CEO Survey: Resilience in an age of uncertainty

As market jitters and geopolitical uncertainty have become the new normal, optimism about the economy among CEOs has cooled. Yet despite regional conflicts, rising tariffs, and policy zigzags, CEOs' bullishness about their companies’ prospects is at its highest in years, according to our 2025 survey of CEOs from our global portfolio.

A closer look at these diverging sentiments suggests that innovation is driving optimism. Rather than responding to uncertainty by scaling back, CEOs are doubling down on the levers within their control. They're furthering product development, leaning into AI, deepening customer relationships, and building businesses that can better withstand unpredictable disruptions.

“AI has dramatically accelerated the pace of innovation, and CEOs know they can’t stand still,” says Alex Clavel, CEO of SoftBank Vision Funds. “Their embrace of AI to innovate and scale is making them stronger and more resilient.”

Below, we examine how CEOs are adapting to an unsettled environment while continuing to push for growth. Explore the full survey results, segmented by region, sector, and stage, on Sōzō Pulse.

Company prospects outpace the broader economic outlook

After three years of rising confidence, sentiment about the broader economy has cooled. Just 46% of CEOs said they were more optimistic about the overall economy than a year earlier, down from 63% a year ago. 

The reasons behind this decline are not surprising. Market volatility remains the primary concern, with 55% of CEOs saying it could have a major impact on their companies this year. Trade policies and tariffs continue to shape sentiment as well: 37% of CEOs say they've had a negative impact on their business in the past year.

Despite this, CEOs have never been more optimistic about their companies' odds of success: 84% say they are more bullish about their company's prospects than they were a year ago. This overwhelmingly positive outlook suggests that leaders trust their ability to execute, even in an uncertain environment.

“I think there’s some level of normalization,” says Kelvin Teo, co-founder and Group CEO of Funding Societies, Southeast Asia’s largest SME digital financing platform. “What’s changed is not that volatility has gone away, but that organizations have matured. Structures are flatter, decision-making is faster, and there’s more focus on what actually drives impact.”

Focusing on organic growth

This growing emphasis on offense over defense is apparent in how CEOs are approaching the new year. Fifty-five percent (55%) view 2026 as a year to grow organically, and among them is Larry Liu, CEO of Weee!, America's largest online ethnic supermarket.

“We actually don't plan to do things dramatically differently,” says Liu. “We believe in the long-term — spinning the flywheels and adding value for customers. Price, convenience, and selection are the three dimensions we're working on.”

Beyond organic growth, many CEOs are pursuing expansion through their product portfolios: 40% say they are focused on expanding into new product offerings and 36% intend to invest aggressively to gain market share.

New offerings become the primary growth strategy

Company leaders are prioritizing building and expansion, even in a volatile macro environment, and 69% cited product innovation as their top growth driver for 2026. Talita Lacerda, CEO of Petlove, Brazil’s leading online ecosystem for pet owners, says launching new offerings has always been a priority. “We continue making bets on new things,” Lacerda says. “We try to launch one to two new products or businesses every year.”

How Petlove approaches these new offerings has changed. “We are being more selective, and we have a higher bar in terms of what will continue being funded,” Lacerda says. “For us, it's all about improving our customer experience by offering unique benefits that only our ecosystem can provide.”

Other key drivers of growth this year are organic customer growth and new market opportunities, which were cited by 57% and 38% of CEOs respectively. At Funding Societies, new products are important, but organic growth remains key. “Existing business has a proven impact,” says Teo. “With new products, it’s more unknown. That’s why we are leaning probably 80% on the former, and 20% on experimental new products.”

AI is showing returns in productivity and functionality

The growth-first posture being adopted by a majority of CEOs is reinforced by how they are deploying AI. Many are using AI to enhance productivity and accelerate product cycles. Among those seeing returns from AI, 86% cite increased productivity as a primary driver of ROI.

At Petlove, AI is driving efficiency across multiple business arms. “We started applying AI to help us be more efficient with customer service,” says Lacerda. “Then we applied it to sales, and now we are applying it to medical cost management. We are trying to do a rollout to the whole company in as many areas as possible.”

In addition to productivity gains, 64% of CEOs said AI is delivering returns by enabling new capabilities or functionality that weren’t previously possible. According to Liu, this is true for Weee! where “AI is truly everywhere.”

Translation has emerged as a key case for the Weee! team. “We are operating multiple storefronts across multiple languages and multiple apps, so we also use AI to automate marketing and content marketing, and to automatically translate things across many different languages,” Liu adds.

Leaders explore the next wave of transformative technologies

With growth top of mind, CEOs are looking beyond AI for the next transformational technologies. Robotics and automation topped the list, garnering the interest of 63% of CEOs, followed by quantum computing (34%) and software/SaaS applications (27%).

“When we look at technologies like automation or robotics, the question is always whether they help us be faster, better, or more efficient,” Teo says. “That’s how we think about innovation overall.”