Over the past two and a half years, the task for global business leaders has been relatively simple: grow existing businesses, allocate capital efficiently, and implement technology to increase productivity. but Muhammad KhandSpeech from the Global Chairman of PwC wealth Speaking ahead of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, he insisted that era was over. Kander believes the CEO position has changed more in the past year than anything he’s seen in the past quarter-century.
“This is one of the most testing times for a leader,” Kander told wealth’s Diane Brady describes a new “tri-model” mandate that requires executives to simultaneously run their current business, transform in real time, and build new business models for the future. “I haven’t seen this in 25 years,” he said.
Despite this pressure, Conti’s message to the global business community remains rooted in historical optimism. “Don’t be afraid of the future. It’s unsettling. It’s a fact. There’s going to be some changes every day, but don’t be afraid,” he said, noting that all of the uncertainty that puts great pressure on executives has happened before, from tariffs about 100 years ago to the Industrial Revolution even earlier. “Eventually, good things will happen.” Kant admits that he is an optimist at heart, but he insists that senior leaders can adapt to this business environment.
Artificial Intelligence Execution Gap
Of course, the main driver of this troubling change is the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), according to PwC’s 29th Global CEO Survey, “Leading the Uncertainty of the Artificial Intelligence Era“, released at the start of the annual meeting in Davos. Based on feedback from 4,454 CEOs from 95 countries and regions, the survey reveals a clear disconnect between ambition and reality. Between 2024 and 2025, the business world has made huge progress, Kande said, from asking itself whether it can or should adopt artificial intelligence to “no one asks that question anymore. Everyone is fighting for it. “
However, PwC’s survey found that only 10% to 12% of companies said they saw revenue or cost benefits, while a staggering 56% said they “did not get any benefit from it.” This echoes MIT research that rocked the market in August, which found: 95% Generative AI Pilots Entire corporate sectors are failing.
Kander attributes this tension to a lack of fundamental rigor rather than the technology itself. “Somehow, AI is moving so fast…that people forget that with technology adoption, you have to focus on the basics,” he explained, citing the need for clean data, solid business processes and governance. PwC found that companies benefiting from artificial intelligence are “laying the foundation”. He believes that it depends on execution, not technology, but on good management and leadership.
The Confidence Paradox and American Dominance
Kant said the uncertain environment also creates a paradox of business sentiment wealth. Although CEOs express confidence in the global economy, only 30% believe they can grow their businesses. Kant questioned whether this hesitation stems from geopolitics, tariffs, technology or a lack of leadership flexibility. He pointed out that the past 15 years have been 15 years of steady growth and a stable business model, which has been a real test for senior management. “This is one of the most testing times for us as leaders today,” he said, because it requires the ability to change quickly and adapt quickly without getting bogged down in day-to-day tactical battles.
In PwC’s 29th survey on revenue growth over the next 12 months, only three in ten CEOs were confident about revenue growth over the next 12 months, down from 38% in 2025 and 56% in 2022, marking a five-year low in CEO confidence in their income prospects. Another survey question that may be more telling is CEO confidence in their company’s 12-month revenue growth: This confidence has declined sharply in recent years, even as many leaders continue to pursue multi-year opportunities to reinvent their businesses through artificial intelligence, innovation and expansion across industries.
The changing role of the CEO is filtering down to the workforce, necessitating the need to reimagine career paths. Kander warned that the traditional “apprenticeship model” – where entry-level employees learn by completing basic tasks – is being disrupted by artificial intelligence. This classic career ladder starts at entry level and teaches a lot of expertise through hands-on learning, but as artificial intelligence increasingly handles the latter, this ladder must be redesigned to teach “systems thinking” rather than task execution.
Finally, Conde urged executives to look to the past 50 to 100 years rather than the past five years to understand the current moment. Citing the infrastructure boom of the railroad era and early internet, he said he believed the current wave of investment would usher in the next era of innovation. The CEO Survey’s framing of the coming “decade of innovation and industry restructuring” supports this long-term view, emphasizing that companies that generate more revenue from new areas tend to enjoy higher profit margins and CEO confidence in future growth is higher.
“I’m an optimist,” Kander concluded. He urged leaders not to be afraid of all the changes happening now, but to remember that people fear what they don’t understand, and the best remedy is to seek understanding. “That’s why I now spend so much time studying and traveling a lot, just to understand what’s going on and think about what could be done differently. That’s why I’m not afraid of artificial intelligence.”
“I see changes,” Kander said. “You have to embrace it.”