It is often said that successful CEOs require both a microscope to identify near-term threats and a telescope to spot long-term opportunities. This balance is a recurring theme in PwC’s 29th Global CEO Survey, which gathered responses from 4,454 chief executives across 95 countries and territories, including Ukraine.
Ukrainian CEOs operate in one of the most challenging global environments. Despite the ongoing war demanding resilience and rapid decision-making, they continue to look ahead, investing in technology, expanding into new sectors, and accelerating innovation to drive long-term growth.
Our survey reveals a clear pattern: leaders who transform early and decisively consistently outperform their peers. Ukrainian executives exemplify this mindset, laying a foundation for national recovery and future competitiveness.
“Across Central and Eastern Europe, the need for reinvention remains an urgent priority. Years of disruption have taught CEOs in our region how to operate under pressure, but they’ve also tilted the balance of attention too far toward the short term. AI, geopolitics, climate, and shifting customer expectations are reshaping entire industries and creating new sources of growth. The question is: how will leaders seize the opportunities?
Ukraine is a sharp example of what it means to move forward through disruption. Despite CEOs here facing the most extreme operating environment in the region, over 60% have entered new sectors in the past five years—well above CEE and global peers. They test new ideas and are applying AI across the business, with deeper use cases emerging in products and customer experience.
Our support for Ukraine, its people, and its business community is unwavering. What Ukraine's business leaders are building, without waiting for the present to stabilise, is one of the most compelling leadership stories in the world today.”
Agnieszka Gajewska, Partner, PwC CEE CEO-elect, CEE Clients & Markets Leader, Global Government & Public Services Leader
“Across Central and Eastern Europe, disruption has become a constant — but the real leadership challenge is not coping with pressure, it is continuing to reinvent while under it. What stands out in Ukraine is that CEOs are not waiting for conditions to stabilize: they are entering new sectors, strengthening digital capabilities and investing in long‑term growth despite uncertainty. This ability to build for the future while managing the present is fast becoming a defining source of competitive advantage for the region.”
Maxim Vykhovanets, Country Managing Partner, PwC Ukraine
“The defining test of leadership today is not simply resilience — it is reinvention under pressure. In Ukraine, CEOs are operating at the intersection of immediate disruption, transformation and long-term investing, very often in different segments than they have grown from.
Decisions on technology, talent availability, security and trust have become inseparable. Those leaders who build the capability to adapt at speed — while continuing to invest in the future — will emerge stronger and more competitive in the next chapter of growth.”
Olena Volkova, Partner, Clients & Markets Leader, PwC Ukraine
Globally, CEOs who advance rapidly on these dimensions of reinvention are already outperforming their less dynamic peers.
Key findings from this year’s survey include:
- War remains a top concern, yet optimism prevails: While 46% of Ukrainian CEOs cite the ongoing war as their primary concern (compared to 21% globally and 33% in CEE), and 68% view it as an existential threat, their optimism and drive to seize new opportunities and innovate remain undeterred, highlighting their remarkable adaptability.
- Confidence in growth: 37% of Ukrainian CEOs express strong confidence in revenue growth over the next 12 months, a slightly higher than 34% last year and 56% in 2022.
- Limited AI impact despite readiness: 68% of Ukrainian CEOs report no AI-related returns to date (65% globally and 73% in CEE). Only 25% have seen revenue increases, and 35% report cost reductions. Despite strong organisational culture supporting AI adoption and technology environments enabling integration, many CEOs consider current investment insufficient and talent attraction uncertain, explaining the elusive returns.
- Bold moves beyond core sectors: Over 60% of Ukrainian CEOs have entered new sectors in the past five years (compared to 42% globally and 49% in CEE). Looking ahead, 40% plan at least one acquisition in the next three years, with 7% expecting to complete more than four—far exceeding the 2% globally.
- Innovation as a strategic priority: 76% of Ukrainian CEOs consider innovation vital to their business strategy, and 76% rapidly test new ideas with customers or end-users. Furthermore, 15% report that 50–100% of this year’s sales originated from products or services launched in the past three years (9% globally and 12% in CEE).
