Navigating the new world of business—CEO insights

Irish CEOs facing a barrage of challenges are nevertheless forging ahead with market diversification and innovation, writes Kieran Little

It’s often said that successful CEOs need both a microscope and a telescope to spot near-term threats while also keeping an eye out for long-term opportunities.

This tension across time horizons is a recurring theme in PwC’s 29th CEO survey, published in January with responses from 4,454 chief executives across 95 countries and territories, including Ireland.

This year’s survey highlights both how confident predictions of revenue growth have cooled among CEOs globally and how they are increasingly pursuing growth in new territories.

The benefits promised by investment in artificial intelligence (AI) have yet to fully emerge.

In Ireland, CEOs are nevertheless prioritising innovation, forging ahead with AI investment and entering new sectors, seeking multi-year opportunities to reinvent their organisations for growth.

Opportunities in sector reconfiguration

Forty-seven percent of Irish CEOs say their company has expanded into new sectors in the past five years, compared to 42 percent globally and up from 32 percent last year.

There is a strong correlation between a higher percentage of revenue derived from new sectors, healthier profit margins and greater CEO confidence in their company’s growth prospects.

In other words, playing an active role in industry reconfiguration is paying off.

As a small open economy, Ireland’s international trade links are crucial and our CEOs recognise this.

Sixty-eight percent of Irish CEOs plan to invest in markets outside Ireland this year, compared to 51 percent globally.

The UK remains the top investment destination at 62 percent, followed by the US at 44 percent and Germany at 23 percent.

Investment interest in India has doubled year-on-year at eight percent in 2026.

The global geopolitical landscape is also forcing companies to examine their supply chain structure, and we are seeing a rise in localisation and onshoring activity.

The AI promise: untapped opportunity

AI could be a powerful catalyst for the next wave of business reinvention. This is not about incremental gains; it is about reimagining how value can be created and delivered at scale.

Today, companies embedding AI into both core strategy and future planning are starting to see some returns. Here, foundations matter as much as scale.

Global CEOs whose organisations have established strong AI foundations—such as responsible AI frameworks and technology environments enabling enterprise-wide integration—are more likely to report meaningful financial returns.

Global PwC analysis shows that companies committed to wide-scale AI application across products, services and customer experiences have boosted profit margins by close to four percentage points more than their AI-resistant counterparts.

Despite this, the potential benefits promised by AI deployment in Ireland and globally remain largely untapped, our CEO survey has found.

Just under one-fifth of Irish CEOs (17%) say their company has realised additional revenues from AI adoption over the last 12 months—lower than the global figure of 29%.

Close to a quarter (23%) say their use of AI has reduced costs, compared to 26% globally.

Cooling outlook and operational pressures

Uncertainty among CEOs is on the rise. Compared to our 2025 survey, this year’s respondents are less bullish about the outlook for their organisation’s revenue growth in the months ahead.

Just 26 percent of Irish CEOs are “extremely” or “very” confident about growth prospects this year, down from 43 percent in 2025 and 60 percent in 2022.

While a higher proportion (63%) are confident about economic growth locally, this figure is also down from last year’s 74 percent.

The near-term threats of most concern to Ireland’s CEOs currently are:

-Macroeconomic volatility (27%);

-Technological disruption (21%); and

-Geopolitical conflict (21%).

These concerns are not surprising. CEOs today are leading their organisations in a time of unprecedented geopolitical uncertainty. Many are also grappling with the ramifications of disruptive technologies, such as AI.

Twenty-eight per cent of Irish CEOs (compared to 32 percent globally) say they are less likely to commit to new, large-scale investments this year due to geopolitical uncertainty.

Concerns about cyber-attacks have not abated, meanwhile, with 82 percent of Irish business leaders taking steps to improve their enterprise-wide cybersecurity.

What comes next?

The big challenge for CEOs in the current economic and geopolitical environment is the need to run their business well today while also focusing on the adaptation and transformation needed to ensure future growth.

Irish CEOs have, by and large, demonstrated tremendous resilience at a time when uncertainty has become a structural business concern.

While disruption is inevitable, innovation and resilience are how we shape what comes next.

The organisations that thrive will be those that turn uncertainty into progress, using technology and insight to solve problems and create new possibilities.

Innovation is critical for future growth. In periods of rapid change, the instinct to slow down is understandable—but it’s also risky.

The value at stake across the Irish and global economies is increasing, and the window to capture this value is narrowing.

Successful companies will be those willing to make bold decisions and invest with conviction in the capabilities that matter most to reinvent their business model.

Throughout this year’s CEO survey, we see evidence that the organisations moving furthest and fastest to reinvent their business and operating models are outpacing their less dynamic peers.

For Irish CEOs, this imperative is even more pressing. Our economy’s reliance on foreign direct investment and continued geopolitical and global trade uncertainty mean Irish businesses cannot afford to focus narrowly on short-term activities.

Reinvention and innovation must move to the top of the agenda—not as optional initiatives, but as essential strategies for long-term viability and competitiveness.

Kieran Little is Partner, Strategy&, PwC Ireland