2026 AI Index Report
A broad, independently compiled view of AI capability, investment, adoption, policy, and responsible-AI trends. Start here when you need the landscape before the sales pitch.
Explore the report (opens in a new tab)The AI reading desk / July 2026
Useful signals from a noisy AI world.
Research and field guidance for deciding where AI belongs, how to connect it to customer work, and how to measure whether it helped.
Curated source material
What to read now.
This is an editorial index to trusted external research—not a claim that Zeta produced or participated in the underlying studies.
AI adoption among small businesses
Qualitative findings on how smaller firms are using—or planning to use—AI, including customer service and the barriers that shape adoption.
Read the research brief (opens in a new tab)AI adoption by small and medium-sized enterprises
A cross-market discussion of the productivity opportunity, adoption gap, skills, data, finance, and policy conditions affecting smaller organizations.
Open the OECD paper (opens in a new tab)The state of AI: agents, innovation, and transformation
A global survey showing wider AI use and growing agent experimentation, while scaled impact remains difficult for many organizations.
Read the global survey (opens in a new tab)State of Sales, seventh edition
Current Salesforce research on how sales organizations are approaching AI agents, changing roles, data, enablement, and customer expectations.
Explore the sales report (opens in a new tab)Generative AI risk management profile
Cross-sector guidance for identifying and managing generative-AI risk through governance, measurement, pre-deployment testing, and ongoing evaluation.
Use the NIST guidance (opens in a new tab)A simple reading path
From trend to operating decision.
You do not need to follow every AI release. You need enough context to choose one valuable workflow, define its boundaries, and measure the result.
- 01Understand the shift
Use the AI Index to separate durable movement from launch-week noise.
- 02Find the operating fit
Use adoption research to identify work that is frequent, costly, delayed, or disconnected.
- 03Set the controls
Use responsible-AI guidance to define data access, testing, human review, and escalation.
- 04Measure useful work
Track completed work, quality, cost, and business outcome against the baseline.
Turn reading into a decision
Bring one workflow, not an AI wish list.
We’ll identify the customer signal, current handoffs, available data, human owner, and success metric before recommending a system.
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