Executive views on policy, risk, and growth

Businesses adapted. Who's actually winning?

Even periods of radical change can start to feel normal, especially when they keep happening. US executives seem to have found their stride after more than a year of rapid policy shifts, economic uncertainty, and operational disruption. But they may risk mistaking the new business environment’s table stakes for differentiation from the competition, according to PwC’s April 2026 C-Suite Outlook, Executive views on policy, risk, and growth.

Executives are now largely positive about how their companies have responded over the past 15 months. Indeed, 90% say that their company is in a stronger position than two years ago. That is a sharp shift from May 2025, when 57% said they were missing opportunities because they couldn’t make decisions fast enough. Today, they seem to have found their footing and are moving with more confidence. But that’s only part of the story.

Our survey also shows that executives are focused on the same risks and taking the same actions. But when everyone is focused on the same things, advantage starts to disappear. What feels like progress can quickly become parity. The real challenge now is differentiation.

Here are some of our key findings.

• Executives say they’re outperforming the pack. Roughly two-thirds of respondents say they are ahead or significantly ahead of competitors in areas like operational efficiency (73%), speed of decision-making and execution (67%), and supply-chain resilience (66%).
• Leaders aren’t standing still. Since 2025, executives have taken a range of actions like increasing their technology and AI investment (38%), increasing their proactive risk management (36%), and adjusting their trade strategy (35%). Overall, they report taking an average of nearly four (3.7) strategic actions in that period.
• Companies still play defense when disruption hits. Executives see disruptions as an opportunity, but in the moment, the response is often defensive—safeguarding technology, data, and operating networks, or preserving cash. Far fewer executives say their C-suite's response is offensive, such as growing market share or acquiring assets or capabilities.
• Companies should build out their cross-border analysis capabilities. As volatility has increased around the world, 65% say they lack the data needed to assess geopolitical risks and opportunities.
• AI is becoming central to decision-making, but its value is still emerging. Eighty-one percent say they’re at least a year away from seeing meaningful returns beyond efficiency.

Business leaders have adapted to a faster-changing environment. What once felt like constant disruption is now the status quo operating environment. In the past, some executives said they couldn’t move fast enough to capture opportunities. Many in our survey are now more confident in their decision-making and navigating uncertainty.

Nine in ten say that their company’s in a stronger position today than two years ago. That confidence shows up in areas like the speed of decision-making and execution, operational efficiency, market share position, and supply chain resilience—all areas where approximately two-thirds of the executives say they’re ahead of their competitors. The same holds true for aspects like access to and deployment of capital, and the ability to adapt to geopolitical and policy change.

Among specific industries, financial services executives were more likely to say they’re significantly ahead of their competitors when it comes to proactively assessing risk and opportunities, and consumer markets executives are more likely to say they’re significantly behind in the speed of decision-making and execution.

What you can do 

• Get an objective view of your performance. You may think you’re ahead, but benchmarking exercises can give you a more accurate picture—especially for quantifiable metrics like operational efficiency, market share, and supply chain resilience.

• Look in the rear-view mirror. For more qualitative aspects like decision-making, influencing policymakers, and assessing risks and opportunities, make sure to evaluate your performance retroactively. Run structured debriefs to refine how decisions are made under pressure.

• Make sure you’re measuring the right things. If your KPIs still reflect the old playbook, it’s time to update them. You should track what matters now, not just last cycle’s targets. And measure the time it takes for strategy to show up in financial results. That lag often reveals where execution is breaking down.
  

One possible reason for executives’ confidence is that they’ve been taking action to compete more effectively. Among respondents, 38% have increased their technology and AI investment since January 2025, 36% have become more proactive about risk management, and 35% have adjusted their trade strategy. It’s not just one move. Executives are engaged across multiple fronts, taking an average of nearly four actions. When individual actions are grouped into broader categories, operational and supply chain adjustment is the most common category, followed by technology and digital transformation.

Those worthwhile moves are generating results. For example, 62% cite both improved technology adoption and scale as well as improved innovation speed and effectiveness. About the same (61%) report greater strategic agility. A slightly smaller share saw gains in speed of entering new markets (59%) and risk mitigation (59%). Looking ahead, the pace is likely to continue. Over the next 12 months, 74% plan to begin or increase AI investment, 73% will start or ramp up proactive risk management, and 72% will start or increase rebalancing their workforce model.

But there’s a catch. Our survey also indicates that many companies are following the same playbook. Consider that 73% of executives report taking at least one of the three most-commonly-cited actions.

When nearly every organization is running the same response to the same pressures, those moves stop creating advantage. They become the baseline. From there, execution is what matters. It’s what differentiates those who keep pace from those who pull ahead.

What you can do 

• Execute with confidence—even without the full information. When companies take similar actions, differentiation comes down to execution, especially when decisions can’t wait for perfect clarity. That means strong change management and governance, a clear investment plan, engagement across the organization, and explicit KPIs that track whether you’re getting the outcomes you want.
• Align capital to competitive strengths. Investing in AI and engaging in proactive risk management are important, but they won’t set you apart on their own. Concentrate on your company’s strengths and invest in areas where you have a real edge.

Even if you’ve adjusted to the current environment, you can’t afford to get complacent. Risks haven’t receded. If anything, they’ve expanded. Across the board, executives see a wide and growing range of risks. Nine out of ten cite at least one of these as a moderate or serious risk: cyber threats, macroeconomic uncertainty, geopolitical uncertainty, or regulatory complexity. While regulatory complexity stands as a top risk—69% of executives call it a moderate or serious risk—no single risk dominates. 

