83% of Executives Say Their Boards Acted on Forecasts Known to Be Outdated

Board's 2026 Planning Intelligence Report Finds Decision Pressure Rising as Just 27% of Business Leaders Can Re-Plan in Real Time

BOSTON, Sept. 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Board, the Enterprise Planning Platform, today released The 2026 Planning Intelligence Report, based on a survey of 300 CFOs, CIOs and COOs at enterprises with annual revenues of at least $100 million. Eighty-three percent of respondents say their board has made a strategic decision based on a forecast they already knew was outdated, with 40% reporting significant business consequences from that decision.

Eighty-five percent report increased pressure over the past year to make faster decisions, yet only 27% can re-plan in real time. Three-quarters of respondents report that roughly half or more of their planning decisions rely on data that is more than 30 days old.

"Forecasts go stale when the data behind them moves faster than the planning cycle," said Gordon Pothier, CFO of Board. "Finance leaders see the consequences, but addressing the problem requires current operational and market information to reach the plan before it gets to the board. Directors need a view of the business that is grounded in the conditions at the time decisions need to be made."

The gap between decision speed and planning speed is unfolding in an unsettled economic backdrop. Fifty-one percent of executives believe the economy is already in a recession or expect one within the next 12 months, raising the stakes for how quickly companies can adjust pricing, hiring, inventory and investment as conditions change.

Businesses are looking to AI to help close that gap, even as the financial case remains uneven. Fifty-nine percent say their AI investment exceeds the value it currently delivers, yet 92% of that group plan to increase spending over the next 12 months. Twenty-one percent say their organizations present a more optimistic picture of AI performance to boards, investors and peers than current reality warrants.

Additional key findings from Board's 2026 Planning Intelligence Report include:

• LLMs are a major source of strategic input: 61% of executives cite large language models (LLMs), including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Copilot, among the external sources that most influence their strategic decisions. LLMs were the most-cited option, ahead of industry peers and professional networks (42%), technology vendors (37%), external consultants (28%), and Gartner (14%).

• AI is influencing executive decisions as formal governance remains limited: 31% of executives follow an AI recommendation even when it conflicts with their own judgment. That rises to 48% among CFOs, compared with 33% of CIOs and 11% of COOs. Thirty-nine percent report formal governance and escalation processes for AI-driven decisions. By the end of 2028, 36% expect AI to lead most enterprise planning decisions.

• CFOs lead CIOs and COOs in cross-functional trust for decision-making under pressure: 60% of CFOs fully trust the other two functions to make well-informed decisions under pressure, compared with 52% of CIOs and 36% of COOs.

• Agentic AI adoption and ROI vary sharply across the C-suite: 66% of CIOs and 60% of CFOs report active use in real business processes, compared with 38% of COOs. In a separate question, 73% of CIOs and 71% of CFOs report clear, measurable ROI from agentic AI, compared with 52% of COOs.

"Buying more AI won't resolve the underlying planning problem," said David Marmer, Chief Product Officer at Board. "Companies need to connect AI to the decisions they are trying to improve, the assumptions behind those decisions, and the people accountable for acting on them. They also need to understand how a recommendation will affect finance, operations and the supply chain."

To read the full 2026 Planning Intelligence Report, visit https://www.board.com/resources/the-2026-planning-intelligence-report.

About Board

Board is the most trusted Agentic Planning Platform, combining business context, Continuous Planning, and efficient enterprise AI to deliver confident, aligned, and faster decisions. Built to complement enterprise data and AI strategies, Board brings together enterprise data and external signals with planning models, business logic, domain expertise, and decision context in one governed platform. Continuous Planning senses change, models scenarios and trade-offs, aligns financial and operational plans, and turns decisions into action. With Governed Agentic Intelligence, agentic AI understands how the business makes decisions, reasons effectively, recommends changes, and supports action with human oversight and accountability.

Visionary global brands including H&M, BASF, Burberry, Toyota, Coca-Cola, HSBC, and thousands more across the globe trust Board to make explainable, accountable decisions that improve business outcomes.

SOURCE Board