State of the COO 2026

The role of chief operating officer remains ambiguous. However, the rapid rise of AI as a transformative business technology, coinciding with a generational rethink of global supply chains, means no other C-level executive is better positioned to help CEOs build enterprise value with AI as we enter the late 2020s. 

In our 2025 survey of 100 COOs from companies with revenue over $1 billion, we covered themes and topics including AI implementation, operational readiness, and risk priorities. Our takeaway? The COO is the key to getting results with AI and using those results to earn higher returns for investors. 

The Goldilocks Challenge 

For CEOs, the current AI challenge is a Goldilocks problem: how to not over-commit on AI investments in response to board pressure (running too hot) while also not falling behind competition by waiting too long to make targeted moves (running too cold). 

Technology follows a natural hype cycle that helps fund the capital investments needed to launch everything from railroads to e-commerce. Financial investors, tech vendors, and many CIOs and CTOs share a desire to boost new tech during its buildout phase. CFO conservatism may be too skeptical to seize the opportunity quickly enough. CEOs need the COO’s balanced and execution-oriented leadership at this stage in the AI era. 

Operations research (OR) as a discipline is about the mathematics of objectives and constraints: physical limits, materiality, human beings, bandwidth, and time. COOs are understandably hard to impress with anything other than proven, scalable examples of AI that can make material workflows dramatically better. This execution-oriented, real-world-aware perspective is exactly what business leaders need now. 

Survey Findings: Optimistic but Grounded 

Our research reveals COOs bring three essential qualities to AI transformation: 

1. Realistic about transformation timelines: While optimistic about AI’s potential, 62% believe that less than a quarter of current operational workflows will be fundamentally rebuilt or redesigned by agentic AI in the next 24 months. This tempered view prevents over-investment in unproven approaches while maintaining momentum. 
2. Willing to challenge executive hype: 83% think less than half of their CEO’s AI-related commitments “are operationally feasible within stated timelines.” Despite broad agreement on AI’s potential, most feel that expectations are way ahead of reality.
3. Pragmatic about investment approach: 83% describe their existing tech stack as a “foundation,” “toolset,” or “data repository” to build on with existing technology partners. Unlike past technology disruptions, the move to AI and agentic systems is seen by most COOs as an enhancement to the existing technology infrastructure.  

The Bottom Line

AI’s value to shareholders is best exploited under the direction of a C-suite leader who owns execution across end-to-end workflows at this moment of technology transformation. Corporate IT is too far removed from physical operations in product design, sourcing, production, logistics, and customer service to build and lead tech-ops fusion teams that leverage AI quickly enough to satisfy investors. AI’s productivity promise requires an end-to-end workflow mentality to deliver results. 

COOs are the best bet to bring a practical, balanced, execution mindset to the problem of delivering on AI’s promise to shareholders.