Navigating a complex environment demands agile leadership — the ability to quickly adapt and swiftly shift between issues, opportunities, and plan across different time horizons. Ukrainian CEOs dedicate approximately two-thirds of their time to short-term matters (66% compared to 47% globally and 57% in CEE), with only 10% focused on horizons beyond five years (compared with 16% globally and 11% in CEE). This prompts us to ask: What's the right balance, especially under martial law and the pressing challenges of a war-torn landscape, while also planning for the country’s future recovery and rebuilding? CEOs need to build organisations that succeed today and continue to grow in the future.
Exploring the business horizon
Navigating threats and capturing opportunities
Almost half of Ukrainian CEOs (46%) cite the ongoing war as their primary concern, a stark contrast to 21% globally and 33% across the CEE region who prioritise geopolitical disruption. Yet, our survey and discussions with Ukrainian business leaders show a robust readiness to tackle these threats, with an emphasis on agile strategies to manage disruptions.
Energy companies in Ukraine operate at the frontline of the economy. Ensuring continuity of supply, rapid recovery after disruptions and long‑term system resilience is no longer just a technical challenge — it is a responsibility to people, businesses and the country’s future. This reality is reshaping how energy leaders think about risk, investment and leadership.
A secondary concern for CEOs is the swift evolution of technology and their ability to keep pace. This echoes a global priority, encapsulated by the question: “Are we transforming fast enough to keep up with technology and AI?” This sentiment is shared by 39% of Ukrainian CEOs, a topic explored further in a dedicated section of this report.
Completing the top three concerns is the fundamental leadership question: “Does my company have the right leadership team?”. Survey data underscores a growing appreciation for leadership's critical role, especially during periods of swift change and unprecedented challenges.
Q. What is the question that concerns you most these days?
Reflecting this mindset, over half of Ukrainian CEOs (54%) feel well prepared to capture opportunities emerging from disruption—nearly double the global average (29%) and notably above the CEE average (35%).
Moreover, Ukrainian business leaders remain strongly optimistic about revenue prospects for coming the year and the next three years. More than 90% expect growth, with over a third very confident. This contrasts with global sentiment, where confidence in both short- and long-term revenue growth has declined since last year’s survey.
Furthermore, 34% of Ukrainian CEOs report increased market share over the past five years, with an additional 41% maintaining their position.
On a global scale, business leaders still expect the world economy to grow, though many are less positive about prospects in their own countries amidst geopolitical and economic challenges.
Security imperative
Geopolitical tensions are intensifying cyber security risks globally, and the ongoing war in Ukraine — often described as the most technologically advanced in history — has elevated cyber risk to a top concern for Ukrainian CEOs. Our latest insights into cybersecurity highlights that, in recent years, numerous cyberattacks have disrupted entire industrial sectors, increasingly targeting operational technology environments. These attacks are becoming more sophisticated and AI-enabled, affecting everything from energy grids, as seen in Ukraine, to manufacturing and logistics. The rising scale and complexity of these threats ensure cybersecurity remains a critical priority for business leaders in Ukraine.
Ukrainian CEOs stand out as the highest proportion of leaders who, in response to potential geopolitical risks over the next three years, plan to significantly strengthen enterprise-wide cybersecurity to defend against cyberattacks (56% of Ukrainian leaders compared with 48% of CEE business leaders and 47% of global leaders). They are also more inclined to restrict the use of technology providers from untrusted countries (32% of Ukrainian CEOs compared with 18% of CEE CEOs and 21% of global CEOs).
Q. To what extent do you expect your company to take each of the following actions in response to potential geopolitical risk, over the next three years?
Sectors without borders
The business landscape in Ukraine and worldwide is evolving swiftly, reshaped by geopolitics, AI and other megatrends. These dynamics are creating new customer needs, enabling new business models and blurring traditional industry boundaries. Many companies are already moving across sectors to drive reinvention and growth.
