74% of C-Suite Leaders Overstated AI Progress as New Book Wayfinding Launches

KUNGFU.AI's Founders Pair a Survey of 300 C-Suite Leaders With New AI Leadership Book Depicting the Wayfinding Methodology for C-Suites to Map Out AI Direction

AUSTIN, TX, UNITED STATES, October 20, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Under a facade of confidence, most leaders don’t know what to do about AI. In a new survey of 300 C-suite leaders, 74% admit they have projected more confidence in their AI strategy than they actually felt, and 59% say a large share of their AI initiatives are reactions to board pressure rather than grounded in strategy. Today in response to the data above, KUNGFU.AI CEO Stephen Straus and Senior AI Strategist Ben Szuhaj are publishing Wayfinding: A Business Fable About Leading in the Age of AI.

Wayfinding follows Sarah Foster, a successful CEO who hasn’t been paying attention to AI and now has to. Drawing on KUNGFU.AI's work across more than 200 engagements in over 30 industries, the book follows her as she separates real AI value from innovation theater, builds trust with her team, and learns when to accelerate and when to slow down. Eleven original frameworks put the human-centered Wayfinding methodology to work: set a destination, test assumptions, read the signals, and adjust course without losing strategic purpose. The book can be read on a single flight.

"Very few leaders have figured out how to lead in the era we’re entering," said co-author and Senior AI Strategist at KUNGFU.AI, Ben Szuhaj. "You can’t point to someone and say, ‘that’s what a good leader looks like in the age of AI.’ Wayfinding is our attempt to paint that portrait: a leader willing to say ‘I don’t know’ so she can learn, to act before she’s sure, and to bring people along with her. We wrote Wayfinding as a story because stories preserve nuance better than frameworks do, and the AI discourse would benefit from more nuance."

KUNGFU.AI's new study, The Wayfinding Report: The AI Confidence Gap, surveyed 300 U.S. C-suite leaders at companies with $500 million or more in revenue (Wakefield Research, April 30 to May 12, 2026). Here are the key findings:

72% have killed a major AI initiative that still had internal support, and 81% have rebuilt their AI strategy at least twice in 24 months.
14% say more than 60% of their AI investment has delivered a positive return.
79% say key QA or testing steps were overlooked or shortened to move faster, yet 97% agree ethical AI will be a competitive differentiator.

"Wayfinding is the ability to move through deep uncertainty without knowing either the final destination or the route," said co-author and CEO of KUNGFU.AI, Stephen Straus. “Navigating is different: you know where you’re going and need to figure out how to get there. Nobody knows where AI is going, so every leader needs to get good at Wayfinding, whether they realize it or not. Our research shows 99% of executives have reset their AI strategy in the past two years. That, in and of itself, isn’t a bad thing. Resetting can be healthy, as long as you’re learning each time. But that requires boards to give leaders room to say what they know and what they don’t.”

An AI leadership book built for CEOs, it carries early praise from Steve Rohleder, Chair of the Board at Cognizant and former global COO of Accenture. In addition, Whitney Johnson, Thinkers50 management and author of Disrupt Yourself, calls it "a propulsive, can't-put-it-down fable."

Wayfinding (Matt Holt Books/BenBella) is available today in all formats at Simon & Schuster, Amazon, Barnes & Noble along with www.kungfu.ai/wayfinding. You can find the audio book at Podium Entertainment and Audible.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Stephen Straus is co-founder and CEO of KUNGFU.AI, an AI-focused management consulting and engineering firm founded in 2017. A serial entrepreneur who has started six companies, he spent nine years in venture capital and holds degrees from Colgate University and Harvard Business School.

Ben Szuhaj is a Senior AI Strategist at KUNGFU.AI, where he helps organizations build AI strategies. He previously worked at Gartner and led strategic initiatives at Doblin, Deloitte Consulting's innovation practice, and writes a Substack newsletter on AI and leadership.

ABOUT KUNGFU.AI:
KUNGFU.AI is an AI-native management consulting and engineering firm founded in 2017, dedicated to creating transformative value through innovative, responsible AI. The firm has completed more than 230 on-time, on-budget engagements, averages a 4.7 out of 5 client satisfaction score, and has worked with clients including Indeed, Johns Hopkins, Keller Williams, SXSW, WM, the Department of Defense's Chief Digital and AI Office, and the University of Texas at Austin. Gartner named KUNGFU.AI among emerging AI-native providers in January 2026.

Lauren Cobello
Leverage with Media PR
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