PwC Global CEO Survey 2025: What 4,701 CEOs Reveal About the Future of Business

The CEO Confidence Paradox

Almost 60% of the world’s most powerful business leaders are optimistic about global economic growth — yet 42% simultaneously believe their own companies won’t survive the next decade without fundamental transformation. Welcome to the defining paradox of 2025 business leadership.

PwC’s 28th Annual Global CEO Survey, launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2025, captures the perspectives of 4,701 chief executive officers across 109 countries and territories. It represents the most comprehensive annual pulse check on global business leadership, and this year’s findings reveal a business world caught between unprecedented optimism and existential urgency.

The survey, conducted from October 1 through November 8, 2024, arrives at a pivotal moment. Artificial intelligence is reshaping entire industries, geopolitical tensions are redrawing supply chain maps, and climate regulations are accelerating the sustainability transition. For CEOs, the question isn’t whether to change — it’s whether they can change fast enough.

Economic Outlook: Cautious Optimism in an Uncertain World

The headline number is striking: 58% of CEOs worldwide expect global economic growth to increase over the next 12 months. This represents a significant vote of confidence in the global economy, even as inflation, geopolitical conflicts, and technology disruption continue to create headwinds.

This optimism translates directly into hiring plans. A remarkable 42% of CEOs plan to increase headcount by 5% or more in the coming year — up from 39% in the previous survey and more than double the 17% who expect workforce reductions. The employment outlook is particularly bullish in several high-growth sectors:

What’s particularly noteworthy is that smaller companies — those with less than $100 million in revenue — are the most aggressive on hiring at 48%. This suggests that entrepreneurial energy and growth ambition remain strongest at the smaller end of the corporate spectrum, where agility and speed-to-market can offset the resource advantages of larger incumbents.

The JP Morgan Market Outlook 2025 aligns with many of these findings, particularly around the cautious optimism in financial markets and the increasing role of technology in driving growth.

The Global Risk Landscape: What Keeps CEOs Up at Night

While optimism dominates the economic outlook, CEOs are far from complacent about the risks ahead. Macroeconomic volatility (29%) and inflation (27%) remain the top concerns globally, but the risk landscape looks dramatically different depending on where you sit.

Regional Risk Variations

The survey reveals stark geographic differences in risk perception that reflect each region’s unique economic and political realities:

• Middle East: Geopolitical conflict dominates at 41%, far exceeding any other risk factor — unsurprising given the ongoing regional tensions.
• Central and Eastern Europe: Geopolitical conflict also leads at 34%, reflecting proximity to the Russia-Ukraine conflict and NATO expansion dynamics.
• Western Europe: Cyber risk (27%) marginally leads over skilled worker shortages (25%) and inflation (24%), with macroeconomic volatility at 29%. The cyber threat has risen significantly as digital transformation accelerates.
• Africa: Inflation is the dominant concern at 39%, reflecting the continent’s vulnerability to commodity price volatility and currency pressures.
• North America and Asia-Pacific: Risk profiles largely mirror global averages, with macroeconomic volatility and inflation as primary concerns.

The emergence of cyber risk as a top-tier concern in Western Europe marks a significant shift. As businesses digitize at pace and the EU AI Act introduces new regulatory requirements for technology governance, European CEOs are increasingly aware that digital infrastructure is both their greatest asset and their greatest vulnerability.

The Reinvention Imperative: Transform or Disappear

For the third consecutive year, PwC’s survey delivers a sobering finding: 42% of CEOs believe their company will not be economically viable beyond the next decade if it continues on its current path. This isn’t a fringe concern — it’s nearly half of the world’s top executives acknowledging that business-as-usual is a death sentence.

Among those who see their current trajectory as unsustainable, 42% point to shifts in the regulatory environment as having the biggest influence on their economic viability. This is a critical insight: it’s not just technology disruption or market competition that threatens survival — it’s the rapidly evolving regulatory landscape around AI, data privacy, climate, and trade.

Reinvention Actions Are Accelerating

The good news: CEOs aren’t just talking about change. Across all sectors, 63% have taken at least one significant action to change how their company creates, delivers, and captures value in the last five years. And the data shows this matters — CEOs who have taken more reinvention actions report higher profit margins over the past 12 months.

The cross-sector expansion trend is particularly striking:

• 38% of companies have begun competing in at least one new sector in the last five years
• Of those, 34% say the new sector represents over 20% of company revenue — this isn’t experimentation, it’s material business diversification
• Technology companies are entering healthcare. Financial services firms are launching tech platforms. Industrial companies are building software capabilities.