The message is clear. Risk is everywhere, and it’s interconnected. In this environment, managing risk isn’t just about protection—it’s about how quickly and effectively you respond. Execution matters here, too.

Many companies are starting to plan accordingly, treating volatility as a permanent feature of the landscape. That shift is also showing up in long-term planning, with 87% expecting US fiscal pressures to push business taxes higher—and they’re already planning for it. And while tariff policy risk is still prevalent (65% of executives call it a moderate or serious risk), 86% now treat tariffs as a permanent planning assumption—building them into operating models rather than waiting for relief. 

Similarly, multiple external forces are driving strategic business changes. It's not one dominant issue. What stands out is the intensity of impact across the board. More than half (56%) of executives say both macroeconomic and capital markets conditions and cybersecurity and tech disruption have significantly caused their company to make strategic business changes over the past six months. About half (53%) of executives say the same thing about energy availability, reliability, and cost. In other words, the business environment isn’t simply changing, it’s changing in ways that are pushing companies to make real moves.

What you can do 

• Move from awareness to risk integration. Connect cyber, regulatory, macro, and geopolitical risk signals into one operating dashboard—not siloed reports. Tie the dashboard to business outcomes (revenue, margin, cash, supply continuity), define clear owners and decision rights, and set triggers that prompt action so the dashboard drives real moves, not just monitoring.

• Stress-test your operating model, not just your balance sheet. Model how today’s risk environment—cyber, policy, macro, and geopolitical risks interacting at once—could affect your supply chain, pricing, customer demand, and talent. Then translate those scenarios into playbooks with clear owners and triggers so you can adjust in days, not weeks, as conditions evolve.

• Adopt AI-enabled solutions, particularly for cyber threats. AI is leading to more threats by bad actors, but it can also be a powerful tool in enhancing vigilance and strengthening cyber defense. Use it.

Executives say they want to capitalize on the opportunities created by a chaotic environment, but many aren’t backing that up with action. While 87% see disruption and volatility as opportunities for competitive advantage, many lack the capabilities to turn those opportunities into results. More than two-thirds (68%) say they struggle to translate uncertainty into business decisions, and 65% lack the geopolitical data and analysis to act confidently.

This contradiction shows up in other areas as well. Even with confidence rising, the C-suite's default when disruption hits is to play defense. When asked to pick their top three responses to external disruptions, 98% of executives selected at least one defensive move, such as preserving cash or safeguarding operations, while 76% selected at least one offensive move, like accelerating innovation or pursuing new market opportunities.

Loss-avoidance is an understandable tendency in the C-suite, especially when disruptions could affect company data or operational continuity. But today’s disruptions are faster and more frequent. A reflex to defend could come at a cost. It could mean missed opportunities. The companies that move ahead take a different approach. They prepare, plan, and commit to acting when it matters most. It’s the execution that sets them apart. Capitalizing on chaos is intentional—built on clarity and the confidence to move forward, even without full information, when others hesitate.  

What you can do

• Close the intelligence gap by institutionalizing expertise. Invest in teams with targeted expertise (geopolitical, cyber, policy) and a small set of key metrics and early indicators that provide foresight into different disruption types and their relative likelihood. Link those signals directly to business exposure (margin, cash, continuity) so the insight is decision-grade.
• Clarify decision rights and speed. Make explicit who decides pricing, sourcing, capex timing, market moves, and external communications—and how quickly. Use a rapid cadence and escalation rules so you can move in 48–72 hours without creating compliance or reputational risk.

In the search for growth, executives see some forces helping over the next one to two years, while others hold them back. Overall, 60% say the speed of tech adoption and scaling enables growth, and 58% cite the pace of AI return on investment (ROI). Another 55% say access to new markets enables growth.

At the same time, executives see problems. Across all industries, 28% say regulation is limiting their company’s growth plans over the next one to two years. Workforce availability and skills, along with energy availability, reliability, and cost, are also constraints across industries (22% and 20%, respectively).

Among industries, 35% of energy and industrials executives say the regulatory environment is limiting growth, and 31% of tech, media, and telecom executives say the same.

What you can do 

• Make strategic bets and then scale them up. Pick where you’re going to lead. If tech adoption speed and AI ROI are growth engines, focus on the use cases that truly differentiate your business and invest disproportionately in them. That kind of discipline is harder—and far more valuable—than spreading resources across a high volume of uncoordinated experiments.
• Turn constraints into design choices. Regulation, talent, and energy issues aren’t temporary, they’re structural realities. Build compliance, workforce strategy, and supply resilience into your operating model so friction becomes a capability, not a brake.

Your next move is different. Build on what you’ve learned. Shift from reaction to executing with intent so you can move faster, stand apart, and turn disruption into advantage.

Between March 12 and March 20, 2026, PwC surveyed 633 US executives, including CEOs, CFOs and finance leaders, COOs and operations leaders, CIOs, CTOs, and technology leaders, risk leaders, including CROs, CAEs, and CISOs, tax leaders, and corporate board members, on business conditions, policy shifts, geopolitical risk, and growth opportunities. Respondents included executives from consumer markets (20%), energy and industrials (27%), financial services (24%), health industries (9%), and technology, media, and telecommunications (18%).