RBC Survey Shows Corporate AI Budgets Rising With OpenAI Leading Use

RBC Capital Markets surveyed more than 100 chief information officers and other technology leaders on corporate IT spending. Every respondent reported allocating budget to AI and large language model projects, with 91 percent creating entirely new AI budgets rather than reallocating existing funds.

Fifty-seven percent of respondents said ChatGPT is the AI model-based service they use most, compared with 12 percent for Anthropic's Claude.

Forty-four percent named OpenAI the highest-performing model provider, versus 24 percent for Anthropic. Nearly nine in 10 respondents described token budgets as manageable even though almost half have already exceeded their original AI spending plans. Most companies said they intend to increase future spending on AI tokens.

More than half of respondents reported AI already in production, and another 35 percent expect to reach production within six months. The vast majority anticipate higher software spending overall, and no respondent expects to spend less. Hybrid pricing models that combine seat licenses with usage-based charges have become the preferred purchasing method for enterprise AI.

Rishi Jaluria of RBC Capital Markets wrote that the results reflect broad-based enterprise spending momentum into the second half of 2026 as AI adoption moves from pilot to production. Insider reported the survey findings and noted that OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar leads one of the most popular AI companies among the surveyed chief information officers.