CEO survey: US CEOs position their companies for the long haul

In brief

• Virtually all CEOs are planning for a potential economic downturn in their primary market of operation.
• Deal intentions remain strong, but joint venture plans are higher than M&A. Divestment plans are robust.
• A majority of CEOs are integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into products/services or planning to within 12 months.

How do you prepare for a recession that never quite arrives? More than halfway through 2023, economists and market watchers in the United States are starting to take seriously the possibility of a domestic “soft landing” buoyed by labor market resilience, moderating inflation and gently slowing final demand growth. But corporate leaders do not have the luxury of assuming a best-case scenario. Our latest CEO survey finds US chief executives fortifying their organizations for the long haul — assuming an environment of achievable but more moderate growth than we saw in the immediate wake of the pandemic.

As it is, C-suites are already operating amid higher costs of capital, a constrained deal market and persistent market volatility after an averted spring banking crisis. Add to those factors the rapid development of artificial intelligence technologies — and ongoing debate over what form generative AI will take, and how to leverage it constructively — and CEOs are understandably cautious about transformational initiatives.

If we were to summarize US corporate sentiment based on these latest survey results, we might say companies are creating their own weather: seeking out tailwinds, bracing for an ever-changing climate and setting up for growth when blue skies return. Read on here.