The companies that are reinventing themselves aren’t just surviving — they’re outperforming. The data is clear: reinvention actions correlate directly with higher profit margins.

Why Reinvention Stalls: The Agility Problem

Despite the urgency and the clear financial benefits of reinvention, the survey reveals a troubling execution gap. The problem isn’t vision — it’s agility.

Consider these sobering statistics:

• ~50% of CEOs reallocate 10% or less of their financial and human resources from year to year
• More than two-thirds reallocate less than 20% — meaning the vast majority of budgets and talent remain locked in existing business lines
• Only 7% of revenue over the last five years has come from genuinely distinct new businesses

This is the reinvention paradox in action: 42% of CEOs believe their company needs fundamental change to survive, yet the vast majority are unable to redirect meaningful resources toward transformation. The gap between strategic intent and operational execution is where reinvention goes to die.

The root cause is structural. Large organizations are optimized for efficiency and predictability, not for the kind of resource fluidity that reinvention demands. Budget cycles are annual and incremental. Talent is allocated to existing P&Ls. Innovation teams are staffed but starved of the resources needed to scale. The McKinsey State of AI 2025 report identifies similar patterns, noting that AI-leading companies allocate significantly more resources to transformation than their peers.

GenAI: High Hopes, Mixed Results

If there’s one area where the gap between expectation and reality is most visible, it’s generative AI. The survey paints a nuanced picture of an emerging technology that’s delivering on some promises while falling short on others.

Where GenAI Is Delivering

CEOs are reporting tangible, measurable impacts from their GenAI investments:

• 56% report efficiency gains in their employees’ time over the last 12 months — this is the clearest success story, with AI automating routine tasks and accelerating workflows
• 32% saw revenue increases attributable to GenAI — a significant achievement for a technology that most companies have had for less than two years
• On the employment front, more CEOs say GenAI has increased headcount (17%) than decreased it (13%) — challenging the narrative of AI-driven mass unemployment

Where GenAI Is Falling Short

However, the profitability story is more sobering:

• In 2024, 46% of CEOs expected profitability improvements from GenAI
• A year later, only 34% say those improvements materialized — a 12-percentage-point gap between expectation and reality
• Only 33% of CEOs have high trust in embedding AI into key business processes — a significant barrier to deeper adoption

Despite this reality check, optimism about GenAI’s future impact is actually increasing. A striking 49% expect profitability improvements in the next 12 months, up slightly from last year. CEOs are also making concrete plans for deeper integration:

The message is clear: CEOs see GenAI as a long game. The early efficiency gains are encouraging, but the real value creation — in revenue growth, new products, and competitive advantage — is still ahead. Trust-building, governance frameworks, and workforce upskilling remain critical prerequisites for unlocking AI’s full potential.

Climate Investments: The Surprise ROI Story

Perhaps the most counterintuitive finding in the entire survey is the financial performance of climate-related investments. In a business world often portrayed as torn between profitability and sustainability, the data tells a remarkably clear story.

When CEOs were asked to evaluate the financial impact of their climate investments over the last five years, the results were unambiguous:

• Climate investments were six times more likely to increase revenue (33%) than decrease it (5%)
• Nearly two-thirds of CEOs reported that climate investments either reduced costs or had no significant cost impact
• The perceived barrier of poor returns is largely a myth — only 18% cite lower ROI as an inhibiting factor

Why Companies Still Hesitate

If the returns are positive, why isn’t every company accelerating climate investments? The survey reveals that the real barriers are institutional, not financial:

• Regulatory complexity (24%) is the top factor inhibiting climate investment — navigating patchwork regulations across jurisdictions is costly and time-consuming
• Lower ROI perception (18%) ranks second — but as the data shows, this perception often doesn’t match reality
• Lack of board/management buy-in (6%) is surprisingly low, suggesting that C-suite support for sustainability is no longer a primary obstacle

This finding has profound implications. Sustainability isn’t just a moral imperative — it’s becoming a demonstrable financial advantage. Companies that have made the leap are being rewarded. Those that haven’t are being held back more by regulatory confusion than by genuine economic barriers. The WEF Global Risks Report 2025 corroborates these findings, identifying climate-related financial risks as a top global concern that companies must proactively address.

Sector Spotlight: Who’s Leading the Reinvention Charge

The PwC CEO Survey reveals significant sector-level differences in how aggressively companies are pursuing transformation. Understanding these dynamics helps explain why some industries are pulling ahead while others risk falling behind.

