Business leaders at the 2026 Milken Institute Global Conference said artificial intelligence is boosting productivity and reshaping business models across industries [1, 2].
The shift represents a transition from using AI for simple tasks to integrating it into the core operating models of global enterprises. This evolution affects how companies generate revenue and manage their workforce.
During the event in Beverly Hills, California, executives said AI is automating workflows and creating new efficiency standards [1, 3]. Some leaders highlighted the technology's ability to reinvent legacy operations. Jessica Hogue, Chief Data Officer at Hearst, said, "AI allows us to unlock insights at scale that were impossible before, fundamentally changing how we create content" [4].
In the professional services sector, the impact is focused on reducing manual labor to prioritize high-level strategy. John Smith, a partner at PwC, said teams are using generative AI to draft reports in minutes, which frees consultants to focus on strategy [3]. This trend is mirrored across the "Big Four" accounting and consulting firms as they integrate AI into client deliverables [3].
Other industry leaders focused on the quantifiable gains in operational speed. Laura Chen, CEO of AppianWorld, said automating workflow with AI has cut processing time by 40% [1] in her company's private-markets division. While some executives view these specific workflow gains as the primary benefit, others said the technology is driving a broader transformation of how businesses generate revenue [4, 1].
These leaders described AI as a defining force for the modern economy. By automating repetitive tasks, companies are attempting to scale operations without a proportional increase in overhead costs [1, 2].
“AI allows us to unlock insights at scale that were impossible before, fundamentally changing how we create content.”
The consensus among these executives suggests that AI has moved past the experimental phase and into a deployment phase. The tension between using AI for incremental efficiency—such as reducing processing times—and using it for total business model reinvention indicates that industries are currently split between optimizing existing processes and inventing new ones.
