PwC’s Global Chairman Mohamed Kande summarises the key findings from this year’s CEO Survey, featuring insights on AI, sustainability, and the urgent need for business reinvention. 'The future is already here—it’s just not evenly distributed,' said speculative fiction author William Gibson. This sentiment echoes through the results of PwC’s 28th Annual Global CEO Survey, based on responses from 4,701 chief executives representing every region of the world economy. Some CEOs are moving rapidly to capture the growth and value-creation potential inherent in the defining forces of our era. They’re investing in generative AI, addressing the opportunities and threats posed by climate change, and reinventing their operations and business models to create value in new ways. Yet many others are moving slowly, constrained by leadership mindsets and processes that lead to inertia. This latter group has two options: either accelerate their reinvention efforts or bet on hope—hope that, with just a few tweaks, today’s operating and business models will continue to deliver results even as AI and the transition to a low-carbon economy set value in motion across the economy. Expectations for GenAI remain high. One-third of CEOs say GenAI has increased revenue and profitability over the past year, and half expect their investments in the technology to increase profits in the year ahead. Yet trust remains a hurdle to adoption. Investment in climate actions and sustainability is paying off. One in three CEOs report that climate-friendly investments made over the last five years have resulted in increased revenue. In addition, two-thirds say these investments have either reduced costs or had no significant cost impact. Sector boundaries are blurring. Almost 40% of CEOs say their companies started to compete in new sectors in the last five years. Consistent with last year’s survey, four in ten CEOs believe their company will no longer be viable in ten years if it continues on its current path. The pace of reinvention is slow. On average, only 7% of revenue over the last five years has come from distinct new businesses added by organisations in this period. Barriers to reinvention include weak decision-making processes, low levels of resource reallocation from year to year, and a mismatch between the short expected tenure of many CEOs and powerful long-term forces, or megatrends, at work. Underlining the tension across time horizons, CEOs are optimistic about the near-term outlook even as they worry about their company’s long-term viability. Almost 60% expected global economic growth to increase over the next 12 months, up from 38% in last year’s survey and only 18% two years ago. By a ratio of more than two to one, CEOs expect to increase rather than decrease (42% vs. 17%) headcount in the year ahead. Only two years after GenAI appeared on the radar of most executives, companies around the world are adopting it at scale. What’s more, many CEOs are seeing promising results. More than half (56%) tell us that GenAI has resulted in efficiencies in how employees use their time, while around one-third report increased revenue (32%) and profitability (34%). These outcomes are slightly below the heady expectations CEOs shared with us a year ago, but this has not dampened their optimism. CEO expectations for GenAI impacts in the year ahead are, in fact, remarkably similar to those reported in last year’s survey. About half of CEOs (49%) expect GenAI to increase the profitability of their company over the next 12 months. These figures are broadly consistent with other PwC research among executives, employees, and investors. In PwC’s Global Workforce Hopes & Fears Survey 2024, 62% of employees said they expected GenAI to increase their efficiency at work over the next 12 months. In our Global Investor Survey 2024, two-thirds of investors and analysts said they expect the companies in which they invest to achieve productivity gains from GenAI in the year ahead. Although it is early days, there’s nothing in our data to suggest a widespread reduction in employment opportunities across the global economy. Some CEOs (13%) say they have reduced headcount in the last 12 months due to GenAI; companies in insurance, retail, pharmaceuticals, and life sciences were most likely to have made such cuts (16%). Yet a slightly higher percentage (17%) tell us that headcount has increased as a result of GenAI investments. Looking forward, almost half of CEOs say that their biggest priorities over the next three years are integrating AI (including GenAI) into technology platforms as well as business processes and workflows. Fewer are planning to use AI to develop new products and services or reshape core business strategy. For most companies, this order of priorities makes sense. More surprising is that only a third of CEOs are planning to integrate AI into workforce and skills strategy. This could be a misstep.