The CEO Agenda for 2026: What Industrial Leaders Are Prioritizing This Year
A comprehensive survey of 200 CEOs of industrial companies with revenues exceeding $500 million, conducted by Industry Insider and PwC in April 2026, reveals a notable shift in strategic priorities from the growth-oriented agendas of recent years toward a more balanced focus on operational resilience, talent development, and technology integration. When asked to identify their top three strategic priorities for 2026, 78% of respondents cited AI integration, 71% cited talent development and retention, and 64% cited supply chain resilience. By comparison, only 42% identified organic revenue growth and 31% cited M&A as top priorities — a dramatic reversal from 2024, when growth and acquisitions topped the list.
The AI priority is particularly notable for its breadth. Unlike previous technology waves where adoption was often confined to IT departments, industrial CEOs report that AI initiatives are being driven from the C-suite and touching every function. "I spend more time on AI than on any other single topic," said Mary Barra, chair and CEO of General Motors. "Not because AI is the most important thing we do — building great vehicles is — but because AI is the capability that will determine whether we build them competitively." Other CEOs echoed this sentiment, describing AI as a "horizontal priority" that intersects with operations, engineering, sales, finance, and customer service rather than a standalone technology initiative.
Talent development has risen to near-universal priority status as CEOs confront the reality that neither AI nor supply chain strategies can be executed without skilled people. The survey found that 83% of industrial CEOs have increased their training and development budgets for 2026, with average increases of 22%. The focus is on upskilling existing employees rather than external hiring: 68% of respondents said they are prioritizing internal talent development over recruitment, reflecting both the tight labor market and a recognition that institutional knowledge is a competitive asset that cannot be easily replaced. "We used to think of training as a cost. Now we think of it as our most important investment," said Darius Adamczyk, executive chairman of Honeywell.
Supply chain resilience continues to command attention, though the nature of the conversation has evolved. Rather than the crisis-mode responses of 2020-2022, CEOs are now focused on building structural resilience through supplier diversification, regionalization, and technology. The average industrial company now monitors 23 supply chain risk indicators in real time, up from 7 in 2020. Investment in supply chain visibility platforms — from companies like Resilinc, Everstream, and Interos — has grown 45% annually since 2022. "We have moved from reactive to predictive," said Judy Marks, CEO of Otis Worldwide. "We can now see disruptions forming weeks before they impact our operations."
Perhaps the most revealing finding is what has fallen off the CEO agenda. Capital structure optimization, mentioned by 58% of respondents in 2023, was cited by only 19% in 2026. Geographic expansion, a top-three priority for 47% of CEOs in 2024, dropped to 23%. And digital transformation — the buzzword of the late 2010s and early 2020s — was mentioned by just 15%, not because it has become unimportant but because it has been absorbed into the fabric of how companies operate. "We don't talk about digital transformation anymore because it's just how we do business," said Jim Fitterling, CEO of Dow. "The question is no longer whether to transform digitally, but how to apply AI and data to every decision we make. That's a much more specific and actionable conversation."