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C-Suite Outlook 2026: Top Priorities for CEOs · C-Suite Perspectives

• 0:00
  Welcome to C-Suite Perspectives, a signature series by The Conference Board.
• 0:04
  I'm Steve Odland from The Conference Board and the host of this podcast series.
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  And in today's conversation, we're going to talk about The Conference
• 0:11
  Board's annual C-Suite Outlook survey, which gives us a look going
• 0:16
  forward to 2026 and the specific implications for business and policy.
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  This survey was done towards the end of 2025, carried out with more
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  than 1,700 C-Suite executives and over 770 CEOs from around the world.
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  This is the 27th annual survey conducted by The Conference
• 0:36
  Board for the C-Suite Outlook.
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  Joining me today is David Young, president of the Committee for
• 0:41
  Economic Development, which is the policy center of The Conference Board.
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  David, welcome.
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  Steve, great to be here.
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  Thanks again.
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  So, David, this is a survey we do every year.
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  This year, there were some similar results to last year and the
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  year before, but there are some new nuances in these results.
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  Talk about what you saw.
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  Yeah.
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  Great.
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  And just before I speak about what we saw, Steve, you mentioned the depth
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  and breadth of the survey, which is remarkable and tremendously comprehensive.
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  I think one thing just to note to listeners is the survey actually goes
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  beyond just the insights of what's ahead.
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  It starts to question CEOs and C-Suite executives about not just
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  how to win, but also how to operate.
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  So it becomes actually a very actionable survey helping executives
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  figure out and improve business strategies, operations, and investments.
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  I think it's all clear at the moment that CEOs are confronting a world
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  defined by economic fragility, political volatility, and also technological
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  disruption in a broader environment of increasing geopolitical risk.
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  So we are seeing pressures on C-Suite executives to reshape
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  markets and strategies, talent, technology, and also governance.
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  So some of the top-line results that come out of this, and one relates to what
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  I've just said, but I think one of the principal concerns entering 2026, and that
• 2:06
  will most likely continue throughout the year, is this environment of uncertainty.
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  And there's little sign of a quick resolution to this broader
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  environment of uncertainty.
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  Among US CEOs, 42.9% picked uncertainty as an external factor
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  expected to have the greatest negative impact on their business.
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  Among the broader group of North American CEOs, that figure was 42.5%.
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  49% of US CEOs also cited uncertainty in geopolitics as having
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  a negative impact on business.
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  As you look globally at global CEOs, that number was 35.9% picking
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  uncertainty in their regions of operations as having a negative impact.
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  So the takeaway from this point is just this structural environment within
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  which CEOs and C-Suite executives will be operating throughout much of 2026.
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  A key element here, and I think a major driver of uncertainty,
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  concerns tariffs and trade policy.
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  So working to find solutions is a high priority for CEOs and the C-Suite.
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  As a whole, they're focused on trade and tariffs: 35.8% of US CEOs
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  pick protectionism as the industry or market dynamic expected to have
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  a negative impact on business.
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  29.8% specifically chose tariffs as among the top two external factors with
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  a negative impact on their business.
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  And 34.4% noted that they potentially expect to raise prices because of tariffs.
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  A couple other top-line results that we've taken away from the survey: CEOs
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  are having growing concerns over security and reliability of supply chains.
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  This is not a new issue.
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  It is an issue of high priority ever since the pandemic.
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  And then there's also been some questions and results around
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  the possibility of an economic downturn and continuing inflation.
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  Just over a third of US CEOs, 34.7%, expect that an economic
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  downturn or recession will have a negative impact on their business,
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  and that's not unsurprising.
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  So those would be, Steve, some of the major ones.
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  The other thing just to mention here, and it's hard to kick off without
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  talking about technology and AI.
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  CEOs see AI emerging as a core driver of competition.
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  38.7% of US CEOs see the category of artificial intelligence and technology
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  as a priority for growing the business.
