NEW RELEASE:
The 2026 Generative AI Survey for Investment Promotion Professionals Full Report
“This is the beginning of a lifelong learning journey as practice makes perfect, revealing the importance of appreciating the limits of novel tools and remembering they should not replace human beings.”
Survey Response - The 2026 Generative AI Survey for Investment Promotion Professionals
INDUSTRY ENDORSEMENTS
What IPA Leaders Are Saying on LinkedIn
"Are you using AI in your IPA work - even if not - you can get insight into the interaction between the world of AI and investment promotion below - just download the report for detailed insight."
Christina Schiøtt Liaos, European Head of Foreign Direct Investment and Capital Investment, UK Department for Business and Trade
"I've known Greg Rogers for a long time and we've spent many conversations exchanging ideas on how AI can be used to improve investment promotion.
His latest report on Generative AI adoption in Investment Promotion Agencies provides a useful snapshot of where the sector is today.
The headline for me is that usage is growing quickly, but many organisations are still working out how to turn that into consistent impact.
That's a challenge many of us are grappling with. As part of our work shaping London's future FDI strategy, we're exploring how AI can help teams work more effectively, develop deeper market insight and create more value for investors.
If you're involved in investment attraction, economic development or business growth, I'd recommend giving Greg's report a read. There are some practical ideas that can help agencies move from experimentation to real performance gains.
Congratulations to Greg on pulling together an important piece of research."
Neil Brigden, Director - FDI @Grow London, London and Partners
Find out how other Investment Promotion Agency professionals are using Gen AI to attract investment in 2026
The 2026 Generative AI Survey for Investment Promotion Professionals Full Report includes pioneering research insights on Gen AI usage and training informed by the experience of 56 IPA practitioners from 25+ agencies working across six continents​. Fill out the form below to receive the full report.
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About the Author
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This research was conducted by Greg Rogers - one of the few specialists globally focused on helping Investment Promotion Agencies accelerate the adoption of Generative AI. Drawing on 25 years of experience across international trade, FDI attraction, economic development and innovation, Greg helps IPA teams embed AI across investor-facing workflows to increase productivity, strengthen value-add and improve investment attraction performance. Through industry research, practical easy-to-use FDI workflow prompt stacks, training programmes and thought leadership, Greg supports agencies in moving from isolated AI experimentation to consistent, organisation-wide adoption that delivers measurable results.
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Key Findings
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Here are ten key findings from the survey:​
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75% of respondents are using Gen AI for their investment attraction work – most on an hourly or daily basis
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63% think Gen AI is now essential to the successful delivery of investment attraction
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Inconsistent use of Gen AI across end-to-end investment attraction workflows is viewed as the main barrier to maximising the value of Gen AI
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Most consider themselves to be Competent Users of Gen AI, very few as Advanced or Expert / Power Users
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The average rating for assessing the impact of using Gen AI for their investment attraction work was just 3.5 out of 5 indicating noticeable scope for improvement
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63% say their IPA is encouraging the use of Gen AI
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Less than 20% said their IPA provides Gen AI training tailored to investment attraction
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Microsoft Copilot Chat and M365 Copilot (Enterprise versions) are the most commonly used Gen AI tools
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Less than a quarter of respondents who use Gen AI for their work indicated that their IPA monitors the impact of Gen AI usage for investment attraction
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Most expect that over the next five years Gen AI will primarily augment existing roles, changing how IPA professionals work
The report sets out strategic recommendations for IPA leaders and operational recommendations to help IPA professionals to supercharge six investment attraction workflows.
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Report Content
​Inside this report, you'll get access to survey data on:
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The Gen AI usage and impact rates for investment attraction work
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Benefits experienced
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Gen AI tools and functionality type usage
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Microsoft 365 Copilot applications used
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Concerns and risk mitigation measures
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Barriers to maximising value across workflows
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Impact by investment attraction workflow
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Expected impact on jobs over the next five years
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Impact monitoring
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Self-assessed skill levels
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Training provision and Gen AI adoption support
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​Six strategic recommendations for IPA leaders; and
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Eight operational recommendations for investment promotion professionals
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Fill out the form to get instant access to the full report.
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Then visit the free-to-access IPA AI Innovation Lab section of this website to:
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Experiment with FDI workflow prompts across six workflows for 3 different skill levels
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Imagine the future of investment attraction with the FutureBuilt fictional FDI podcast
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Illuminate ways to deploy Gen AI across the six FDI workflows with the IPA persona audio library
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Explore ideas for exchanging and embedding AI best practices across IPA teams and workflows
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The IPA AI Innovation Lab addresses the four main barriers to maximising the value of Gen AI identified in the survey and will help you win more high value investment, smarter, faster.