Technology: The Hiring and AI Leaders

Technology CEOs are the most bullish across nearly every dimension. With 61% planning significant headcount increases — the highest of any sector — and the most aggressive AI adoption timelines, tech companies are positioning themselves as the engines of the next economic cycle. They’re also the most likely to be expanding into adjacent sectors, particularly healthcare and financial services.

Financial Services: Transformation Anxiety

Financial services CEOs face a unique challenge: 53% say their top concern is whether their company is transforming fast enough to keep up with technology and AI. This is the highest level of “transformation anxiety” across all sectors, driven by the twin pressures of fintech disruption and regulatory evolution. The sector has also been among the earliest adopters of GenAI, particularly for risk management, customer service, and compliance automation.

Healthcare: The Convergence Frontier

Healthcare is emerging as a convergence point where technology, regulation, and consumer expectations are all shifting simultaneously. 48% of healthcare CEOs worry about transforming fast enough for AI, while tech companies are actively targeting health services as a growth sector — with 23% of tech CEOs naming healthcare as a priority expansion area over the next three years.

Industrials: The Cross-Sector Expansion Leaders

Industrials and services companies are leading the cross-sector expansion trend, with 52% having begun competing in new sectors over the past five years — the highest of any sector. This reflects the fundamental reshaping of traditional industry boundaries as digital capabilities enable companies to enter adjacent markets. The a16z State of Crypto 2025 report explores similar themes around how blockchain and decentralized technologies are enabling new business models across traditional industry boundaries.

What This Means for Business Leaders in 2025

The PwC CEO Survey 2025 isn’t just a snapshot — it’s a strategic playbook. Here are the actionable implications for business leaders at every level:

1. Resource Agility Is the New Competitive Advantage

If 42% of CEOs believe their company needs to fundamentally reinvent itself, but most can’t redirect more than 10-20% of resources annually, then resource flexibility is the single biggest lever for competitive advantage. Companies that can rapidly reallocate capital and talent — from quarterly budget resets to cross-functional talent mobility programs — will outperform those locked into annual planning cycles.

2. GenAI Requires Patience and Governance, Not Just Investment

The gap between GenAI expectations and results should be a calibrating force, not a cause for retreat. The 12-percentage-point profitability gap suggests that companies need to invest not just in AI tools but in the organizational capabilities — trust-building, governance, upskilling — that enable AI to create value at scale. The companies that will win are those that treat AI adoption as a change management challenge, not just a technology deployment.

3. Climate Is a Growth Strategy, Not a Cost Center

The 6:1 revenue gain-to-loss ratio on climate investments should permanently retire the narrative that sustainability hurts profitability. For boards and CFOs still hesitant about climate spending, the PwC data provides the strongest evidence yet that climate action is financially rational. The key is navigating regulatory complexity — which argues for early engagement with policymakers and investing in regulatory intelligence capabilities.

4. Cross-Sector Expansion Is the New Growth Paradigm

With 38% of companies already competing in new sectors, industry boundaries are becoming increasingly meaningless. Strategic planning must expand beyond traditional competitive sets to include non-obvious entrants. A tech company entering healthcare, a financial services firm launching a media platform, an industrial company building SaaS products — these are no longer anomalies but patterns.

5. Cyber Resilience Is Non-Negotiable

The rise of cyber risk to the top of the Western European risk agenda — and its growing prominence globally — signals that cybersecurity has moved from an IT concern to a board-level strategic priority. Companies need to invest in cyber resilience not as a defensive measure but as a foundational enabler of digital transformation and customer trust.

The Reinvention Race: Final Thoughts

PwC’s 28th Global CEO Survey captures a global leadership class at an inflection point. The data reveals a clear divide emerging between companies that are actively reinventing themselves — reallocating resources, adopting AI thoughtfully, investing in climate, and expanding across sectors — and those that recognize the need for change but remain unable to execute at the speed required.

The optimism is real: 58% economic growth expectations, rising hiring plans, and growing confidence in AI’s long-term potential all point to a business world that sees significant opportunity ahead. But the 42% viability concern — persistent now for three years — is the data point that should keep every CEO honest.

The reinvention race is not won by those with the best strategy decks. It’s won by those who can move resources, build new capabilities, and embrace uncertainty faster than their competitors. As PwC’s own analysis concludes: CEOs who have taken more reinvention actions over the past five years are reporting higher profit margins today.

The message is clear. The future belongs to the fast — and the time to accelerate is now.