• We returned to 351 CEOs who participated in our 29th Global CEO Survey to understand what’s changed in recent months. Slightly more CEOs are more confident about the year ahead than they were, but confidence has dipped for a significant share.
• 39% of CEOs say their companies maintained or improved a positive AI impact, while 16% reported negative impacts.
• AI use for resilience is taking shape, with 38% of CEOs saying their companies have used it this year to spot opportunities associated with disruption.

The modern CEO diary has become a map of competing shocks: an AI steering committee in the morning, a pricing call after lunch, a supply chain review by the end of day, and a board discussion on geopolitical risk before the week is out.

How much has all this volatility changed the CEO outlook? PwC’s CEO Survey Snapshot—July 2026 was designed to find out. It is a mid-year temperature check: a five-question survey of 351 CEOs drawn from the group of about 4,500 CEOs surveyed in late 2025 for PwC’s 29th Global CEO Survey. Conducted in early summer 2026, roughly eight months after the full survey, the Snapshot gives us a rare view of momentum and change. Because these CEOs answered both surveys, we can look beyond the averages and track how individual views and experiences have evolved.

Rising confidence amid headwinds

CEOs are slightly more confident than they were in late 2025, despite a challenging operating environment. Among CEOs surveyed in both the full CEO Survey and the Snapshot, the share who are very or extremely confident about their company’s revenue growth over the next 12 months rose from 39% to 42%. Confidence about the next three years rose from 46% to 51%.

The movement among individual CEOs also tilts slightly positive. Nearly 60% of the 351 CEOs we returned to reported a change in their confidence levels, with confidence rising for a third (33%) and falling for 26%.

These modest upticks are all the more noteworthy given the macroeconomic storms CEOs are sailing through. Around 70% of CEOs say their company’s energy and non-energy costs have increased because of global shocks in 2026. That finding is consistent with what companies are seeing in traded markets, where energy, metals, and logistics costs have remained sensitive to geopolitical disruption.

Some are experiencing a more demanding management environment as a result. Roughly a quarter of CEOs (27%) say pricing decisions have become more challenging to a large or very large extent, as cost swings test pricing power. A similar share (26%) say the same about supply chain management, as companies try to maintain reliability without letting costs run away.

The evolving AI race

AI continues to advance at speed, and the pressure to show returns from AI investment is rising, in the boardroom and in the markets. In late 2025, only about one-third of CEOs reported revenue gains, cost reductions, or both from AI. The Snapshot suggests that the aggregate picture has not changed dramatically, with a similar proportion of Snapshot CEOs reporting cost decreases (18%), revenue increases (4%), or both (9%).

AI value is moving between companies

Beneath the relatively unchanged aggregate picture, companies are moving in and out of AI value creation. Roughly half (51%) of CEOs said they experienced a shift in AI’s business impact over the past eight months, migrating between positive impact, no change, and negative impact on revenue and costs.

A comparison of individual CEO responses across the main and mid-year surveys, reveals that some companies are gaining or maintaining positive AI impacts, and others are seeing negative impacts persist or worsen. 39% of CEOs say that AI impacts either increased their revenues, decreased their costs, or both. Another 16% say their companies either remained in negative territory or saw AI impact worsen across the same revenue and cost dimensions.

AI for resilience and value creation

The Snapshot also tested three ways companies are using AI to support greater resilience: identifying the potential business effects of global shocks before they emerge, generating recommendations in response to shocks, and identifying new business opportunities associated with changed conditions.

The most common of these was opportunity identification. Nearly four in ten (38%) CEOs say their company has used AI since January 2026 to identify and act on new business opportunities associated with changed conditions, such as shifts in customer demand, opportunities to adapt products or services, or moves into geographic markets where new needs have emerged. In practice, that may mean spotting a demand shift sooner, seeing where a shortage will bite first, or adapting a product or route-to-market before competitors do.

A larger opportunity may lie further upstream. Only 23% of CEOs say their company has used AI to identify the potential business effects of global shocks—such as changes in supplier exposure, commodity prices, or demand signals—before they emerge. This is where AI could become more strategically important, for example, by helping leaders connect early movements in inventories, input costs, supplier performance, or customer behaviour before those pressures appear in margins or missed forecasts.

Companies that can combine AI capability with resilience, and human judgment, will be better placed to see changes earlier, test options faster, and coordinate responses across the business. Companies that treat AI as a series of isolated tools may find it harder to turn insight into action.

About the survey

PwC’s CEO Survey July Snapshot 2026 is a short follow-up survey of CEOs who took part in PwC’s 29th Global CEO Survey. The Snapshot surveyed 351 CEOs across 59 countries and 27 sectors between 15 May and 22 June 2026. The five-question survey examined changes in CEO confidence, the impact of recent global shocks, the strategic decisions that have become more challenging, the reported impact of AI on revenue and costs, and the ways companies are using AI to strengthen resilience. Because respondents were drawn from the same group of CEOs surveyed in late 2025, the Snapshot allows PwC to compare responses over time and identify how individual CEO views and experiences have shifted.

Get in touch

For questions about the data, including additional cuts, contact the Global Thought Leadership’s Research and Insights team.

For media inquiries, contact Liz McGee or Dan Barabas.