The average corporate investment in artificial intelligence reached 187 million euros in the third quarter of this year, a 13% increase compared to the 165 million euros recorded at the beginning of the first quarter, according to data provided by SAPO TeK. Despite this capital flow, the ability to convert this technology into concrete financial results remains a hurdle for the vast majority of organizations.
According to the Global AI Pulse Q3 2026 report by KPMG, which surveyed over 2,000 business leaders across 20 countries, only 12% of companies regularly evaluate the value generated against the costs of the technology. The discrepancy between the volume of investment and the effectiveness of its monitoring raises questions about the sustainability of current strategies.
Where investment is gaining the most momentum
The EMEA region, which includes Portugal, stands out as the engine of this acceleration, recording a 29% growth in planned investment, rising from 139 to 180 million euros. This figure significantly exceeds the 7% growth observed in the Americas, while the Asia-Pacific region has kept spending levels virtually unchanged.
Rui Gonçalves, Partner Head of Technology Consulting at KPMG in Portugal, warns that the risk for Portuguese companies does not lie in a lack of investment, but in the absence of mechanisms that link cost to efficiency and decision-making capacity. Technological maturity in the EMEA region has risen to 56%, a 16% growth since the beginning of the year, approaching the levels of implementation at scale observed in other geographies.
Security and sovereignty as new priorities
The nature of investment is also shifting. While increased productivity has lost weight as a primary objective, falling from 42% to 37%, cybersecurity, trust, and governance have gained ground on the corporate agenda. Currently, 86% of organizations are adapting their security strategies to deal with the new threats brought by AI.
Technological sovereignty is another point of growing tension, with 72% of companies expressing concerns about the control of models, data, and intellectual property. However, only 21% have a defined strategy that spans the entire organization. For the Portuguese IT market, the challenge is clear: the transition from an experimental phase to rigorous results and risk management will define who manages to transform investment into real competitiveness.
