What Happens When CEOs Finally Get Honest About AI

Elkhorn, Nebraska, March 05, 2026 — There is a moment in nearly every room where the conversation shifts. It happens when people stop performing confidence they do not have and start telling the truth about where they actually are. That moment happened last Thursday in Elkhorn, Nebraska — and what came out of it says everything about where business leadership stands right now in the age of Artificial Intelligence.

The GPS Summit brought together a CEO advisory group for a full-day immersion into AI Leadership and AI Strategy. By the end of the session, the room had earned a perfect 5 out of 5 for content quality, a 4.8 out of 5 for delivery, and a 5 out of 5 for applicability. Every single attendee — 100 percent — said they would recommend the experience. But behind those scores was something more revealing: the raw, unfiltered data of where these executives truly stand on Digital Transformation, and what it is costing them to stand still.

The Truth About AI Readiness in the Room

Before the first slide even landed, the survey data was already telling a story. These were not uninformed leaders. They ran real companies, managed real teams, and faced real competitive pressure. And yet, when asked to assess their own AI readiness, the results were striking.

When asked how confident they were that their company would be competitive in AI by 2027, on a scale of 1 to 10, the group averaged just 6.6 out of 10. Nearly a third of respondents scored themselves between 3 and 6 — a candid acknowledgment that they are behind, uncertain, or both.

The data on operational readiness was equally sobering:

• 80 percent reported either no data ready for an AI pilot or only scattered, siloed exports — meaning they could not run a meaningful AI experiment today even if they wanted to.

• 93 percent had zero or only experimental AI pilots in production. Not a single one had scaled AI across their business.

• 80 percent said they either had no AI safety protections in place at all or were relying on informal habits with no consistent enforcement.

• 80 percent of companies had no single person accountable for AI outcomes — either no clear owner existed or responsibility was spread across a working group without a named leader.

And perhaps most telling of all: 80 percent had no KPIs tied to AI whatsoever. They were running experiments in the dark, with no way to measure what was working and no accountability structure to drive results.

This is not a technology problem. It is a leadership problem. And that distinction matters enormously for Business Growth.

What They Actually Want from AI

Here is where it gets interesting. Despite the gaps in readiness, these leaders know exactly what they want. When asked about the number one outcome they were seeking from AI:

• 53 percent said revenue growth

• 27 percent said improved Customer Experience

• 13 percent said cost reduction

They are not confused about the destination. They are confused about how to get there. And when asked what their biggest barrier was, the answers were illuminating: 47 percent cited talent and skills gaps as their top blocker. The second most common answer was data quality. Leadership buy-in came in third.

Notice what is not on that list: budget. Only one respondent flagged budget as a barrier. These leaders have resources. What they lack is the internal AI capability to deploy those resources intelligently.

One attendee put it plainly in their comments: "There is so much to stay in front of and absorb with AI and just the current business environment. Basic knowledge and the art of the possible are my most pressing issues that affect my implementation. Also, I am very concerned about sharing my personal and business confidential information with the world."

That comment captures something important. The fear is not about AI itself — it is about navigating it without a guide, without a framework, and without someone accountable inside the organization to own the outcomes.

What the Room Taught Us About Competitive Advantage

One of the most telling patterns in the survey data was the speed at which these companies can respond to performance drops. When asked how quickly their team could make a production change if a key performance number fell by 15 percent:

• Only 20 percent said same day

• 47 percent said within a month or quarterly

• One respondent said rarely, or only in crisis mode

In an economy where AI-enabled competitors can pivot in hours, a quarterly response window is not a strategy — it is a liability. The Competitive Advantage that AI creates is not just about automation or efficiency. It is about decision velocity. Customer Insights that used to take weeks to surface can now emerge in real time, and companies that cannot act on that information quickly will cede ground to those who can.

This is why the GPS Summit does not just teach tools. It builds the infrastructure of AI Leadership inside your organization — because a tool without a capable leader is just expensive noise.

The Learning That Landed Hardest

Attendees walked away with something they did not expect: clarity. Not about what AI can do in the abstract, but about what it needs to do inside their specific companies, and who needs to own that work.

One participant — a leader with direct experience in AI and tech — called the actionable content "fantastic" and gave the session a 10 out of 10 recommendation. Another reflected on what the session revealed about his own company:

"Great presentation. It gave a different perspective on AI and provided great tools and practical applications."

The feedback also surfaced a challenge that is common across CEO advisory groups: the spread of AI literacy inside any given room is wide. Some attendees are deep into implementation. Others are still orienting. One participant offered this constructive note:

"Is there a way to judge your audience's familiarity with AI before or during the presentation? Our group could have gotten more value if you had skipped most of the intro material and jumped right into how to build an AI workforce."

That is a fair observation — and it points to something important about where most leadership teams are right now. The gap between what the most AI-forward executives know and what the average executive knows is growing every quarter. That gap is exactly what the GPS Summit was designed to close.

Here is what participants identified as the most valuable territory covered:

• How to build an internal AI workforce rather than outsourcing AI strategy entirely

• The shift from using AI as a tool to deploying it as a business function with named ownership and measurable KPIs

• The practical frameworks for Customer Engagement through AI in Marketing

• The building blocks of a secure, scalable AI infrastructure — including how to handle sensitive data and compliance concerns like HIPAA

That last point generated significant discussion. Several attendees flagged data security as their single biggest barrier to adoption. As one participant noted, the challenge of building secure data systems is the front line of the Digital Transformation battle for many industries, and it deserves as much attention as any productivity tool.

What 87 Percent Are Missing

The most actionable number from the entire survey: 87 percent of attendees said they want to learn more about developing an internal AI Leader.

Not an AI vendor. Not an AI consultant. An internal AI Leader — someone inside their organization who can own the strategy, manage the infrastructure, hold the KPIs, and drive the outcomes they said they desperately want.

This is the GPS Summit's core premise. Companies that win with AI do not win because they bought the right software. They win because they invested in the right people and gave those people a clear mandate, a proven framework, and the authority to execute.

The GPS Summit program exists specifically to develop that person inside your organization. Whether you call them a Chief AI Officer, an AI Director, or simply your "HiPo" — your high-potential leader ready for the next challenge — the GPS Summit is designed to build the capability your company needs from the inside out.

You can learn more about the GPS Summit at https://www.breatheexp.com/gps-summit, review a full competitive comparison of the program at https://www.breatheexp.com/corporate-cohort, or enroll your high-potential leader directly at https://www.breatheexp.com/event-details/breathe-gps-summit.

To learn more about BREATHE! Exp and the full range of programs available, visit https://www.breatheexp.com/.

The Question That Matters Now

The data from Elkhorn, Nebraska is not unique to that room. It reflects a pattern showing up in CEO advisory groups across the country: high ambition, clear outcomes, significant barriers, and a growing urgency to close the gap before it becomes irreversible.

So here is the question worth sitting with: If 80 percent of your leadership team has no single person accountable for AI outcomes inside your company right now, how long can that remain true before a competitor — with a named AI leader, a clear KPI structure, and a scalable data strategy — begins taking ground you cannot get back?

The leaders in Elkhorn asked that question last Thursday. Most of them left with a plan to answer it. What about yours?