For the previous two-and-a-half many years, the mandate for international enterprise leaders was comparatively simple: develop the prevailing enterprise, allocate capital effectively, and implement expertise to drive productiveness. However Mohamed Kande, international chairman of PwC, talking to Fortune in Davos, Switzerland, forward of the World Financial Discussion board’s annual assembly, insisted that period is over. Kande argued that the CEO job has modified extra previously 12 months than something he’s seen over the past quarter-century.
“This is without doubt one of the most testing moments for leaders,” Kande instructed Fortune‘s Diane Brady, describing a brand new “tri-modal” mandate that requires executives to concurrently run their present enterprise, rework it in actual time, and in addition construct fully new enterprise fashions for the longer term. “I’ve not seen that in 25 years,” he stated.
Regardless of this stress, Kande’s message to the worldwide enterprise neighborhood is rooted in historic optimism. “Don’t worry the longer term. It’s unsettling. It’s true. Day by day one thing modifications, however don’t worry it,” he stated, noting that each one the uncertainty so traumatic to executives has occurred earlier than, from tariffs, roughly 100 years in the past, to the economic revolution, even additional again. “Ultimately, one thing good will occur.” Kande allowed that he’s an optimist by nature, however he insisted that prime leaders can modify to this enterprise local weather.
The AI Execution Hole
After all, a main driver of this unsettling change is the speedy adoption of synthetic intelligence (AI), as revealed in PwC’s twenty ninth international CEO survey, “Main Via Uncertainty within the Age of AI,” launched on the onset of the annual assembly in Davos. Based mostly on responses from 4,454 CEOs throughout 95 nations and territories, the survey reveals a stark disconnect between ambition and actuality. Kande stated the enterprise neighborhood made big strides from 2024 to 2025, going from asking themselves whether or not they can or ought to undertake AI to some extent the place “no one is asking that query anymore. Everyone’s going for it.”
PwC’s survey finds, nonetheless, that solely 10% to 12% of corporations report seeing advantages on the income or value aspect, whereas a staggering 56% say they’re getting “nothing out of it.” This echoes the MIT research that shook markets in August with the discovering that 95% of generative AI pilots have been failing throughout the company sector.
Kande attributed this stress to not the expertise itself, however to an absence of foundational rigor. “Someway AI strikes so quick … that folks forgot that the adoption of expertise, it’s important to go to the fundamentals,” he defined, citing the necessity for clear information, strong enterprise processes, and governance. PwC is discovering that the businesses which can be seeing advantages from AI are “placing the foundations in place.” It’s about execution, not expertise, he argued, and that comes all the way down to good administration and management.
The Confidence Paradox and U.S. Dominance
The unsure surroundings has additionally created a paradox in enterprise sentiment, Kande instructed Fortune. Whereas CEOs specific confidence within the international economic system, solely 30% have faith that they will develop their very own companies. Kande questioned whether or not this hesitation stems from geopolitics, tariffs, expertise, or an absence of management agility. The final 15 years, he famous, have been ones of strong development and steady enterprise fashions, making this time an actual check for the C-suite. “This is without doubt one of the most testing second for leaders, what we’ve got right this moment,” he stated, as a result of it requires the flexibility to vary quick and adapt shortly with out getting slowed down in day-to-day, tactical fight.
Solely three in 10 CEOs have been assured in PwC’s twenty ninth survey about income development over the following 12 months, down from 38% in 2025 and 56% in 2022, marking a five-year low in CEO confidence in their very own income outlook. One other survey query could also be extra revealing, about CEO confidence of their firm’s 12‑month income development: this has fallen sharply over latest years, whilst many leaders proceed to pursue multiyear alternatives to reinvent their companies by AI, innovation, and cross-sector growth.
The transformation of the CEO function is trickling all the way down to the workforce, necessitating a reimagining of profession paths. Kande warned that the normal “apprenticeship mannequin”—the place entry-level staff study by doing primary duties—is being disrupted by AI. That basic profession ladder, beginning on the entry stage, taught numerous experience by hands-on studying, however this should be redesigned, going ahead, to show “system pondering” fairly than activity execution, as AI more and more handles the latter.
In the end, Kande urges executives to have a look at the final 50 to 100 years fairly than the final 5 to grasp the present second. Citing the infrastructure booms of the railroad period and the early web, he stated he believes the present wave of funding will beginning the following age of innovation. The CEO survey’s framing of a coming “decade of innovation and trade reconfiguration” helps this long-term view, highlighting that corporations producing extra income from new sectors are likely to get pleasure from larger revenue margins and better CEO confidence in future development.
“I’m an optimist,” Kande concluded. Somewhat than being afraid of all the modifications which can be occurring now, he urged leaders to do not forget that individuals worry what they don’t perceive, and the very best treatment for that’s to hunt understanding. “That’s why I spend a lot time studying now and touring so much, simply to grasp what’s occurring and desirous about what might be executed in a different way. That’s why I don’t worry AI.”
“I’ve seen change,” Kande stated. “You’ve received to embrace it.”
