Can disciplined ambition unlock growth in a volatile global economy?

With CEOs being surveyed through mid-March and April, it is no surprise that geopolitical tensions, instability and conflict have rebounded as the top risk for business. More than half of CEOs (56%) now cite this as the key near-term risk, compared to just over one-quarter (28%) in September 2025, when technology disruption and AI, combined with access to talent, were top of mind for the C-suite.

The other issue that is gaining headlines and C-suite attention is the increasing concern about the advances in AI and its potential for significant disruption to existing cyber defenses. As noted in the EY study of 500 security professionals on AI in cybersecurity (via EY.com US), this is a rapidly evolving and multifaceted conundrum for business leaders.

With so much yet unclear, CEOs are taking a measured and disciplined approach in the face of these interconnected external disruptions. They are strengthening financial resilience, but they are also investing in strategic partnerships, selective mergers and acquisitions (M&A), digital and AI capability, workforce productivity and supply chain redesign.

In a world defined by nonlinear, accelerated, volatile and interconnected risks – what the EY organization calls the “NAVI world” – leaders need both immediate resilience and longer-term reinvention. Against this backdrop, CEOs appear to be prioritizing resilience not as a defensive measure, but as a foundation for growth. Their responses suggest a continued move away from short-term reactions toward structural adjustments in how their organizations operate and compete.

CEO action agenda:

1. Tighten financial discipline: prioritize high-return investments, cut inefficiencies and protect funding for long-term growth.
2. Build resilience to geopolitical shocks: diversify supply chains, stress-test scenarios and embed political risk into decision-making.
3. Continuously reassess operations and ecosystems: identify weak points, adapt partnerships and ensure the business can withstand ongoing disruption.

Even though there is a continuing debate about AI and the returns it will generate, it remains central to many corporate growth plans because CEOs increasingly see it as a structural, long-term driver.

One of the clearest indicators that the long-term focus on AI remains intact is the concrete plans already underway to accelerate investment in AI. Planned AI spending is rising, even amid heightened external uncertainty, and the pattern of investment suggests a more mature understanding of where enterprise value will come from.

CEOs are allocating capital across cost transformation, quality uplift, business model reinvention and incremental efficiency. That spread matters because it suggests AI is being treated less as a discrete technology program and more as a structural lever across the enterprise.

CEOs are not idealizing AI. They are becoming more operationally serious about it. In other words, the imperative is shifting from whether to adopt AI to how and where to scale it to create the biggest impact and financial return.

Respondents say AI is already delivering measurable impact across operations, supply chains, product or service innovation, customer experience, strategy and risk management. What matters is that these are not only back-office or isolated use cases. They span revenue, operations and decision-making. This also means that AI programs that cannot demonstrate measurable financial impact will increasingly struggle to compete for investment internally.

CEOs are also signaling that AI impact on enterprise value creation remains uneven. This suggests the new dividing line is not access to technology or enthusiasm for AI. It is the harder work of measuring the impact of AI across the organization and aligning it with financial performance. 

Only 11% of respondents say AI impact is linked to financial reporting and reviewed regularly by senior management. That minority group represents a more mature stage of AI management, where outcomes are connected to finance, and accountability sits at the top of the house, with AI treated as part of enterprise performance rather than adjacent to it.

What makes this group especially interesting is the balance in its profile. Our EY-Parthenon CEO Outlook survey shows that these CEOs are more likely to expect stronger revenue growth, more likely to report recent growth, yet more outwardly alert to macroeconomic, geopolitical and cyber risks. That is the pattern of leaders who have linked ambition to discipline. They are neither complacent nor risk-averse. They are more confident in internal capability because they have created tighter lines between investment, governance and results.

This is where the narrative should move beyond adoption and into enterprise design. It should start to become more apparent that AI-led innovation produces durable value only when it is embedded in workflows, linked to decisions, supported by trusted data and integrated into the management system. That is the central argument of how the productivity reset will redefine value, which contends that real productivity gains require leaders to rethink data, skills and operating models rather than merely deploy new tools. 

