of Benefits
Goals must be clearly defined and measurable — meaning companies must determine the actual value contribution of digital initiatives. Less than half of the companies surveyed (44%) do this as a standard process. A quarter measures it as needed or on an ad hoc basis, a fifth measures it only once, and one in ten companies do not measure it at all. Top performers in digitalization are much more aware of the importance of consistent monitoring and fine-tuning: for two-thirds of them, determining value contribution is a well-established process.
Integrating benefit measurement directly into performance management, incl. corresponding KPIs, is the most effective approach. Among top performers, a digitalization initiative is only considered complete once the goals have been met or exceeded. No project is simply shelved; accountability remains until the targets are achieved.
4. Moving Implementation Risks out of the Blind Spot
Even with a sophisticated strategy in place, the crux of successful digitalization is implementation. Complexity, coordination efforts, testing and optimization phases, necessary skills and capacities – all these implementation risks are often underestimated and ignored. Only one third of companies address these hurdles in advance, making implementation weaknesses almost inevitable and reducing acceptance of digital measures.
In order for implementation to be successful, practical considerations must already be taken into account during the decision phase. This means that detailed business cases should be developed. This happens 20 percent more often at top transformers than at companies with weak digitalization capabilities – a clear sign.
Another factor that is often underestimated during implementation is employee enablement – one of the five most important success factors from the respondents' perspective.
5. Centralization Is King
Not only for strategy but also for overall steering and implementation, maximum centralization instead of silo thinking is crucial. Digital champions practice this significantly more often than companies that do not see any clearly measurable benefits from digitalization measures.
This is particularly evident in centralized digital portfolio management. This is present in 76 percent of the “champions” – compared to only 48 percent of companies without clear digital value enhancement. Overall, however, it is the interplay of the above factors that makes these companies successful.
If you want digital success, you must get uncomfortable
Our analysis clearly shows that companies that consistently clarify responsibilities, measure value contributions, integrate digital goals into performance systems, and modernize their operating model achieve above-average progress. Everything else remains “digitalization for its own sake” – expensive, slow, and strategically underdeveloped.
2026 will be the year that decides who truly masters digitalization – and who just talks about it. The winners will be those who not only invest, but also boldly transform their organizations.
Your Contact
Rainer Zierhofer
Interview with Markus Schaal, CIO of voestalpine : "Key fundamentals of digitalization receive too little attention in the context of AI"
Interview with Christiane Vorspel, COO at Commerzbank : "Our virtual assistant Ava resolves more than 70 percent of the customer inquiries she receives"
