Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.uz) — Executives at the world’s largest companies are becoming more confident about their own business prospects while taking a more cautious view of the global economy.
According to KPMG’s 12th annual 2026 Global CEO Outlook survey, 84% of CEOs are confident in the growth prospects of their organisations over the next three years, up from 79% in 2025. Over the same period, confidence in the global economy fell from 68% to 65%, its lowest level since 2021, KPMG Uzbekistan reported.
The survey was conducted from 11 August to 21 September 2026 among 1,400 business leaders at companies with annual revenue exceeding US$500 million. One-third of the companies reported revenue of more than US$10 billion.
Financial expectations and pressure on executives
Financial expectations have also improved. Some 68% of respondents expect annual growth of at least 2.5%, compared with 61% a year earlier. At the same time, 79% of CEOs said pressure to ensure the long-term development of their companies was increasing.
According to the report's authors, executives expect their businesses to grow despite mounting external uncertainty. At the same time, decisions concerning technology, risk, personnel and sustainability are becoming increasingly interconnected.
Cybersecurity tops the list of business risks
CEOs most frequently identified cybersecurity and data protection as the main threat to business growth, with 31% citing this factor. Global economic uncertainty was named by 28%, geopolitical instability and regulatory pressure by 26% each, and supply chain resilience risks by 24%.
The gap between the four most frequently cited threats was no more than five percentage points. The report's authors said this indicated that companies were preparing for several potential sources of disruption rather than building their strategies around a single dominant risk.
Cybersecurity was also the leading area for increased risk-mitigation spending, cited by 45% of respondents. Another 36% were increasing expenditure on regulatory compliance and reporting, while 32% were investing in integrating AI into operational processes.
Most executives said their risk appetite had not changed: 61% maintained the same level of willingness to take risks. Another 16% were prepared to take greater risks to pursue new opportunities, while 17% had become more cautious. The remaining 6% prioritised risk reduction over pursuing new opportunities.
Artificial intelligence: high expectations and practical barriers
AI has become firmly established in corporate investment plans. Some 79% of CEOs consider it a key priority for the next three years, up from 71% a year earlier. Meanwhile, 72% plan to allocate more than 10% of their budgets to the technology over the next 12 months.
Two-thirds of respondents (66%) believe their organisations are adopting AI at an appropriate pace or moving ahead of the market. Another 29% expressed cautious optimism about their progress, while around 5% reported difficulties or uncertainty about the results.
Executives identified ethical concerns (57%), cybersecurity (52%), implementation costs (51%) and data sovereignty requirements (50%) as the main obstacles to AI adoption.
Some 59% of CEOs believe AI development requires closer attention to internal data governance and control mechanisms. Another 66% fear that the pace of AI regulation could become an obstacle for their companies.
More than eight in 10 executives expect AI integration, cybercrime and technology infrastructure costs to have a significant impact on their organisations' prospects. The share of respondents citing each of these factors increased considerably compared with 2025.
Companies expect returns on AI investments over the medium term: 71% anticipate returns within one to three years, while 17% expect them within a year.
Workforce growth and skills shortages
Some 89% of CEOs expect their workforce to grow over the next three years, although 62% anticipate an increase of less than 5%.
Executives identified skills shortages as their main workforce challenge, cited by 56% of respondents. Training employees to work with AI was mentioned by 52%, while attracting and retaining talent was cited by 47%.
Resistance among employees to AI adoption was considered one of the least significant problems, with only 26% identifying it as a major concern.
Over the next 12 months, 51% of CEOs plan to communicate openly with employees about how AI will change their job responsibilities. Another 46% intend to launch retraining programmes, while the same share plan to provide specialised AI training.
Sustainability and energy
Sustainability is becoming increasingly integrated into corporate strategies. Over the past year, 63% of executives made it their main response to changes in the external environment, while 21% focused on areas with the greatest relevance to their businesses and 14% expanded their initiatives.
Some 70% of CEOs take the costs and potential returns of sustainability initiatives into account in at least some investment decisions. Another 29% consider them in every major capital investment decision.
However, 91% said differences in regulations and expectations across markets created significant or moderate challenges.
The main obstacles to achieving climate targets included decarbonising supply chains (22%), regulatory differences between jurisdictions (20%), costs (16%) and a lack of expertise (15%).
Executives have mixed views on AI's role in sustainability. Around eight in 10 believe the technology can help achieve climate goals. At the same time, 95% acknowledged concerns within their organisations about the environmental footprint of growing AI use.
Energy supply is another priority. Over the next three to five years, 49% of CEOs plan to focus primarily on diversifying external supplies through renewable or low-carbon energy. Another 37% intend to reduce consumption through greater efficiency, while 13% plan to develop their own generation, storage or backup power capacity.
Regional perspective
Saken Zhumashev, Managing Partner of KPMG Caucasus and Central Asia, said economic and geopolitical uncertainty, cyber threats and regulatory changes meant that business growth and resilience had become interconnected challenges for companies in the region.
He said strategies needed to reflect the specific conditions of each market. Returns on AI investment, he added, depended not only on technology spending but also on workforce development, reliable data governance and the restructuring of business processes.
“Confidence in the future is the ability to adapt,” he said.
Konstantin Aushev, Partner and Head of Technology at KPMG Caucasus and Central Asia, noted that global businesses were concentrating AI adoption on projects with clear returns while also investing in protection against cyber threats.
In the region, he said, priorities were similar, although companies were paying somewhat more attention to data governance and talent development than to cybersecurity.
Gabit Musrepov, Head of ESG and Corporate Governance at KPMG Caucasus and Central Asia, said sustainability was becoming an important part of corporate strategy amid supply disruptions, energy challenges and new regulatory requirements.
He said AI could help address environmental challenges but also required significant resources, making it important for companies to consider its environmental footprint.
Aligning business priorities
The report's authors concluded that corporate growth increasingly depended on more than the allocation of capital alone.
Cyber resilience affects both risk management and AI adoption. Workforce planning depends on addressing skills shortages, while energy decisions are becoming part of operational planning.
KPMG identified aligning these decisions as the main management challenge for 2026. The company said this required a shared understanding of value and clear accountability across strategy, technology, risk management, personnel and sustainability.
The survey included CEOs from 12 countries: Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.
It covered 13 industries, including banking, energy, healthcare, infrastructure, manufacturing, technology and telecommunications.
