The latest Gartner CEO survey reveals that 62 percent of CEOs chose growth as their top business priority in 2024. This is the highest level since 2014 and a significant increase from 49 percent of CEOs choosing growth last year.
In addition to the growing focus on growth, the Gartner CEO survey revealed that cost management was less of a priority for most CEOs and senior business executives, which suggests that they view challenging economic times as part of the past. “We have entered a phase of rising business leader confidence and business strategy re-launches,” said David Furlonger, distinguished VP analyst and Gartner fellow.
Growth mindset prevails
Gartner conducted the 2024 CEO and Senior Business Executive Survey from July through December 2023. The study included 416 CEOs and other senior business executives in North America, Europe, Asia/Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East and South Africa, across different industries, revenue and company sizes. One key takeaway of the survey is the CEOs are entertaining a growth mindset in their current environment.
AI takes center stage in business transformation
The Gartner CEO survey took a deeper look into CEOs’ outlooks on digital transformation, revealing that 34 percent of them identify artificial intelligence (AI) as the top theme of the next business transformation after digital, followed by operations efficiency at 9 percent.
“AI is displacing ‘digital’ as the keyword CEOs mention the most, due in no small part to generative AI (GenAI),” said Don Scheibenreif, distinguished VP analyst at Gartner. The majority of CEOs believe that the AI breakthroughs of 2023 justified the tech sector hype. Moreover, they are relying on CIOs, CTOs, or CDOs to add value through GenAI. This shows that digital transformation is a team effort when approaching such projects.
Read: Peru exits IMF’s flexible credit line arrangement
Challenges remain
The Gartner CEO survey reveals that 87 percent of CEOs agree that the benefits of AI to their business outweigh its risks. Another 90 percent of CEOs also agreed the idea of AI being an existential threat to humanity is an exaggeration. However, their view is not completely positive. As many as 56 percent of CEOs said disinformation, misinformation and deep fakes will create operating problems. Moreover, 29 percent see constrained electricity supply and 53 percent see general supply chain issues as a problem, in large part due to GenAI and the demand the technology creates.
“CEOs should tolerate low-cost GenAI projects,” said Scheibenreif. “But they should avoid the temptation to try and control GenAI’s use from the center.”
For more news on the economy, click here.
