82% of organizations in Spain now have an AI director, compared to 22% a year ago

88 percent of Spanish CEOs consider sovereign artificial intelligence (AI) to be a key element for their business strategy, which has led them to incorporate an AI director to generate greater impact throughout the organization.

As AI becomes more widespread in businesses, CEOs are under increasing pressure to rethink how management teams operate, how decisions are made, and how organizations are structured.

This context, analyzed by IBM’s Institute for Business Value, has promoted the position of director of artificial intelligence (Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer, CAIO), which is already present in 82 percent of Spanish organizations, compared to 22 percent in 2025 alone. This figure is higher than 76 percent globally.

Among organizations that have a CAIO, CEOs globally and in Spain expect the influence of this position to increase between now and 2030, as does the influence of all members of the management team.

Additionally, organizations around the world that have taken an AI-centric approach to building their leadership team have implemented 10 percent more AI initiatives across the enterprise than their peers.

These data are collected in IBM’s annual study on CEOs, in which 2,000 executive directors from around the world have participated, also from Spain, a country where 60 percent of CEOs say they feel comfortable making important strategic decisions based on information generated by AI, compared to 64 percent of CEOs around the world.

Likewise, 88 percent of Spanish CEOs agree that AI sovereignty is essential for business strategy, compared to 83 percent globally, which signals the importance of having adequate controls as AI takes on an increasingly relevant role at the business level.

CEOs surveyed in Spain say that only 25 percent of the workforce uses AI regularly as part of their work – a figure almost identical to the international average of 25 percent – ​​despite the fact that 83 percent believe their employees have the skills to collaborate with AI (86% globally).

By 2030, CEOs surveyed in Spain predict that 47 percent of operational decisions (48% globally) in which consistency and security limits can be codified will be made by AI without human intervention, up from 23 percent today.

Additionally, 80 percent of Spanish managers confirm that they are decentralizing decision-making and distributing responsibility as AI takes on a larger role throughout the company; a trend that is reflected almost identically worldwide at 79 percent.

BET ON PEOPLE TO BOOST AI

The study also shows that for 85 percent of CEOs in Spain, the success of AI depends more on adoption by people than on technology, a vision shared by 83 percent of CEOs worldwide.

Between 2026 and 2028, national respondents expect 28 percent of employees to need retraining to perform a different role and 51 percent to need to upskill to perform their current role more effectively (very similar to the 29 percent and 53 percent, respectively, globally).

Globally, organizations that have redesigned five key business areas – technology, finance, human resources, operations and cross-functional collaboration – are four times more likely to have met their business objectives.

87 percent of Spanish CEOs say that talent and technology leadership roles are converging, suggesting closer integration between talent, technology and business strategy, higher than the global average of 77 percent.

THE INCREASE IN THE INFLUENCE OF THE HR DIRECTOR

“The data in this report confirms that artificial intelligence is already an operational reality in companies, and that Spanish CEOs have decided to lead this change by assuming the need to leave their comfort zone,” said IBM Consulting Managing Partner, Ana Gobernado.

For this directive, “that 88% place sovereign AI as a strategic key shows that they have understood something fundamental: having control of data and models is not incompatible with innovation. On the contrary, it is what gives them confidence to take risks and act with agility. At the same time, the consolidation of the figure of the AI ​​director in 82% of our organizations reflects precisely this leap in maturity.”

On the other hand, Gobernado emphasizes that “we are no longer talking about proofs of concept or consumer AI, but rather business AI aimed at redesigning processes from start to finish to materialize tangible results in the business”, which “evidences that the real challenge is not technological, but cultural.”

For this reason, he highlighted that the influence of human resources directors (CHRO) “is going to be more decisive than ever.” According to the study data, for 66 percent of the CEOs surveyed in Spain, their influence will increase in the coming years, a figure that exceeds the world average, which is 59 percent.