Artificial intelligence (AI) is entering a more challenging phase next year as companies move beyond experimentation and begin demanding clear financial returns from a technology that has delivered big gains to only a small group of early adopters, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Taiwan said yesterday.
Most organizations have been able to justify AI investments through cost recovery or modest efficiency gains, but few have achieved meaningful revenue growth or long-term competitive advantage, the consultancy said in its 2026 AI Business Predictions report.
This growing performance gap is forcing executives to reconsider how AI is deployed across their organizations, it said.
Photo: Reuters
“Many companies are getting something back from AI, but not enough to call it transformation,” PwC Taiwan chief digital officer Chang Chin-jui (張晉瑞) said.
Only a handful of companies are seeing rapid revenue growth and higher valuations, while the majority experience limited returns, and measurable productivity gains remain difficult to pin down, he said.
In many cases, AI investments break even or deliver incremental benefits rather than drive true transformation, he said.
The dynamics are starting to change as corporate leadership plays a more active role, the consultancy said.
PwC said it expects firms to move away from scattered pilot projects toward top-down AI strategies in the coming year.
Senior executives are increasingly focusing on a small number of high-impact processes, directing resources to initiatives that promise the greatest value rather than funding dozens of disconnected projects, it said.
Centralized AI studios are also becoming more common, giving companies tighter control over technology, talent and operational standards, it added.
A key area of focus would be “agentic AI” — systems capable of carrying out tasks autonomously, PwC Taiwan said.
With clearer performance targets, stronger testing and tighter oversight, these AI systems are expected to become more effective and reliable next year, it said.
The shift is also poised to reshape the workforce. As AI takes over routine and technical tasks in areas such as software development, finance and administrative operations, the demand for mid-level specialists is likely to decline, it said.
Companies are expected to prioritize employees who understand business processes and can supervise AI systems, allowing senior staff to focus on strategy and decisionmaking, it said.
This change is anticipated to increase demand for multidisciplinary “generalists,” who can oversee agentic AI and ensure its actions remain aligned with corporate goals, it said.
Another emerging priority is AI orchestration — the process of integrating multiple AI models, tools, data sources and workflows to function seamlessly as a unified system, PwC Taiwan said.
These control layers would be crucial for turning conceptual ideas into operational production systems, while maintaining security, compliance and oversight, it added.
UNPRECEDENTED PACE: Micron Technology has announced plans to expand manufacturing capabilities with the acquisition of a new chip plant in Miaoli Micron Technology Inc unveiled a newly acquired chip plant in Miaoli County yesterday, as the company expands capacity to meet growing demand for advanced DRAM chips, including high-bandwidth memory chips amid the artificial intelligence boom. The plant in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), which Micron acquired from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion, is expected to make a sizeable capacity contribution to the company from fiscal 2028, the company said in a statement. It would be an extended production site of Micron’s large-scale manufacturing hub in Taichung, the company said. As the global semiconductor industry is racing to reach US$1 trillion
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings Ltd has applied for regulatory approval to acquire the Taiwan operations of Germany-based Delivery Hero SE's Foodpanda in a deal valued at about US$600 million. Grab submitted the filing to the Fair Trade Commission on Friday last week, with the transaction subject to regulatory review and approval, the company said in a statement yesterday. Its independent governance structure would help foster a healthy and competitive market in Taiwan if the deal is approved, Grab said. Grab, which is listed on the NASDAQ, said in the filing that US-based Uber Technologies Inc holds about 13 percent of
Taiwan’s food delivery market could undergo a major shift if Singapore-based Grab Holdings Ltd completes its planned acquisition of Delivery Hero SE’s Foodpanda business in Taiwan, industry experts said. Grab on Monday last week announced it would acquire Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations for US$600 million. The deal is expected to be finalized in the second half of this year, with Grab aiming to complete user migration to its platform by the first half of next year. A duopoly between Uber Eats and Foodpanda dominates Taiwan’s delivery market, a structure that has remained intact since the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) blocked Uber Technologies Inc’s
Memory chip stocks extended their losses yesterday after Alphabet Inc’s Google publicized research that could allow more efficient use of the storage needed for artificial intelligence (AI) development. SK Hynix Inc and Samsung Electronics Co, South Korean leaders in the market, fell more than 6 percent and about 5 percent respectively in Seoul. In the US, Micron Technology Inc, Western Digital Corp and Sandisk Corp slid more than 2 percent in pre-market trading, after they all closed lower on Wednesday. Memory companies have been on a tear in recent months as the rapid development of AI infrastructure triggered a spike in chip
RSS