Key Takeaways
- A new study has revealed that over a quarter of CEOs expect their organizations to act mostly without human intervention by 2028 due to AI.
- The findings suggest that businesses are moving towards a more autonomous ecosystem of operations.
- While AI and automation will change operations, elements such as building and retaining customer relationships will stay the same, CEOs predict.
Over a quarter of CEOs surveyed in a recent study expect their organizations to act primarily without human intervention by 2028, due to advances being made in automation and AI.
The study suggests that CEOs predict to move to a more autonomous business structure as AI and automation capabilities grow, particularly in areas of human decision-making.
On the other hand, the CEOs surveyed don’t anticipate any changes to their customer base as a result of the rise of AI. Instead, businesses are using the tool to retain and engage customer relationships.
CEOs: AI Will Enable Decision-Making Without Humans
According to a new study from Gartner, 27% of CEOs expect their organizations to operate mostly without human intervention in 2028, because of AI developments and growing automation capabilities.
David Furlonger, distinguished VP analyst at Gartner, suggests that the results show, “CEOs are realizing that AI is not simply another layer of automation. It is a catalyst for rebuilding the enterprise itself.”
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The findings are based on a survey of 469 CEOs and other senior business executives around the world. The survey ended in the fourth quarter of 2025.
AI Will Turn Digital Businesses into Autonomous Ones
The value AI could bring to enterprises hasn’t passed business leaders by. Overall, 80% of the CEOs surveyed expect AI to enact a high to medium degree of change to their companies’ operational capabilities. Gartner predicts this will cause businesses to move from the structure of a digital business to an autonomous one.
“Autonomous business is a strategy where self-learning software agents and machine customers make decisions, take action and create new types of value for organizations… While digital business changes what the organization does, autonomous business changes how the organization does it.” – Don Scheibenreif, distinguished VP analyst at Gartner.
Further findings make it apparent that CEOs and business leaders only expect their automation capabilities to grow. 54% of CEOs reported that their automation was limited to specific tasks, and only 13% expected it to remain at this level, by the end of 2028.
Similarly, 32% of CEOs expect their organizations to integrate self-learning and adaptable AI tools to assist with human decision-making. This certainly signals that the scope for automation, in the eyes of today’s CEOs, remains wide.
Customer Bases Will Remain Unchanged Due to AI
Recent studies have suggested that consumers want a human touch, even in the wake of AI developments. Customers still value the relationships they create with companies, and only 17% of the CEOs surveyed expect significant changes to their customer base because of AI.
In fact, the study found CEOs and business leaders are using AI to deepen their relationships with customers and increasingly, machine customers. Through 2026, Gartner predicts the number of large companies with a dedicated sales channel to access fast-growing machine customer markets will double from 2024.
However, while AI may assist with processes like decision-making and customer engagement, humans remain a necessary part of the process for training and developing the technology. What CEOs and business leaders should focus on is solidifying their existing people, assets, and financial structures to withstand the incoming changes.
