Cyberattacks, Tariffs, Geopolitics Loom Over Business Executives

Geopolitical uncertainty, rapid policy shifts, and mounting security risks are ratcheting up the threats facing US companies.

Company executives say they’ve doubled down on AI and tech investments, bolstered their risk management programs, and pivoted their trade strategies to adapt since President Donald Trump’s return to the White House, according to a survey from PwC. The report, “Executive Views on Policy, Risk, and Growth,” was based on interviews with more than 600 US executives including CEOs, COOs, and tech and risk leaders in financial services, health, energy, and tech sectors, among others.

About 70% of business executives surveyed said the complex regulatory environment poses a moderate or serious risk to their company. Nearly the same number pointed to cyberattacks, tariffs, and geopolitical uncertainty as looming threats to their businesses.

“We have a lot of conversations with companies, with C-suites, and we talk about geopolitical risk and how they should be thinking about it on a global scale and the disruption that it can potentially bring to their company,” Morgan Adamski, cyber, data, and tech risk leader at PwC, said during a press briefing. “In the back of the room, we’re also screaming, ‘Cyber, cyber, cyber,’ because you have to think of cybersecurity risk in the context of geopolitical risk.”

Geopolitical Risks

As companies try to predict threats ahead, about 65% said they lack the data needed to assess geopolitical risks and opportunities.

That’s because many don’t have enough geopolitics or national security skills in-house, or don’t prioritize them, said Craig Stronberg, senior director of intelligence at PwC.

“Most of the risk or intelligence teams in companies that I know of—and I talk with thousands of them every year—they don’t have access to the top. They may be very good at what they do, but they are buried several layers below the board and the C-suite,” he said.

Most companies don’t have a geopolitical or macroeconomic team that could “walk into the CEO’s office without warning and say, ‘This is changing. We need to shift operations,’” Stronberg said. “It is extraordinarily rare. Part of the reason it’s rare, by the way, is that it’s expensive.”

Cyber Threats

With more than 60% of executives pointing to cyberattacks as one of the main risks facing their business, many said those threats drove the most significant changes in their company over the last six months.

About 56% of executives said cybersecurity and technology disruptions pushed them to make “strategic business changes” in the last few months. The impact is even greater in the financial services sector, with 64% of those in-house leaders saying cybersecurity risks prompted them to change tactics.

“There are companies who are now just starting to realize that disruptions of supply chains—companies that they rely on to provide core infrastructure, whether physical or virtual—things are happening to those companies that are just impacting their operations on a global scale, and it’s something that we kind of talk about on a consistent basis,” said Adamski, a former cyber government official at the National Security Agency and US Cyber Command.

AI Investments

Despite the unpredictable landscape in which companies find themselves operating, many are eager to bolster their AI adoption. Nearly 75% of company executives said they plan to begin or increase AI investment over the next 12 months.

Some disruptions—whether geopolitical shifts, security risks, or policy changes—are impacting companies’ tech adoption. About 21% of executives said external disruptions push them to accelerate innovation and AI adoption.

More than half of in-house leaders are hoping a boost in AI’s return on investment will drive growth in their companies over the next two years. But for now, many still struggle to see its value. About 80% of business executives said they’re at least a year away from seeing meaningful returns from AI beyond efficiency.