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  This is tied for second place with enhancing the customer experience.
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  CEOs have a heavy focus now on assessing the return on investment of AI investment.
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  So it's not just about, hey, we should use AI and how to deploy it.
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  It is actually now looking at the return, the financial quantitative
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  return on those decisions.
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  46% of US CEOs report that measuring AI ROI is an absolute priority.
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  So let me, Steve, let me stop there.
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  Those are some of the top-line results that we've taken away from a survey that
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  is tremendously comprehensive, both by industry, by function, and by geography.
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  Yeah.
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  This whole thing about uncertainty, though, is a little silly, because nobody
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  knows the future and it's uncertain, and it always will be, always has been.
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  So, I don't think that's anything different than CEOs
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  have always had to deal with.
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  I think the issue that you're pointing to, though, is that still, the whole
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  tariff and trade thing is coloring their results here, and that's just because
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  the policies continue to shift, right?
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  Yeah, that's absolutely correct.
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  I think from both, from the survey and also from our conversations with CEOs,
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  they obviously like predictability.
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  When we look at tariffs and the changing nature of those tariffs,
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  both by industry, by sector, by geography, it makes the decision-making
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  environment very, very difficult.
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  Especially when they're looking at long-term investments.
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  And as a result, they don't know their costs, because their input costs
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  change depending on those tariff rates.
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  And there are the US tariffs on others, which are more retaliatory.
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  There have been tariffs and are tariffs on all Western European,
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  all Western nations, if you will.
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  It goes every direction.
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  So this whole mantra of global free trade is not being practiced.
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  And Steve, to your point where they don't know the costs, they also, I
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  think, that makes it very complicated for them understanding the behavior
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  and reaction of their customers.
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  So do they absorb the costs, which obviously impacts their
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  profitability and business models?
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  Or do they in some way, shape, or form pass those increased costs along to
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  the consumer or the customers, which then has additional ramifications.
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  So it's very, very tricky.
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  And then also, if trade policy and tariff policy changes and isn't consistent, then
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  it also makes it a very tricky environment for CEOs to make long-term decisions.
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  Yeah, and it varies by industry and within industry.
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  So there's all this political pressure and consumer pressure to not raise prices, but
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  when your input costs are rising fairly dramatically, you have to do something.
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  Now the other problem, though, is that some people may be sourcing domestically.
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  If you just think about food, some food is grown domestically, but some is not.
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  Some has to be imported.
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  And so you see substitutability, and you see some competitors
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  able to hold prices, some not.
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  So the whole thing is the topsy-turvy world that is brought on by government
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  decisions, policy decisions that are no fault of business, but they're
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  having to navigate these waters, in addition to all the other things
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  that come at them every year.
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  Absolutely.
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  And just on those dynamics, it's tremendously complex and complicated,
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  especially when you're looking at tariffs.
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  Like, where do you have a natural competitive advantage?
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  Where do you not?
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  One of the big policy decisions that keeps coming up around tariffs is
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  what areas actually are distinguished and determined as national security
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  for the United States, and how do you protect those industries?
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  You're definitely seeing an increase in CEOs and companies looking at
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  reshoring back here to the US to shorten supply chains and potentially minimize
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  the number of variables exposed to changing trade and tariffs policy.
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  The other thing just to mention, as we look at the year ahead and we talk
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  about trade policy and tariffs, is the renegotiation of the USMCA trade
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  agreement between the US, Canada, and Mexico, which will be another
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  significant variable in shaping the decision-making and conversations of
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  CEOs and C-Suite executives moving forward in the next 12 months.
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  And that agreement expires at the end of 2026.
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  So some would say that that negotiation started a year ago,
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  probably not in the classic fashion, but it does seem to be underway.
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  Back to this point that you made on reshoring, which I
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  think is an important one.
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  The politicians just say, well, reshore, bring the manufacturing
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  back cause it's important.
