For this year's CxO Priorities Study, we conducted personal interviews with more than 1000 board members worldwide from 32 countries and 16 industries – gaining valuable insights into their current strategic priorities, growth ambitions, in how they deal with geopolitical challenges, and more.
You can find the detailed results in the study report available for download above. Here are some of our key findings:
For 95 percent of the participants, the digital transformation, incl. AI, is an important or very important factor to ensure mid- and long-term growth – making it the top priority for 2026, even before Improvement of Cost & Profit Structures, Cyber Security and Process Optimization.
Supply chain disruptions, energy volatility and trade barriers expose operational risks to manufacturing companies. In contrast, in service industries, financial factors take the lead with changing inflation rates (59 %) and rising interest rates (45 %) as the greatest risks. Energy prices affect both sectors, given their broad impact on cost structures across operations and service delivery.
German companies plan major workforce reductions in Germany, highlighting a clear shift in the domestic role within global operations.
At the same time, workforce expansion concentrates in regions such as North America, China and India, reflecting stronger market growth and investment environments.
Only 41 percent of planned CAPEX remains in Germany, highlighting a significant shift of investments to other regions despite its continued importance. The second largest share of CAPEX goes to North America with 18 percent, followed by China with 14 percent.
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Limitations in data quality and availability slow down AI implementation, making a strong data foundation the most critical bottleneck across industries. Further, companies seem to lack the necessary skills to move to a broader deployment of AI.
