Corporate leaders worldwide are the most pessimistic about their companies' revenue prospects in five years. This is due to the uneven return from artificial intelligence (AI), growing geopolitical risk, and increasing cyber threats. This is shown by the results of the 29th Annual Global CEO Survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), conducted among 4,454 business leaders from 95 countries and territories.

According to the survey, only three out of ten (30 percent) respondents are confident in the growth of their companies' revenues in the next 12 months, compared to 38 percent in 2025 and 56 percent in 2022. The analysis also shows that while CEOs are managing their businesses in a complex operating environment shaped by rapid technological changes, geopolitical uncertainty, and economic pressure, many companies are still trying to turn their investments into permanent financial gains.

The most serious question facing CEOs is whether their companies are transforming fast enough to keep up with technological changes, including artificial intelligence. This is cited as a major concern by 42 percent of respondents, ranking it well ahead of threats related to innovation capacity (29 percent) or medium/long-term viability (29 percent).

Despite massive experimentation, only one in eight (12 percent) business leaders claim that AI has brought benefits in both cost and revenue growth. A total of 33 percent of participants report improvements in either costs or revenues, while 56 percent state that they have not yet seen significant financial benefits from artificial intelligence.

The survey shows a growing divide between companies that are experimenting with AI and those that are implementing it at scale. Business leaders who report both cost benefits and revenue growth as a result of artificial intelligence are two to three times more likely to state that they have widely integrated AI into their products and services, management and strategic decision-making processes, and demand generation marketing processes.

Foundations laid by companies are proving crucial for its successful implementation, the survey further reveals. Organizations that have built a solid foundation for the use of artificial intelligence – such as frameworks for responsible AI and technological environments enabling enterprise-level integration – are three times more likely to report significant financial returns.

The optimism of business leaders is further diminished against the backdrop of increasing exposure to external risks. One in five CEOs globally (20 percent) says that their organization is highly or extremely exposed to the risk of significant financial losses from tariffs in the next 12 months, although this varies significantly by region – from 6 percent in the Middle East to 28 percent in Mainland China, 35 percent in Mexico, and 22 percent in the US.

Concerns about cyber risks have increased sharply – 31 percent of respondents now cite them as a major threat, compared to 24 percent last year and 21 percent two years ago. As a result, 84 percent say they plan to strengthen their efforts towards cybersecurity in their organization as part of their actions related to geopolitical risk.

Concerns about macroeconomic instability (31 percent), technological disruptions (24 percent), and geopolitics (23 percent) have also increased, while concerns about inflation have decreased slightly (from 27 percent last year to 25 percent now).

Despite the challenges, CEOs increasingly believe that transformation is essential for growth. More than four in ten (42 percent) respondents claim that their company has started to compete in new sectors in the last five years. Among those planning major acquisitions, 44 percent expect to invest outside their current industry, with technology being the most attractive sector.

Just over half of business leaders (51 percent) are considering making international investments in the next year. The United States remains the leading destination, with 35 percent ranking it among their top three markets. The United Kingdom and Germany (both 13 percent) and Mainland China (11 percent) also hold key positions. Interest in India has almost doubled from the previous year, with 13 percent of CEOs planning international investments putting it among their top three destinations.

On the other hand, there are still gaps related to the execution of set tasks and strategies. Only one in four CEOs says that their organization tolerates high risk in innovation projects, has strict processes for stopping low-performing initiatives, or manages a dedicated innovation center or corporate venture capital functions.

Time is also a constraint: CEOs share that they dedicate 47 percent of their time to issues with a horizon of less than one year, compared to only 16 percent to decisions aimed at more than five years ahead, according to the survey.