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Innovating through uncertainty in the age of AI
Swiss findings of PwC’s 29th Annual Global CEO Survey
From CEO to CEO
As we enter 2026, uncertainty continues to shape the global and Swiss business landscape. Yet CEOs in this country are leaning into resilience and innovation as competitive strengths. Our survey shows that those who act boldly in times of disruption—investing in AI, accelerating transformation and doubling down on innovation capabilities—are the ones pulling ahead. Transforming our businesses is no longer optional, especially as a reconfiguration of industries reshapes the global economy. In fact, transformation is the key to unlocking the biggest wins and securing Switzerland’s place in this rapidly evolving landscape.
Gustav Baldinger
CEO, PwC Switzerland
Explore the key findings
Click on the tiles below to reveal the answers
Leading with resilience in a polycrisis world
Swiss CEOs are having to contend with overlapping crises, from geopolitical tensions and economic volatility to technological disruption and climate risks. These forces are redefining business priorities and challenging traditional models of growth. In this context, resilience is emerging as a critical capability for sustaining performance and staying competitive long term.
Confidence down, threats up
CEO confidence has weakened as threats multiply and uncertainty persists. In Switzerland, the three-year outlook for revenue growth has fallen to 32%, down from 49% last year. While confidence in global economic growth over the next 12 months has remained fairly stable, confidence in Swiss economic growth has dropped considerably, down to 37% from 68% last year. While cybersecurity remains the highest perceived threat, the biggest year-on-year climber has been technological disruption, up 7 percentage points versus last year. When geopolitical conflict, macroeconomic uncertainty, and tariffs are taken together they total 45%, signalling the magnitude of these geoeconomic concerns. Roughly a third of Swiss CEOs also expect tariffs to negatively impact their net profit margins, in line with global results. However, they also seem less deterred by geopolitical uncertainty than their global peers when it comes to making large, new investments, with 72% saying they will either keep them the same or increase, compared to 65% globally.
“Our diversified portfolio and strong locally rooted organisation provide stability, while our biggest asset – our culture – keeps people united and turns challenges into opportunities.”
“It’s true that tariffs have created uncertainty for Swiss businesses. But we see some clients are able to absorb the negative impacts through strong competitive positioning and negotiation power, a well-balanced production footprint, while also maintaining a stringent focus on managing costs.”
Reto Brunner
Partner, Advisory, PwC Switzerland
“Despite the challenges in the market and a more muted growth outlook, Swiss businesses must continue to lean on their spirit of innovation, customer-orientation, and adaptability, to ensure they maintain their competitiveness on the global stage.”
Norbert Kühnis
Partner, Family Business & Middle Market Leader, PwC Switzerland
Building resilience
Resilience is no longer a defensive measure. It’s a strategic imperative. Swiss businesses, known for strong fundamentals and disciplined management, can turn resilience into a source of competitive advantage. But as the threat landscape continues to evolve and grow more complex, Swiss businesses can’t rest on their laurels. Only 19 percent of Swiss CEOs say their companies have the flexibility to respond effectively to supply-side variability to a large or very large extent, compared with 28 percent of CEOs globally. Like global peers, more than half of Swiss CEOs are focusing on improving their cybersecurity in response to geopolitical risks to a large or very large extent. But a much smaller percentage are considering limiting their exposure to risky markets through their tech providers, supply chains, or exiting markets entirely.
"Swiss CEOs continue taking cybersecurity risks very seriously. With rising threats, political uncertainty, and rapid progress of new tech like AI they are focussing on fixing security fundamentals, securing data, and harnessing new capabilities to ensure their resilience. Some are even finding this renewed focus is generating new business opportunities."
Chris Girling
Partner, Cybersecurity, PwC Switzerland
“Sustainability is often perceived narrowly as reporting and compliance, but businesses need to reorient towards having a better understanding of what value might be at risk across their supply chains and build climate resilience into their business and operating models. Leading businesses are already on this path.”
Craig Stevenson
Partner, Sustainability & Climate Change Leader, PwC Switzerland
Compete on trust
Trust remains a hallmark of Swiss business and a powerful differentiator. Swiss CEOs report fewer stakeholder trust concerns than global peers across areas such as leadership decisions and climate impact. This matters because global analysis shows that companies with fewer trust gaps deliver stronger shareholder returns. For Swiss firms, reinforcing transparency and responsible practices can strengthen this edge and position them as trusted partners in an increasingly complex global marketplace.
“As technological disruption accelerates — from AI in the near term to quantum computing in the years ahead — trust challenges will inevitably grow as organisations embed these capabilities deeper into their operations and infrastructure. CEOs who place trust at the centre of their transformation agendas will be best positioned to unlock the full value of these technologies while opening up new business opportunities."
Yan Borböen
Partner, Digital Trust Lead, PwC Switzerland
Realising AI value
AI is transforming industries, but the journey from adoption to value creation remains challenging. While enthusiasm for AI is high, most companies are still struggling to translate investment into measurable outcomes. Swiss CEOs share this global reality: strong cultural readiness but limited progress in monetising AI.