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  And I know a lot of their constituents say, well, yeah,
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  let's bring the jobs back.
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  But you just take the case of a chip plant.
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  It takes what, 50 to a hundred billion dollars in investment
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  to build a chip plant.
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  There are water and environmental implications to it.
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  It takes, what, eight to 10 years to get that chip plant fully operationalized.
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  So this is something, our supply chain left our shores over the past 50 years.
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  It didn't happen in one year, and it's going to take at least a decade
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  to move some of these things back.
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  So you've got this friction in the interim here, which could last as
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  much as a decade as people are trying to comply with government demands.
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  Yeah, and Steve, this touches on a really important point
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  that comes out of the survey.
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  So you are exactly spot on in terms of, these are sizable amounts of
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  money and investment required.
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  They don't happen overnight.
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  What does change every four years potentially is administrations
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  and policy decisions.
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  And what CEOs really need if they are to start making these long-term investment
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  decisions is policy continuity over time.
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  And that's your point about uncertainty, which is the point I was trying to make.
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  Yeah, the future's uncertain, but it's this shifting sands of policy.
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  That uncertainty on top of everything just blows up all investment.
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  And how do you drive GDP growth, job growth, and so forth if
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  you don't have that investment?
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  Absolutely.
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  And there are so many dimensions and dynamics to that.
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  I mentioned the regulatory policy uncertainty, political stability,
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  whether that's domestically within a region or globally, where you start
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  looking at geopolitical uncertainty, rule of law, the role of public services.
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  Monetary policy is another big issue here, of having some consistency
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  about how things are moving forward.
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  Yeah.
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  And you mentioned regulatory, but that is another area, along with tariffs and trade
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  issues, that they keep changing the rules.
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  It's hard to play the game.
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  I mean, imagine playing a game of football, and they change
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  the rules every quarter.
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  It's really hard.
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  It's hard to play the game and certainly to win the game if the rules
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  keep shifting and you don't know.
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  And there are massive sums of investment required in order to keep pace.
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  And waste in the system, that disadvantages investors,
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  and it chills investment.
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  Talk a little bit about regulatory and what CEOs are saying about the changes
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  in regulations because the administration came in, and their view was that
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  they were going to cut a lot of red tape and make it easier for business.
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  But, in so doing, they also have created some red tape, haven't they?
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  The overarching thinking here is, from the CEO perspective and from the surveys,
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  they really just want the consistency.
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  They want to be able to know the path ahead.
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  Yes, the new administration's come in trying to cut some of the red tape.
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  You're also seeing, now what's interesting here is that if you look,
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  and it's not just within the US, you could look at it regionally or globally.
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  But if you look at the value chain, and this comes out in different questions in
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  the survey, they want consistency and a streamlined regulatory framework along
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  the entire value chain of their business.
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  The more complicated it gets, either state by state and changing
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  regulatory requirements, pulls in a huge amount of complexity and
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  complication to that decision-making.
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  It introduces more variables.
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  As a result of more variables, more can go wrong.
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  And it really hurts having a streamlined value chain or supply chain.
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  So that definitely comes across from some of these questions and some of the
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  responses of the CEO is saying, "Look, we're all for lower regulation, but
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  we most importantly want consistency, and we want confidence in consistency
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  of public policy moving forward."
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  We're talking about The Conference Board's new survey.
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  It's their C-Suite Outlook survey for 2026.
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  We're going to take a short break and be right back.
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  Welcome back to C-Suite Perspectives.
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  I'm your host, Steve Odland, from The Conference Board, and I'm joined
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  by David Young, who's the president of the Committee for Economic
• 13:38
  Development of The Conference Board.
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  OK, so Davy, we were talking a lot before the break about the need for some level of
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  certainty or at least the ability to know what the rules are and be able to plan.
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  There is this declining trust in government and I think that it
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  shows up in the numbers, it shows up in what the C-Suite's saying.
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  It also shows up in what the populace is saying, not just for the United
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  States, but around the world.
