For many business leaders, artificial intelligence is no longer a “future trend”. It is already forcing real, immediate changes. According to a survey by Gartner shows that 8 out of 10 CEOs believe Artificial Intelligence will reshape how their organisations operate and not just improve efficiency.
What’s becoming clear is that AI is not just about automating a few tasks anymore. It is pushing companies to rethink the basics such as how decisions are made, how work gets done, and even how value is created.
A shift in mindset
According to Don Scheibenreif, a distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner, this marks a move toward what is called an “autonomous business,” where systems can learn, decide, and act with minimal human involvement.
In simpler terms, businesses are slowly moving from people doing most of the thinking to machines taking on a bigger share of decision-making. The survey, which covered nearly 500 CEOs and senior executives globally, suggests that this shift is already underway—not something years away.
From small automation to big change
According to the survey, most companies presently are still using AI in limited ways such as automating specific tasks or processes. But that is changing fast. By 2028, very few CEOs expect to stay at that basic level. Instead, some see AI helping humans make better decisions and others believe entire processes could run with little to no human involvement.
As David Furlonger, a VP Analyst at Gartner puts it, AI is not just another tech upgrade but it is something that could reshape the entire organisation from the inside out.
“As AI agents automate purchasing, pricing, and negotiation, they remove the extra steps and inefficiencies that transaction fees were designed to cover. This is forcing CEOs to rethink profit models and pivot toward recurring, outcome‑based revenue models to avoid losing profit,” Furlonger said.
This shift is not just operational but also financial too. Nearly a third of CEOs are worried that traditional ways of making money, especially transaction-based models, could take a hit.
Why? Because AI can remove the “middle steps” such as things like negotiation, pricing, or processing that companies often charge for. That is pushing businesses to rethink how they earn, with more focus on subscription-style or outcome-based models rather than one-time transactions.
Customers are not changing but behavior is
Interestingly, CEOs don’t expect AI to drastically change who their customers are. Instead, the focus is on building stronger relationships with the same customers and preparing for a new kind of buyer: machines.