Businesses plan to double down on AI investment but security and privacy concerns remain top of mind

• Storyblok survey of 200 IT and procurement senior professionals finds 90% of businesses plan to increase AI investment in 2026, with more than half ‘significantly’ increasing their spend
• Data privacy and regulatory concerns are cited as the biggest hurdle to successful AI adoption (61%), followed by security risks (58%), and legacy system restrictions (43%)
• 39% say AI is now ‘fully integrated’ across their organisation, with only 7% stating they are at the ‘piloting’ stage, and 39% describing their adoption readiness as ‘mature’
• Overwhelming majority (91%) believe AI will improve content management within their organization yet only 23% have fully integrated Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO)

December 10, 2025 - New York, USA — Despite growing fears of an AI bubble, business sentiment towards AI investment remains overwhelmingly positive according to research released by enterprise CMS Storyblok.

Storyblok surveyed 200 professionals in IT and procurement who were responsible for AI adoption at their large scale businesses. The research covered their plans for 2026, hurdles to successful adoption, their views on the major benefits of AI, and how generative AI is impacting their content management strategies.

When asked about their AI investment plan for 2026, 57% said they expected it to ‘significantly increase’, 33% a ‘slight increase’, 9% believed budgets would stay the same. Only 2% said they expected a reduction in their AI budget.

Respondents also said they saw significant benefits from implementing AI technology, with 54% citing ‘operational efficiency gains’ as the biggest ROI, followed by ‘faster time to value’ (48%), ‘enhanced employee productivity’ (43%), and ‘streamlined decision making’ (41%).

Content management within businesses was cited as one of the top functions generative AI would impact, with 91% saying it would improve this function within their organization. Despite this optimism, 41% had either not started or were in the early stages of adopting GEO, with only 23% saying they had a full strategy implemented. Without a robust GEO strategy and supporting technology businesses cannot fully optimise their modern content strategy in response to AI.

When asked to rank the biggest obstacles their organization faces in adopting or scaling AI solutions, the most cited concern was data privacy and regulatory worries (61%) followed by security risks (58%), and legacy system restrictions (43%). These hurdles were reflected in how IT and procurement professionals felt AI adoption could become more successful. 62% said data governance and quality assurance needed to be improved, 54% want better integration with existing systems, and 42% said increased ‘vendor transparency’. Interestingly, only 12% of respondents mentioned cost-effective pricing as an area of improvement. This appears to underline the evidence that businesses are not yet concerned about AI investment costs.

Dominik Angerer, CEO and Co-Founder of Storyblok, said: “Our research paints an overwhelmingly positive business view of AI adoption as we look ahead to 2026. Budgets look set to continue to grow robustly and we have seen a significant increase in the number of businesses that say their adoption of AI is mature or fully integrated. There is also growing confidence that AI can and will deliver great ROI.

“Despite this positivity, concerns around security, governance, and regulatory compliance are likely to continue to grow and may inhibit AI adoption over the short and medium term. However, it is good news that the professionals in charge of AI procurement have these concerns top of mind.

“Content management is one of the areas that there seems to be near complete consensus on the transformational impact of AI. This, coupled with the fact that AI search is upending marketing and sales strategies, means there is a pressing need for businesses to use new AI platforms and tools to reimagine their content strategies. With less than a quarter of businesses saying they have adapted to these changes, it’s clear there’s a lot of work to be done to ensure businesses can regain confidence in their content.”

About Storyblok

Storyblok is a headless CMS that enables marketers and developers to create with joy and succeed in the AI-driven content era. It empowers you to deliver structured and consistent content everywhere: websites, apps, AI search, and beyond.

Legendary brands like Virgin Media O2, Oatly, and TomTom use Storyblok to make a bigger, faster market impact. It’s Joyful Headless™, and it changes everything.