The CEO’s dilemma: innovation or ethics?

With all due respect to “necessity,” in today’s challenge-filled business landscape, adversity is the real motor of innovation these days.

That sentiment is one of the key takeaways from our KPMG 2023 CEO Outlook survey, which found business leaders contemplating a pivotal moment amid rapidly evolving demographic, geopolitical, financial, and technology headwinds.

Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of the more than 1,300 chief executive officers (CEOs) who participated in our survey are worried about this volatile climate of uncertainty, and especially as workforce dynamics continue to spin off in hard-to-predict new directions, further complicating a company’s ability to fully embrace their pivotal moment and make some rapid course corrections.

And yet, one rallying cry for business leaders rose above the din at the KPMG 2023 Tech and Innovation Symposium: To thrive in this ever-evolving landscape, organizations must proactively embrace disruptive technologies, prioritize corporate innovation, and rapidly integrate tech innovations—and do all of that while maintaining a human-centered approach.

Breakthrough technologies like generative artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing, blockchain, and spatial computing can help businesses navigate today’s competitive challenges—and position leaning-in companies for growth and success. But, when off strategy or executed poorly, they can also distract the business and hold it back.

Navigating this landscape is a balancing act. It requires not only a keen eye for opportunities but also a prudent approach to managing risks. As they tread the path of innovation, CEOs must leverage the potential of technology while safeguarding their organizations against a seemingly endless list of uncertainties. Here’s how modern leaders are walking that tightrope.

Generative AI holds the promise of unparalleled efficiency and productivity gains, a prospect that entices CEOs. Increased profitability is the top potential benefit of implementing generative AI (22 percent), according to those we surveyed, with new product and market growth opportunities coming in second (15 percent).

However, the ethical implications of AI-driven decisions weigh heavily. It’s the top concern around implementing generative AI (57 percent). More than half of CEOs also cited the cost of implementation, the technical capability and skill required to implement the technology, and a lack of regulation.

These concerns have delayed progress for many, leading to a more measured approach to implementation. The mantra: Test, learn, step forward, repeat.

As our Tech and Innovation Symposium confirmed, technology is moving at a breathtaking pace. But that doesn’t have to mean breathless business planning or hurtling ahead with halfway innovations.

Instead, four guiding takeaways emerged from our Symposium that can help business leaders manage this new reality of mastering multiple, often competing balancing acts to unlock innovation: