How AI Is Driving Revenue, Cutting Costs and Boosting Productivity for Every Industry in 2026

NVIDIA's annual State of AI reports, based on more than 3,200 responses from around the world, show that AI is helping companies increase annual revenue and drive down annual costs while boosting productivity. The surveys cover financial services, retail and consumer packaged goods, healthcare and life sciences, telecommunications and manufacturing. Eighty eight percent of respondents said AI has had an impact on increasing annual revenue in some or all parts of their business. Thirty percent reported a significant increase greater than 10 percent. Thirty three percent saw a 5 to 10 percent increase, and 25 percent noted gains of less than 5 percent. Eighty seven percent of respondents said AI helped reduce annual costs. Twenty five percent said the decrease was greater than 10 percent. Retail and consumer packaged goods companies reported the highest rate of significant cost reductions, with 37 percent noting decreases of more than 10 percent. The top three AI goals cited in the surveys are creating operational efficiencies at 34 percent, improving employee productivity at 33 percent and opening new business opportunities and revenue streams at 23 percent. Fifty three percent of respondents said improved employee productivity was one of the biggest impacts AI had on business operations. In telecommunications, 99 percent of respondents said AI helped improve employee productivity. Manufacturing and retail companies provided examples of these gains. PepsiCo converted selected facilities into high fidelity 3D digital twins, achieving a 20 percent increase in throughput and 10 to 15 percent reductions in capital expenditure. Lowe's built AI powered digital twins of more than 1,750 stores to speed operations and enable low cost 3D model generation.