The promise of AI-driven reinvention is undeniable, yet many organizations are still struggling to turn ambition into measurable results. PwC’s latest CEO survey sheds light on why some leaders are pulling ahead and what’s holding others back.
It starts with AI on an enterprise scale. Experimentation is widespread but the payoff is not.
- Only 30% of CEOs report tangible revenue gains from AI.
- Cost outcomes are mixed: 26% report cost reductions, 22% report higher costs, while 56% say AI has delivered neither revenue growth nor cost savings.
- The lesson is clear: isolated pilots rarely move the needle. Real impact comes when AI is deployed across the enterprise, tightly aligned with business strategy and embraced by a culture ready to adopt new ways of working.
Break down borders: Reinvention may mean reshaping markets themselves.
- As AI collides with climate pressures, geopolitics, and shifting customer expectations, traditional industry boundaries are fading.
- 42% of CEOs say they are already competing in new sectors, and among those planning major acquisitions, 44% expect to buy outside their core industry.
The blurring of boundaries puts a spotlight on innovation as a core strategic discipline.
- While half of CEOs say innovation is critical to their strategy, far fewer have embedded the practices that make it repeatable.
- The payoff for those that do is compelling: they generate more revenue from new products, grow faster, and deliver higher profits by treating innovation as a system combining core strategic discipline, external partnerships and rapid testing with customers.
Overlaying all of this is trust - the quiet accelerator.
- 66% of CEOs report at least moderate trust concerns, ranging from AI safety and data privacy to transparency.
- Companies with the fewest trust issues delivered total shareholder returns nine percentage points higher than those facing the greatest trust concerns.
Finally, there’s the CEO’s scarcest resource - time.
- Leaders still spend nearly half their time on issues with a one-year horizon or less, risking underinvestment in the longer-term bets that fuel reinvention.
The takeaway? AI is not a side project. CEOs who build strong foundations, look beyond traditional boundaries, and resist the pull of urgency will be best positioned to turn disruption into durable growth.