The sheer pace of developments in AI and the speed at which regulators need to adapt is another concern of CEOs. 

CEOs are not rejecting regulation in principle. They are signaling that the quality of regulation, and the ability to operate across jurisdictions, will increasingly shape who can scale AI with confidence. This makes trust, governance and cyber resilience strategic capabilities rather than support functions. This interpretation aligns with how reframing trust as a strategic asset tied to resilience, adoption and enterprise value allows firms to navigate change and unlock growth. CEOs need to also consider the current attitudes of wider public as they navigate regulatory complexities. The 2026 AI Sentiment Study shows that three-quarters of people are looking for stronger regulations on how companies can use AI.

Is workforce transformation where AI ambition meets organizational reality?

CEOs are also clear that AI transformation is inseparable from workforce transformation. Respondents say AI will reshape workforce strategy through role redesign; larger hiring needs in AI, data and digital; and more significant reskilling and upskilling efforts. But when they identify what is holding value back, they point to limited skills, leadership capability gaps, weak learning infrastructure and cultural resistance.

This suggests that the real AI bottleneck is organizational absorption. CEOs may be ready to invest, but value will depend on redesigning work, continuously renewing skills and turning experimentation into scaled behavior change. This aligns with the findings of why shared intelligence will redefine talent and EY Work Reimagined Survey, both of which highlight the importance of aligning talent, work and technology to unlock value.

This reskilling of existing employees who have deep knowledge of their industries is becoming a clear imperative. But it requires time and investment. 

CEO action agenda:

1. Tie AI to financial performance: track impact with clear metrics, link outcomes to reporting and prioritize initiatives that deliver measurable returns.
2. Redesign roles around AI: embed AI into workflows and decision-making, shifting work models to integrate human and machine capabilities.
3. Accelerate upskilling: invest in continuous learning, align skills to business outcomes and make capability building part of everyday work.

Deals are no longer optional to transformation – they are a core mechanism. CEOs are using acquisitions, divestments and partnerships to reshape the whole enterprise, not just to manage the portfolio.

Those CEOs combining AI investments and financial performance with regular board-level oversight are more likely to prioritize technology and AI capability building, more likely to emphasize long-term strategic fit, and more likely to use joint ventures and alliances. That combination suggests a more sophisticated approach to portfolio optimization. They are not only asking what to own. They are also asking where partnering offers a faster, more flexible and lower-risk route to capability.

The EY Firepower report: life sciences dealmaking – trends in 2026 argues that companies need to move faster on the deals that matter most in order to compete in a more demanding environment. In a slower-growth, more volatile market, M&A becomes more strategic precisely because it is more tightly linked to future capability, as companies look to accelerate faster in areas of faster growth.

CEOs are using the portfolio to build technological strength, reduce organizational drag, improve resilience and create conditions for more durable growth.

CEO action agenda:

1. Use deals as a transformation lever: pursue M&A, divestments and partnerships to accelerate capability building and reshape the enterprise.
2. Apply disciplined portfolio strategy: prioritize long-term fit, returns and tech or AI capability while reducing complexity and capital intensity.
3. Balance build, buy and partner: use alliances and joint ventures to access capabilities faster and with greater flexibility and lower risk.

Explore key questions CEOs are asking about growth, AI and geopolitics

Summary

The CEO agenda is currently defined by disciplined ambition. Despite rising external risks – most notably geopolitics – CEOs are not retreating from long-term priorities. They are investing selectively and building resilience to accelerate transformation. AI remains central to their ambitions, with the focus shifting from utilization to value creation. Talent is being revisited as combining technology and institutional knowledge becomes critical. Portfolios are being reshaped to address capability gaps and reduce complexity. The leaders who stand out are using discipline to sustain ambition – not scale it back.