CEOs make cybersecurity top investment priority after naming it greatest risk to growth

Highlights:

• CEOs say cyber and data security is the greatest risk to growth (31 percent), closely followed by global economic uncertainty (28 percent), geopolitical instability and regulatory pressures (26 percent), with their investment priorities closely aligned to mitigating the risks they can influence.
• Despite implementation challenges and economic uncertainty, vast majority of CEOs (79 percent) agree that AI remains a top investment priority over the next three years, up eight percent year-over-year.
• Over half of CEOs (59 percent) are increasing focus on internal data governance controls as part of their AI and data sovereignty strategies.
• Skills gaps are the greatest workforce challenge facing CEOs, with 56 percent identifying them as a challenge facing their organization.

London, 15 October 2026 — Global CEOs are strengthening organizational resilience as cyber risks, economic uncertainty, geopolitical instability and regulatory pressures converge as the leading risks to growth, according to the KPMG 2026 Global CEO Outlook.

The survey of 1,400 CEOs finds that 31 percent of CEOs identify cyber and data security as the greatest risk to growth over the next three years, closely followed by global economic uncertainty (28 percent), geopolitical instability and regulatory pressures (26 percent).

CEOs are responding accordingly with investments to mitigate the risks that they can influence. Almost half of CEOs say they have increased investment in cybersecurity and digital risk resilience (45 percent), for example.

CEOs are also making investments in response to regulatory pressures. Just over a quarter (26 percent) said regulatory pressures were the most significant challenge to growth and over a third (36 percent) said they were investing in regulatory and compliance reporting to mitigate business risks over the next three years (36 percent).

The global AI regulatory landscape continues to be fragmented with wide variations across jurisdictions. 41 percent of CEOs said varying levels of regulation was a barrier to implementing AI within their organization, and two-thirds of CEOs (66 percent) expect the pace of progress on AI regulation to pose a barrier to their organization’s success.

Meanwhile, over half (59 percent) say they are applying a greater focus on internal data governance and controls as part of their AI and data sovereignty strategies.

The vast majority of CEOs (79 percent) agree that, despite ongoing economic uncertainty, AI remains a top investment priority over the next three years, up eight percent-over-year compared to 2025 (71 percent).

Yet CEOs are also clear that implementing AI is not without its difficulties. Ethical challenges¹ are the leading challenge to implementing AI, say over half of CEOs (57 percent), with cybersecurity the next greatest challenge (52 percent) and cost (51 percent).

Regardless of the challenges, sixty-six percent of CEOs say their organizations are moving at the right pace or ahead of the curve on AI, while 29 percent describe themselves as cautiously optimistic and learning as they go. Only five percent say they are struggling to keep pace.

Expectations for returns have seen slight changes from last year and suggest CEOs are taking a longer-term view of AI investment: while only 14 percent expect returns within six to 12 months, down from 19 percent last year, 71 percent expect them within one to three years, up from 67 percent.

CEOs reported that skills gaps, not exclusively AI-related, were the number one workforce challenge their organizations were currently facing (56 percent), ahead of upskilling and training employees in AI systems (52 percent) and attracting and retaining talent (47 percent).

CEOs are responding by taking several steps to ensure their organizations are prepared for this future, including having open conversations about what this future looks like (51 percent), proactively investing in reskilling and upskilling programs and providing tailored role-specific training on how AI can support people in role (both at 46 percent).

Workforce resistance to AI was not a significant concern; 26 percent said it was challenging, placing it bottom of a list of 13 challenges to organizational adoption. This represents increasing acceptance of AI among employees, as last year’s CEO Outlook found that 33 percent of CEOs said employees’ reluctance or ability to adopt or adapt to AI’ was a challenge.

CEOs feel their capabilities need to change to match the complexities they are facing and are developing their skillset to see around corners to react at pace.

For the second year in succession: greater agility and faster decision making under pressure is the number one leadership capability CEOs believe they need (47 percent) and that percentage has grown almost a quarter (21 percent) since last year.

Stronger strategic foresight and scenario planning capabilities were also seen as increasingly important CEO skills, seeing more than 20 percent increase year-over-year (44 percent vs 22 percent) and an ability to identify, prioritize and manage risks seeing a 16 percent increase (39 percent vs 23 percent).

It is also revealing that, having identified the importance of upskilling and training employees in AI systems, over a third of CEOs (36 percent) say that digital and tech literacy is becoming an essential leadership capability.

CEOs are divided on the right approach to risk management. While the majority are maintaining their risk appetite (61 percent), a third (33 percent) of CEOs are changing their approach to risk taking, with 16 percent taking more risks to capitalize on opportunities and almost the same number becoming more cautious and reducing risk taking (17 percent). A further six percent are prioritizing risk mitigation over pursuing any new opportunities at all.

Harry Yeates,
Senior Manager, Global Communications
KPMG International

T: +44 (0)7990 361652
E: harry.yeates@kpmg.co.uk

The twelfth edition of the Global KPMG CEO Outlook, conducted with 1,400 CEOs between 11 August and 21 September, provides unique insight into the mindset, strategies and planning tactics of CEOs.

All respondents oversee companies with annual revenues over US$500M and a third of the companies surveyed have more than US$10B in annual revenue. The survey included CEOs from 12 key markets (Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, UK and US) and 13 key industry sectors (asset management, automotive, banking, consumer and retail, energy, healthcare, infrastructure, insurance, life sciences, manufacturing, technology, media and telecommunications).

NOTE: some figures may not add up to 100 percent due to rounding.

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¹ The definition presented to CEOs for ethical challenges included considerations such as trust, bias in data sets, privacy, accountability, transparency, intellectual property, and misinformation.