In Ukraine, 61% of CEOs say their company has entered new sectors in the past five years (compared with 42% worldwide and 49% in CEE).
What's driving this shift, and how can businesses adapt to seize these opportunities?
Ukrainian CEOs see the strongest opportunities in Business Services (20%) and Power & Utilities (17%), whether through organic expansion or acquisitions. While this differs from the global priority of Technology, it remains a popular destination.
Around 15% of Ukrainian CEOs are targeting Transportation & Logistics and Aerospace & Defence, similar to CEE trends (12%). This reflects the increasing strategic importance of these sectors amid rising geopolitical risk. The pattern is also evident in advanced economies: in Europe and North America, more than 40% of Industrial Manufacturing CEOs plan to expand into Aerospace & Defence, in line with increased defence spending as the post–Cold War order shifts.
Your next move: Go beyond to outperform. This year’s survey shows a clear connection between a higher share of revenue from new sectors, stronger profit margins, and greater CEO confidence in future growth. Simply put, engaging in industry transformation is paying off.
To seize these opportunities, businesses need to reflect on their capabilities and outward at the market. When it comes to M&A, our research indicates that deals create more value when the goal is to acquire complimentary capabilities, rather than simply expanding market influence or customer reach.
Beyond strategic deal‑making, operating across sector boundaries requires collaboration at scale with new ecosystem partners – a capability many companies are still developing. This often demands investment in core systems. For instance, one manufacturer has begun a major upgrade of its data environment and systems to enable smooth collaboration with partners across the mobility ecosystem.
PwC 2026 Outlook of Global M&A industry trends reveals that sector convergence has been accelerating by AI as it is blurring traditional boundaries and reshaping deal activity. For instance, technology companies are investing in energy and power infrastructure, while industrial and healthcare companies are acquiring data, analytics, and software to embed AI across their operations and R&D. This transformation is redefining how industries collaborate and innovate.
Implementing AI: maturity, workforce, and operational impact
Measurable outcomes gained by a minority
Ukraine is stepping into the AI era with promising results. Already, one in four respondents report measurable revenue gains from AI — outperforming the CEE average and keeping pace with global leaders. Over a third also report cost reductions, 9% points above the global average, while only 11% note increased costs, almost half the global share.
Q. In the last 12 months, what impact did AI have on the following at your company?
These benefits are still limited to a minority of respondents, but this group is likely to grow. Ukrainian business leaders feel increasingly prepared for AI adoption, both in terms of organisational culture and technology readiness, broadly matching CEE and global peers. 68% of Ukrainian CEOs say their organisational culture supports AI use, mirroring the 69% reported across CEE and globally. Meanwhile, 62% believe their technology environment enables effective AI integration, compared with 54% in CEE and 67% globally. What's driving this readiness, and how can we accelerate it further?
Government momentum accelerating adoption
Ukraine is on a path to becoming a global leader in AI by 2030, driven by a visionary government strategy. Public sector leaders see AI as a catalyst for economic leapfrogging, competitiveness and more efficient governance. The concept of an “AI agentic state” sets a bold international benchmark. As Ukraine rebuilds, AI is expected to become a cornerstone of economic transformation—boosting productivity, attracting investment and modernising sectors. This journey demands new ways work methods, continuous upskilling and a focus on advanced AI skills.
AI’s impact on jobs
AI is already profoundly reshaping Ukraine's labour market. Ranked 40th in the global ranking of 195 countries and among the top ten leaders in AI development in Eastern Europe, Ukraine's pool of AI professionals continues to grow despite wartime pressures and economic uncertainty, with many having more than three years’ experience, signalling a maturing industry. According to PwC’s 2025 Global AI Jobs Barometer, sectors adopting AI are achieving revenue growth per employee three times faster.
Given Ukraine's persistent labour shortage – one of the key barriers to business highlighted by PwC 29th Global CEO Survey – AI technologies offer a promising avenue to alleviate staffing pressures.
Your next move: Build AI foundations. Our experience shows that isolated or tactical AI projects rarely deliver measurable value. Meaningful returns come from enterprise-wide AI aligned with business strategy. This requires strong AI foundations: an integrated technology environment, a clear roadmap for AI initiatives, formal Responsible AI and risk processes, and a culture that embrace AI while managing related risks. Ukrainian businesses are well-positioned to advance alongside CEE and global peers.
AI adoption patterns vary across business functions. Almost a third of Ukrainian CEOs report extensive use of AI in products, services and customer experience—well above global and regional averages—while uptake remains lower in demand generation and support functions, reflecting uneven maturity across organisations.
Forging Ahead for Tomorrow
Innovate to reinvent
A clear theme across the survey is the strong resilience and adaptability of Ukrainian businesses. This is especially evident in the innovation related responses. Ukrainian CEOs display a notable confidence in embracing and advancing innovation, often outpacing their global counterparts. While innovation ranks second globally, just after technology and AI, it doesn't feature among the top three concerns for Ukrainian CEOs.
They report a quicker innovation adoption, with 36% rapidly test new ideas with customers or endusers, compared to 30% of global CEOs.
Yet, both Ukrainian and global CEOs acknowledge a gap between ambition and execution. Only one in four global CEOs state their organisation strongly supports high-risk innovation projects, routinely discontinues underperforming R&D initiatives, or operates a dedicated innovation centre, incubator, or venture arms. Among the six innovation-enabling practices reviewed, fewer than one in ten CEOs report having implemented at least five to a significant extent.
Your next move: Build innovation capability. This year’s survey indicates that companies leveraging a critical mass of innovation practices achieve not only a higher share of sales from new products and services but also faster overall revenue growth and stronger profit margins. In Ukraine, an adaptive mindset, strengthened over recent years, continues to propel innovation across sectors. The Government supports this agenda, allocating over UAH 7 billion to the Innovation Development Fund, with a significant focus on defence-related technologies.
However, the risk of spreading resources too thinly remains. CEOs must avoid what management thinker Steve Blank calls “innovation theatre” — activity that resembles innovation but delivers little tangible value. This reinforces the importance of regularly reviewing innovation portfolios, phasing out weak projects, and replacing risk aversion with disciplined, stage-gated experimentation carried out with clear intent and informed decision-making.
From climate risk to climate value
Ukrainian CEOs remain far less concerned about climate‑related financial risks than their peers in CEE and globally, with only 22% reporting at least moderate exposure. This reflects the more immediate pressures on Ukrainian businesses and a comparatively lighter environmental regulatory landscape.
Ukrainian CEOs’ actions and decision‑making remain broadly aligned with global and regional trends. More than 40% report having processes to integrate climate considerations into supply chain and sourcing decisions, nearly a half for product design and development, and a third for capital allocation, including M&A.
Global climate trends are already evident in Ukraine and will continue to intensify. The environmental damage caused by Russia’s war is affecting both Ukraine and neighbouring regions, yet the country remains committed to its international environmental obligations. Ukraine has made meaningful progress, including adopting a framework climate law, committing to climate neutrality by 2050 and preparing an Emissions Trading System action plan. Decentralising Ukraine’s energy system and increasing renewable capacity both support climate action and strengthen long‑term resilience.
Your next move: Integrate climate change into decision-making. Although Ukraine is not yet subject to formal sustainability requirements, this offers a chance to learn from global practices and start gathering the sustainability data needed for informed decisions. Solid data foundations enable companies to shift from merely risk mitigation towards active value creation. Our work shows that five factors typically shape this value: physical climate risk, regulation, energy strategy, supply chains, and tax incentives.
Our survey also indicates that companies with defined processes for integrating climate risks and opportunities into decisions reach the market faster and respond more effectively to shifts in demand and supply, whether driven by climate events or other external pressures.
Resist the tyranny of the urgent
How a CEO allocates their time is one of their most critical strategic choices, particularly in balancing short-, medium-, and long-term priorities. Globally, CEOs spend, on average, 47% of their time on activities with horizons of less than a year, 37% on one- to five-year priorities, and 16% on longer-term issues.
