The AI Paradox : More Spending, Elusive Impact – May 2026
Industry Survey by McKinsey
Over the period December 2025 to January 2026, McKinsey conducted a survey on the impact of AI across twenty-seven C-suite executives in the European consumer and textile industry covering retail, packaged goods, apparel and fashion. Sixteen of the twenty-seven executives cam from companies employing 20,000 people or greater.
Overview
Twenty-three of the twenty-seven surveyed reported increased AI activity with no-one reporting AI engagement was being scaled back.
Only six respondents reported an EBIT impact of > 1% with more than half saying it was “ too early to determine financial impact”. Despite this more than half described the 3-year AI ambition as being “significant” or “transformative”.
Twenty-two of twenty-seven respondents reported plans to increase AI spending over the next 12-months in the range of 10% to 30%. Five respondents stated AI spending would increase by greater than 30%.
Areas of AI investment included demand forecasting, supply chain operations and product development.
Impediments
Data infrastructure and technology platforms remain the major constraints to AI adoption with 75% of respondents stating their data infrastructure was “below the required level of maturity” to accelerate adoption. Technology infrastructure showed a similar pattern.
Only one respondent reported systems “robust enough” to support enterprise-wide deployment.
Most organisations reported being caught in the “pilot trap”.
Financial Impact
Only two respondents reported “substantial” financial gains being a 5% to 10% EBIT improvement, with most of this gain being associated with cost reduction and improvements in operational efficiency.
Emerging Areas of Focus
Agentic AI deployments capable of autonomously executing multistep tasks are attracting attention, but this is still an the informative, emerging stages of exploration.
AI risk management is also attracting attention, with the view being that the risk landscape is expanding. Respondents reported cybersecurity, data privacy, regulatory compliance an AI output accuracy as being areas of concern.
All these areas will be impacted by the EU AI Act, that will be introduced in phases commencing this year (2026). This will introduce new requirements around data transparency, risk classification, and data governance across AI enabled systems.
Summary
In McKinsey’s view the European consumer and textile industry “has crossed a threshold” with AI no longer being a peripheral experiment, but has matured into a strategic priority – with budgets growing, ambitions expanding, and AI applications broadening.
However, data and technology maturity to accommodate AI remains an important constraint. .
The full QuantumBlack Report by McKinsey may be found here