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  What impact does that have on the operating environment?
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  In short, it continues to complicate it.
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  And that is something that the CEOs and C-Suite executives certainly don't like.
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  And I think in an interesting way, we're several years now past COVID, but as a
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  result of the pandemic, we saw, and I'm speaking now specifically about supply
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  chains, just how complicated supply chains have been over the last decade.
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  And the more we can streamline them and reduce the variables, the easier
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  it is for CEOs to make decisions.
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  What we are seeing from CEOs is, and this comes out in the survey cause
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  it's not just about the, as I said at the beginning of the podcast, not just
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  about the insights about what's ahead, it's how to win and how to operate.
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  And what you are now seeing throughout the C-Suite is this realization—yes,
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  we've talked about the environment of uncertainty, but how do you
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  win and how do you operate if things are changing constantly?
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  There is this need for business models now to have contingency plans, the reliance
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  increasingly on scenario planning.
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  There's greater emphasis on agility of business models, of decision making.
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  You're seeing a huge amount of flexibility built into business models, and that comes
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  out in some of these questions around some of the focuses now are less external.
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  They realize what's happening external to their business in the
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  global economy, but they're now internalizing, how do you react to that?
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  And you react by focusing on your business model, focusing on your customers,
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  your employees, and your owners, and making sure you understand them.
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  Making sure you understand the fundamental financial dynamics,
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  and making sure that business model is as shored up as possible.
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  AI is a good illustration, as I said earlier around that.
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  It's not just about deploying AI.
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  They're getting far more granular in terms of how they're doing it.
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  Everybody's using AI.
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  The key now will be how do you quantify the return on that investment?
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  And that is increasingly what these CEOs are looking at.
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  Well, let's talk a little bit more about AI because it is something
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  that has come down the road like a roaring freight train here.
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  A couple of years ago, I don't know that CEOs could spell AI.
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  They didn't know what it was, or it was just this thing that was out there.
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  Last year, we heard that, gosh, they were worried about falling
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  behind their competitors.
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  And so they were trying to ramp up spending like crazy on AI just to make
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  sure that they weren't left in the dust.
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  And this is what happens with new frontiers.
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  And this year we see, as you said, a more evolved position from CEOs.
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  They're saying, OK, now I've invested a lot, I've thrown a lot at it, and
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  I want to see something for this.
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  Where is this going?
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  And I think people are starting to realize that AI is not this magical
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  thing where you've got sentient robots running around, replacing human
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  beings, but it's really software.
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  And it's the evolution of software tools that can help make companies
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  and people more productive, right?
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  And they're not looking at it strictly from a cost standpoint.
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  It's really from a growth and innovation, creativity, customer
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  service, all of the right things.
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  But it's a question of, OK, how do I get this to pay out, either
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  in terms of driving growth or in terms of redeploying some cost?
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  Yeah.
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  So the topic of AI, I think everyone is finding fascinating because it
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  is shifting so, so rapidly in the conversations and the strategies
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  as to how you take advantage of it.
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  So there's definitely this shift from, it's not a matter of spending more and
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  more and more, it's about spending wisely.
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  Overall from the survey, nearly 43% of respondents named AI and technology
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  as an investment priority for 2026.
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  So the investment isn't going away at all.
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  And I just want to make that very, very clear.
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  What has, as I've said, entered the scene now is how do we invest wisely?
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  It's not a matter of just throwing money at it because
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  it's also tremendously expensive.
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  41% of executives, this includes 33% of CEOs, noted the return on
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  investment measurement is their top AI priority for the year ahead.
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  This is just ahead of enhancing the AI experience, which is at 32%.
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  27% actually here emphasized improving the culture of the workplace to adopt AI.
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  So I think this is also a point.
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  Everyone can talk about AI.
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  There are multiple generations now in a workplace.
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  Some take to AI slightly more swiftly than others.
