What’s on the minds of C-suite leaders now? Accenture’s latest quarterly global “Pulse of Change” survey of 2,800 C-suite leaders in 18 countries and nearly 20 industries, provides a timely snapshot into leaders’ views on top issues facing business leaders—today and over time.
Accenture conducts this C-suite survey to gauge how business, technology and talent issues are impacting their organizations. The new research is based on a survey fielded in May 2024.
Key insights from C-suites globally include:
- C-suite leaders are not necessarily more optimistic about revenue growth for the remainder of the year, but more of them now anticipate achieving it. The percentage expecting faster revenue growth fell slightly since March (66% vs 77%)—however, 91% expect to see revenue growth, up from 85%.
- While most C-suite leaders still see Gen AI as a revenue driver (65% vs. 76% six months ago), a growing share also recognize its potential for cost savings (35% vs. 24% six months ago). The survey also found that larger companies tend to reap more benefits from Gen AI, possibly due to their data and transformation capabilities.
- Talent issues are cited by nearly 50% of C-suite leaders as the top drivers of their tech investments. Yet nearly 90% say their orgs need “significant adjustments” or a “total transformation” of their reskilling strategy given the emergence of Gen AI. Additionally, only 41% believe their board of directors has the level of proficiency needed to make tech-related decisions that affect their company’s future
- C-suite leaders again rank keeping up with advancements in tech and innovation as their No. 1 concern (52%). At the bottom of the list are “increased geopolitical tensions” (31%) and “economic uncertainty” (30%). When asked what emerging tech they anticipate will have the most impact on their industries over the next year, “IoT, Edge Computing, and 5G Networks” hit the top spot at nearly 30%.
Meanwhile, findings from the Asia Pacific showed:
- 58% of all executives surveyed are expecting up to 5% growth in their Asia-Pacific Markets.
- 76% of C-suite leaders view GenAI as beneficial to revenue growth and 24% are seeing cost reduction opportunities in GenAI investments.
- GenAI impact on customer strategy:
# 48% believe that integrating GenAI has completely influenced company’s customer strategy, retention and acquisition.
# More than half or 53% of C-suite leaders fully believe that their organizations’ investments in technology are improving customer relationships.
# 52% believe that GenAI impacted customer strategy by automating customer service tasks using chatbots that can interact with customer real-time
# 51% view GenAI playing a role in helping organizations better measure customer satisfaction and gather feedback. - Talent remains as the top driver for tech investments such as GenAI.
# Employee retention and addressing skills shortages are cited by nearly half (or 47%) of C-suite leaders as the top drivers of their tech investments.
# Nearly 90% say organizations need moderate- needing some adjustments (56%) while a third (31%) need complete transformation of reskilling strategy.
# 52% believe that organizations have all the right talent and skills to secure their GenAI tools. - In Asia Pacific, C-Suite leaders face several challenges when using and implementing Gen AI, with cloud infrastructure as a top challenge. Explainability around the ‘black box’ nature of AI to stakeholders and driving transformation across skills, technology and processes were also cited as challenges.