This new research challenges nearly every big AI narrative of 2026

RBC Capital Markets' latest CIO survey found no AI token panic, nor a SaaSpocalypse. Enterprise AI spending is surging, led by OpenAI.

Every six months or so, the bank's technology team checks in with chief information officers about their budgets and priorities. The summer 2026 wave turned up results that cut against almost every bearish story that has dominated AI headlines this year.

Token panic was a favourite topic in early 2026. The idea went that running large models day-to-day would burn cash faster than companies could justify. The CIOs told RBC the reverse. Token consumption is climbing, and budgets are growing to match. Nobody reported cutting back on inference because of cost.

The so-called SaaSpocalypse – the claim that AI agents would replace enterprise software subscriptions wholesale – also failed to materialise. CIOs are not ripping out Salesforce or Workday. They are layering AI on top. That means more spend, not less.

OpenAI came up again and again as the dominant provider. The survey showed OpenAI's enterprise business still expanding at a pace that rivals its consumer growth. Competitors have not eroded that lead as much as some market commentary suggests.

RBC's numbers run counter to the narrative of a slowing AI trade – the idea that the easy money has been made and the rest is noise. The CIO survey points to years of real growth in enterprise deployment, not a speculative peak.

One CIO quoted by RBC said the spending shift is structural, not cyclical. If that reading is right, the market is still pricing the buildout as if it were a fad.

The report arrives at a moment when AI stocks have been under pressure from macro uncertainty and rotation out of momentum names. A reminder that the underlying demand is still accelerating might be enough to shift the tone. At least until the next quarterly print tests the claim.