Ukrainian CEOs, however, focus 66% of their time on short-term activities, compared to 57% in the CEE region and 47% globally. Only a quarter of their time is dedicated to medium‑term planning, and one tenth to initiatives with a five‑year‑plus outlook. This short‑term focus is understandable given Ukraine’s volatile operating environment, acute pressures and unpredictable Russian aggression, yet it risks anchoring CEOs in immediate operational demands and limiting their ability to step back, assess longer‑term trajectories and set a clear strategic direction for their organisations.
In contrast, CEOs in Chinese Mainland report spending significantly more time than the global average on medium‑ and long‑term horizons, at 49% and 28% respectively.
Your next move: Reinvent your calendar. It’s challenging to generalise about the ideal allocation of CEO time across horizons. In crisis situations leaders may need to focus entirely on the present. But many (perhaps most) CEOs we know struggle with “the tyranny of the urgent” that leads them to spend too much time looking through their proverbial microscope when they know they should be focusing more attention on the long-term viability of the business.
Interestingly, CEOs who consider the company’s mid- to long-term viability as a pressing issue also report spending more time on short-term activities. If these leaders are serious about reinvention, they may need to reinvent how they invest their time.
Operational capability
Strong operational capability directly translates into financial and competitive advantage. Organisations in the top quartile of operational performance achieve higher profit margins and faster time to market than their peers. Yet fewer than 30% of Ukrainian CEOs rate any core operational area as exceeding expectations. Although Ukrainian CEOs assess their capabilities slightly more positively than global and CEE peers, a clear gap remains across all five functions, highlighting untapped potential for those able to move faster and execute more effectively.
Q. For each of the following areas of your operations, please indicate your company’s current level of performance relative to your expectations.
Operational performance hurdles differ across markets. Worldwide, excessive bureaucracy is the most frequently cited barrier, mentioned by 28% of CEOs, surpassing talent challenges, capital access, organisational structure and technology limitations. But in Ukraine, the most acute challenge is recruiting and retaining talent, as 46% of CEOs report. Additionally, 41% of Ukrainian CEOs highlighting difficulties in funding new initiatives. How can we address these barriers to unlock growth?
Q. To what extent do you agree or disagree that the following are inhibiting your company’s operational performance?
Your next move: Reset and optimise. A focused 90‑day reset can help clarify direction, strengthen execution, remove unnecessary bureaucracy and internal friction, embed rapid testing and enable greater external collaboration. Over time, increasing executive‑level visibility of organisational effectiveness will be critical. Simplifying decision‑making, removing technology bottlenecks and tracking speed to market and new‑product revenue can further improve operational performance.
Compete on trust
Stakeholder trust has never been easier to lose. Factors like ongoing war, cyberattacks, unpredictable geopolitical shifts, and rising expectations for transparency all play the role. Then there is AI, a cause for excitement and anxiety in equal measure among investors, customers, and employees. Our latest global workforce survey found that over a quarter of employees were worried about AI’s impact on their work. A single misstep on any of these issues can precipitate a cascade of stakeholder concerns with damaging consequences for trust and value.
Around two-thirds of CEOs state their company experienced trust concerns in the past year on topics such as AI safety, data privacy, and increased scrutiny of leadership decisions.
Q. In the past 12 months, to what extent has your company experienced any of the following trust concerns from your key stakeholder groups (e.g. the board, customers, regulators, investors, employees)?
Your next move: Make trust a boardroom topic. While it is challenging to completely shield a company from losing stakeholder trust, many CEOs could do more to anticipate and proactively address potential vulnerabilities. Our analysis demonstrates that trust isn’t just a ‘soft’ issue – it’s critical factor with real value at stake. Therefore, trust should be prioritised as a boardroom topic and considered across three interlocking dimensions: operational trust, which relies on efficient and resilient operations; accountability trust, grounded in high-quality reporting and communication; and digital trust, which depends on systems and processes that safeguard sensitive data, ensure secure operations, and promote responsible and ethical use of digital tools.
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