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  There's a real focus within the C-Suite and there's a deep appreciation that
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  it's a complex topic, but actually deploying it is very, very difficult.
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  And changing human behavior to learn and embrace it is slightly more challenging
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  than some may have previously anticipated.
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  And I think this just goes to reaffirming the need to quantify the
• 19:08
  return on the investment, because it is a sizable amount of money.
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  David, one of the things you read in the press is a big worry that
• 19:16
  jobs will be eliminated based on AI, but we don't hear that from CEOs.
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  In fact, there are a lot of jobs that have been created due to AI,
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  obviously within companies and the AI industry in and of itself.
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  And here and there, you hear some customer service roles being replaced by AI.
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  But overall, CEOs are talking about using this to help people
• 19:39
  work differently and to be more innovative and to increase speed.
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  So you don't see the actions, you don't see big, huge layoffs as a result of that.
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  Well, maybe to cut costs if they're over, and they throw AI in there,
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  but it's not a direct impact, is it?
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  The interesting part here, I think there are multiple dimensions to look at this.
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  If they are cutting costs, it is potentially that they overinvested
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  in AI at an early stage.
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  So that's one thing a lot of people say, oh my goodness, they're cutting costs.
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  They're cutting costs.
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  I think it's really important to understand where they're cutting
• 20:12
  costs, what are the functions being impacted by those cost-cutting measures?
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  Cause in some situations, as I said, they're actually cutting
• 20:22
  costs in previously heavily invested areas as a result of AI.
• 20:27
  But Steve, to your point, I think the encouragement that people need to take
• 20:31
  away from this whole conversation of AI is, if it is deployed correctly,
• 20:36
  it moves people up the value chain.
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  It allows them to be more efficient, more effective at what they do.
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  It allows them to do tasks quicker, and as a result, move up the value
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  chain where , humans really can deploy the skill sets that only humans have.
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  The other thing here, as well, with AI and the conversation that I was
• 20:59
  just saying, it's kind of the internal operational mechanisms of a business.
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  But also, AI allows us to know our users, our clients, our customers better.
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  It allows us, therefore, the better we understand the end users, it allows
• 21:13
  us to better serve the needs and solve the problems of those end users.
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  So there's an internal component of deploying AI, and there's also
• 21:22
  this external opportunity that, if deployed correctly, significantly
• 21:29
  helps organizations solve problems and serve clients and customers.
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  Interestingly, when you stand back and you look at this survey,
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  as we said at the beginning, we've been doing it for 27 years.
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  But just look over the past few years.
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  We had COVID hit, the economy was ground to a halt, everything was shut down.
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  CEO's fears were about survival.
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  Where is this going?
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  Is this pandemic going to, you know, what's going to be the impact?
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  Gradually that transpired, and it went into supply chain and shortage issues
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  and trying to get things restarted.
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  That changed, and it went into real tailwinds, as people made up for
• 22:05
  that period of time when the economy was shut, and it was go, go, go.
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  And then inflation kicked in, and that was a big worry.
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  But people were making top-line growth based on pricing, and
• 22:16
  that was real fun for a while.
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  What you read in the results of this survey is, of course, you mentioned
• 22:22
  the uncertainty and all of the tariffs and trade issues, but you
• 22:25
  also read into it the need for growth.
• 22:29
  And almost universally, CEOs are back to, how do we fundamentally
• 22:32
  innovate and grow our business?
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  Talk about that.
• 22:36
  Yeah, so this comes out very clearly, and again, this is why
• 22:39
  I think the survey is so good.
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  Cause it's not just saying, oh, what are CEOs worried about?
• 22:44
  it goes beyond that.
• 22:45
  It's kind of saying, given what's going on in the world, this is what we need to do.
• 22:49
  Given the insights for what's ahead, this is what CEOs are thinking
• 22:53
  around how to win and how to operate.
• 22:55
  And there's greater focus now, coming out from this survey, in
• 23:00
  terms of evaluating business models.