Few companies are realising AI value
AI adoption is widespread but value creation is lagging. Globally, 56% of companies report no measurable upside from AI, and only 12% have achieved both cost reductions and revenue growth. Switzerland reflects this trend, with 21% of CEOs reporting cost decreases and just 16% reporting revenue gains, 13 percentage points lower than the global average. The opportunity lies in applying AI to customer-facing areas such as demand generation and product innovation, where CEOs report higher performance gaps and where AI can deliver tangible improvements.
“We’re investing in technology to drive long-term growth and enhance client engagement alongside human interaction.”
“Many Swiss businesses are ‘smart followers’ and tend to be conservative in scaling the rollout of new tech. But with the speed of AI cycles accelerating, this cautiousness could become a risk in terms of their business and operating models getting disrupted.”
Prafull Sharma
Partner, Technology Strategy & Transformation, PwC Switzerland
"Many clients in financial services are going on a transformational journey with AI. While the main focus used to be back-office processes, with agentic AI it’s now shifting to the front office."
Patrick Akiki
Partner, Financial Services Leader, PwC Switzerland
Establishing AI foundations
Swiss companies excel in fostering a culture that supports AI adoption, with 79 percent of CEOs citing cultural readiness compared with only 69 percent globally. However, Switzerland lags when it comes to defining clear roadmaps, committing sufficient investment and attracting top AI talent. Building robust foundations through strategy, governance and capital allocation is essential to unlock AI’s full potential and move beyond pilots to scalable impact.
“Many technologies have been heralded as revolutionary, but with gen AI, I see real potential for transformation for the first time.”
“Clients that are realising the greatest value from AI already are those that have prioritised it as part of their strategic roadmap and understand that without the right foundations and sufficient capital, they won't get far.”
Prafull Sharma
Partner, Technology Strategy and Transformation, PwC Switzerland
Innovating in a reconfiguring economy
Innovation is no longer optional; it’s the lifeline for growth in a reconfiguring economy. Swiss CEOs recognise this imperative, but risk aversion and short-term pressures might prevent them from making bolder moves.
Rebalancing the risk equation
Innovation is top of mind for Swiss CEOs, but risk aversion persists. Only 12 percent of Swiss CEOs say they tolerate high risk in innovation projects, compared with 25 percent globally. While Swiss firms excel in entering new sectors and maintaining quality standards, to stay competitive in a fast-changing market they need to embrace bolder experimentation and invest in their innovation capabilities. Our global research shows those companies with strong innovation practices earn more revenue from products and services.
“The moment you start expecting every new idea to succeed, you’ve stopped innovating and started managing. True innovation involves risk, iteration and learning from failure.”
“Innovation has always been at the heart of Switzerland's key industries, such as pharmaceuticals and life sciences. However, our survey indicates that Swiss CEOs perceive themselves as more risk-averse compared to their global counterparts. As the global care ecosystem evolves to become more preventative, personalised, predictive, and with a shifting point of care, it is essential for Swiss businesses to stay at the forefront of this transformation.”
Maire Walsh
Partner, Health Industries Leader, PwC Switzerland
Conquering the tyranny of the urgent
Swiss CEOs spend more than half their time on short-term priorities, with only 12 percent focused on horizons beyond five years. This short-termism, combined with bureaucratic hurdles reported by 43 percent of Swiss CEOs, risks stifling transformation and innovation. Leaders must rebalance their calendars and streamline processes to enable long-term strategic thinking and sustained growth.
Innovating across sector boundaries
Nearly half of Swiss CEOs report having entered new sectors in the past five years, outpacing global peers. This is an encouraging sign as industry boundaries blur and convergence accelerates. However, M&A appetite in Switzerland remains muted, likely thanks to high asset prices and economic uncertainty, while the US shows stronger deal activity driven by technology investments.
“Our business model has expanded by incorporating new industries, driving the revolution in how we experience health benefits through nature”
“Swiss companies are adept at spotting profitable niches and extending proven capabilities into new sectors. Yet in today’s more illiquid and uncertain European market, M&A appetite remains cautious, while US companies continue to pursue acquisitions more decisively as part of their growth playbook.”
Sascha Beer
Partner, Deals, PwC Switzerland
Dynamism or denial?
Swiss findings indicate that companies that continue to evolve and transform despite uncertainties, are outpacing their less dynamic peers.
- The 5% of respondents in Switzerland who have realised cost savings and revenue gains from AI have done so through establishing strong foundations in their AI strategy and applying it beyond back-office functions to their products, services and experiences as well.
- The small proportion (8% globally) that have established strong innovation practices are also growing faster and achieving higher profit margins.
- Nearly half of Swiss respondents (49%) say they have started competing in new sectors in the last five years. Our analysis shows that companies that are generating a higher percentage of revenue from new sectors are more profitable and report higher confidence in revenue growth prospects.
Uncertainty has become the norm of our times, yet businesses can’t let it cripple their ambitions. Cautious companies – where CEOs report lower likelihoods of making new, large investments as a result of geopolitical uncertainty – grow more slowly than their peers, and have lower profit margins.
In the year ahead there will be very real threats to business performance in the form of geopolitical conflict, cyber risks, economic volatility, and other factors. While leaders are right to pay close attention to these short-term risks, they can’t let them dominate their focus. The long-term forces that are reshaping business require urgent consideration now.
The global results and interpretation of the 29th Annual Global CEO Survey conducted by PwC Global are available here:
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CEO, Zurich, PwC Switzerland
Stéphanie Tobler