Report: Sustainability is a top 10 priority for CEOs this year

A new survey of CEOs and senior executives by Gartner, Inc. discovered important shifts in their thinking regarding persons, purpose, price ranges and productivity in 2022, especially on matters of sustainability, workforce problems and inflation.

Between the key conclusions, artificial intelligence (AI) is now described as the most impactful new technological know-how among the CEOs for the third calendar year in a row. Conversely, 63% of CEOs see the metaverse as possibly not relevant or very unlikely to be a important technological know-how for their company.

Also, for the to start with time in the record of the study, CEOs placed environmental sustainability in their prime 10 strategic small business priorities, coming in at 8th put. Nearly 3-quarters of CEOs agreed that expanding environmental, social and governance (ESG) attempts attracts investors towards their businesses. Sustainability also seems as a competitive differentiator for CEOs in 2022 and 2023, on the exact same stage as manufacturer have faith in among respondents.

Workforce challenges, these as talent retention, moved up in precedence for CEOs for the second 12 months in a row, only slightly driving know-how-associated problems these types of as digitalization and cybersecurity, and drastically in advance of fiscal concerns this kind of as profitability and cash circulation.

With regards to inflation, 62% of CEOs see general value inflation as a persistent or extensive-expression challenge. Their prime response to inflation is to increase prices (51% of respondents), instead than responding with efficiency and effectiveness (22% of respondents).

All round, CEO views shifted substantially in 2022, impacted by the ongoing outcomes of the pandemic and more a short while ago the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Even so, CEOs’ electronic organization ambition continues to rise, unabated by the pandemic and related crises.

The yearly Gartner 2022 CEO and Senior Business Government Survey was performed between July 2021 by way of December 2021 between in excess of 400 CEOs and other senior company executives in North The united states, EMEA and APAC throughout distinctive industries, profits and organization dimensions.

Examine the full report by Gartner.