Stagwell’s research found 85 per cent of chief executives think AI is in a healthy growth phase rather than bubbling out of control, even as investors fret about runaway spending. The poll asked bosses to pick statements that matched their own views.

Stagwell chairman and chief executive Mark Penn told the Wall Street Journal: “What I saw in this poll… is unbridled enthusiasm for AI”. He added that 95 per cent of respondents viewed the technology as transformative while five per cent thought it had been overhyped.

Business-to-business leaders looked slightly more upbeat than those flogging goods to consumers, with 89 per cent showing a positive outlook compared with 79 per cent.

The study included 100 chief executives running US companies that employ at least 10,000 staff.

Penn told the Wall Street Journal CEO Council Summit in Washington that bosses believe AI will juice productivity and strengthen both the domestic and global economies while sharpening competitiveness, but it will clobber the employment market.

He noted that the public is presently more rattled by inflation than job losses, although anxiety about AI is rising.

Penn said: “So you are eventually going to get to consumer concern that AI’s promised efficiencies may carry labour market costs that bosses are not ready to address."

National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett, who is tipped for the top job at the Federal Reserve, tried to settle nerves at the summit.

Hassett said: “I don’t anticipate mass job losses and added that although technological shifts unsettle people, the history of it is that electricity turned out to be a good thing. The internal combustion engine turned out to be a good thing. The computer turned out to be a good thing, and I think AI will as well."