PwC surveyed 4,701 CEOs on AI and sustainability, what were the results?
PwC recently published the statistics from their 28th Annual Global CEO Survey completed by 4,701 chief executive officers from every region of the world.
The key summary point from the survey: ‘CEOs report early productivity gains from generative AI and rising payoffs from investments in sustainability. The challenge is to increase scope and speed’.
There was a wide divergence in replies from the CEOs canvassed, with some company executives investing widely in generative artificial intelligence and addressing the potential effects of climate change, while others exhibit resistance to investing in new technologies; showing a more traditional BAU (Business As Usual) mindset. History tells us this thinking will not flourish in the current and changing climate.
One-third of CEOs say GenAI has raised profits, and half expect the new technology they have invested in to show a return in the next year. However ‘trust remains a hurdle to adoption’.
Turning to investment, in ‘actions to help mitigate climate change and deliver sustainability’ one-third of the respondent CEOs said that in the last five years, money spent on this type of investment resulted in increased revenue, and two-thirds say that they have seen reduced costs from climate-friendly expenditure.
In terms of companies’ sustainable policies, the report identified two key variables. Firstly, the unknown position of the global economy in ten years’ time, which will be influenced by the response from governments, corporations and civil populations to climate change. The second is the length (or expected length) of a CEO’s tenure. Average tenure was identified as five years or less; short tenures lead to short-term goals. It is easy for CEOs to look to shorter payback options to justify their salaries but hard to make longer term commitment implementing real change – a similar situation to our five-year electoral cycles.
The report states that ‘the companies most likely to thrive in the future are those that move now, both to understand how these forces will reshape their industry and also to reimagine their business models, their operations, and their uses of technology, energy and other scarce resources’, recognising how climate change will create both opportunities and challenges.
Against this backdrop, this year’s survey confirms that some CEOs are developing coherent strategies. The challenge will be to maintain momentum while remaining aware of the interplay between macroeconomic conditions, geopolitical reconfigurations and other threats that could derail their programmes.
CEOs who are failing to move forward need to be aware of their customers’ needs and wants, and they must find and adopt new strategies to keep up with the competition.
The report concludes that CEOs need to be ‘sustained by bounded optimism about what tomorrow could bring’. Or, in the immortal words of David Bowie: ‘Tomorrow belongs to those who can hear it coming.’