Case Study

EY-Parthenon & Potloc: How AI is redefining the software industry.

Reading time
1 min
Words
Potloc
Published date
October 2, 2026

CLIENT
Consulting firm

GOAL
Thought leadership, Annual CTO benchmark

INDUSTRY
Technology, Software

CHALLENGE

EY-Parthenon's clients were asking urgent questions about AI and software, and strong opinions were easier to find than reliable evidence.

Boards, investors and software leaders wanted to know whether software is becoming easier to replicate, whether engineering teams will shrink, and how AI is changing revenue models. Answering credibly for the third consecutive year meant hearing directly from hundreds of CTOs across Europe, with the right balance of company sizes, ownership types and verticals.

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SOLUTION

For the third consecutive wave, Potloc designed and fielded EY-Parthenon's survey, this year reaching 400 software CTOs across 13 European countries.

Potloc turned a broad set of research questions into a focused survey, advising on length, ease of response and where to concentrate. Phone and online interviewing kept this senior audience engaged through a 43-minute average completion, and 14 data quality checks were applied over 25 days of fieldwork. Potloc's dashboard delivered preliminary global insights, with the ability to identify meaningful trends, followed by a detailed data export for granular analysis.

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RESULTS

The data showed an industry creating value with AI faster than it can capture it. CTOs see monetization as their weakest area, yet push it to the bottom of their agenda.

That finding, alongside evidence that competitive advantage is moving from code to proprietary data and workflows, and that the engineering bottleneck is moving from coding to quality and judgment, gave EY-Parthenon a fuller view of how AI is changing competition, software development and software economics. The report gives specific guidance to software leaders, investors and lenders, backed by evidence rather than anecdote.

400 European software CTOs surveyed

13 European countries targeted

14 data quality controls employed

25 days of fieldwork

“ Strong opinions were easy to find. Reliable evidence was harder. Answering these questions meant reaching 400 CTOs across Europe, with the right mix of company sizes, ownership types and verticals. Potloc gave us access to that specific group of respondents at scale, allowing us to ground our analysis in evidence rather than anecdote. ”
Sander van Weele Partner EY-Parthenon, Software Strategy Group

Kickstart your next thought leadership survey.

With unmatched sample quality, time-saving analysis tools, and dedicated research experts at your disposal, Potloc is the go-to survey partner for PE & consulting firms.

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Cover of the EY-Parthenon x Potloc report Beyond the code: How AI is redefining the software industry, based on 400 European software CTOs, 2026.

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