• 23:02
  Yes, this obviously connects to AI and making sure AI is leveraged in the
• 23:06
  most appropriate way, making sure the spend is not a matter of the amount
• 23:11
  of spend, it's how wise the spend is, and what that does to both the bottom
• 23:16
  line and the top-line revenue growth.
• 23:18
  So evaluations and adjustments of business models have been key.
• 23:23
  Another important component of the business model of people.
• 23:28
  So it does come out in the survey, a greater focus now on understanding both
• 23:33
  your employees and also the needs and expectations of customers and clients.
• 23:40
  The other part you mentioned, Steve, just things change over time.
• 23:42
  It is interesting how certain topics in the surveys of prior
• 23:47
  year have ebbed and flowed.
• 23:49
  Some have increased, some have decreased.
• 23:51
  So a couple that have kind of decreased that come out this survey: ESG and DEI.
• 23:56
  But a more interesting one, I think, that has fallen is the worry
• 24:01
  around debt and deficits, which is now a worry of 8% of US CEOs.
• 24:09
  It's really interesting, as we read through the survey, I've kind of looked
• 24:13
  at it saying, what does it tell us?
• 24:14
  What does it show us?
• 24:15
  But I've also looked at it as saying, well, what doesn't it show us?
• 24:18
  What has been missing from some of these responses?
• 24:21
  And the debt and deficit, which we believe is a major issue facing the
• 24:26
  viability of not just the US but many countries around the world, has kind
• 24:31
  of lowered in importance of CEOs.
• 24:34
  It doesn't mean it's not critically important.
• 24:38
  It is, I think it's just a matter of the fact that there are so many
• 24:41
  issues floating around, facing CEOs.
• 24:46
  It's kind of like, I've got to deal with this house on fire today.
• 24:49
  If I don't deal with this problem today, I can't even get to the issues of tomorrow.
• 24:55
  And that definitely comes out in this survey.
• 24:58
  It's one thing looking at a survey in one year, but to your point, it's almost more
• 25:01
  interesting looking at it year on year, and how have issue areas changed and ebbed
• 25:07
  and flowed year to year, decade to decade?
• 25:11
  And from a CED perspective, where we look at the public policy issues, and
• 25:15
  we go into this year knowing that fiscal responsibility and fiscal health is a
• 25:20
  major long-term issue facing the United States, it's just interesting to see
• 25:26
  how it's moved in the priority of CEOs.
• 25:29
  Well, it's like they say in Florida, when you come across a group of alligators,
• 25:32
  you don't have to worry about the group.
• 25:33
  You just have to worry about the closest alligator.
• 25:36
  And I think in this case, debt and deficit is clearly one of those
• 25:39
  alligators, that just doesn't happen to be chomping at their foot at the moment.
• 25:43
  But if you talk to CEOs, every single one of them say it's an issue.
• 25:46
  It's not that it's not an issue, it's just that it's not in crisis
• 25:50
  at the moment, and there are other issues that are almost crisis-like.
• 25:53
  But there is an expectation that our elected officials need to get a handle
• 25:58
  on this and to ratchet back spending, get control of this debt, and try to
• 26:03
  grow our way out of our situation.
• 26:06
  Yeah, that's absolutely right.
• 26:08
  And there are multiple variables there in terms of what happens on the tax front,
• 26:13
  what happens on economic growth to start addressing what is a fundamental and
• 26:19
  severe problem facing the United States.
• 26:21
  And it's not just the United States.
• 26:23
  I think there are a few countries in the world that are spared from this
• 26:27
  worry of debt and rising deficits.
• 26:31
  OK, we're going to leave it there.
• 26:33
  David Young, thanks for being with us today.
• 26:36
  My pleasure, Steve.
• 26:37
  And thanks to all of you for listening to C-Suite Perspectives.
• 26:41
  I'm Steve Odland, and this series has been brought to you by The Conference Board.