Among the eight industries surveyed, digital native executives are the most likely to name “embed AI across core business processes at scale” as their single highest investment priority over the next two years. At 18%, digital natives lead every other industry. That is nearly 2x the cross-industry average of 9.8%, 2.5x the rate in financial services, banking and insurance, and nearly 3x the rate in retail and consumer goods. The next closest industry is energy, oil and gas, at 12.6%.

This tracks. AI is increasingly part of the product, the customer experience, the operating model, and the margin structure. This isn't about cost reduction or compliance. Cost reduction and compliance matter, but they are not the strategic center of gravity. For tech companies, the priority is architectural: embed AI deeply enough across the business that it compounds. No other industry prioritizes scaling AI this explicitly.

Here's where the data gets more interesting. When you look at how AI is actually being used across business functions, digital natives are clearly ahead on breadth of scaled adoption. Across every function measured, they are above the cross-industry average when “at scale” is defined as either deploying AI across workflows or fully embedding AI at scale. The gap appears when the bar moves from deployment to full embedding. In the survey, “fully embedded at scale” means AI is not just being tested or deployed in workflows. It means AI is being used by 100+ users, backed by SLAs, and monitored for performance and impact.

On that measure, digital natives lead in only one of eight business functions: R&D/product development. Outside the technical core, the story changes. They rank fifth or lower on fully embedded AI in HR, legal and compliance, finance, marketing, and operations and supply chain. Finance is the clearest example. Digital natives have one of the broadest AI footprints in finance, but rank seventh out of eight industries on full embedding. Media and entertainment leads them by nearly 13 percentage points. Telecom leads them by 11 points. Operations and supply chain show the same pattern. Digital natives have the highest rate of AI deployed across operational workflows, but rank sixth on full embedding. Telecom leads by more than eight points, with media and entertainment and manufacturing also ahead. That is the scaling gap.