Risky
Business
What 250 Global CEOs and Board Directors Reveal About Risk

Seasoned Leaders, Shaken Confidence

Even leaders who've seen it all are uncertain about what's ahead.

The people running major corporations are quietly admitting something they've never admitted before—they don't know if they can handle what's coming.

Across every major risk category—economic volatility, AI disruption, climate change, geopolitical crises—only 11% of CEOs and board directors in our survey feel fully confident their firm can handle the risks.

"The low confidence figures are stunning,” says Korn Ferry’s Jane Edison Stevenson.

What makes it particularly unusual is that experience isn't helping. You'd expect leaders with decades under their belts to feel more confident. Yet that confidence actually peaks at around 10–20 years of experience and then, strikingly, starts to decline.

When it comes to specific threats, such as geopolitical risks and talent management, the most seasoned leaders—those with 20+ years of experience who've presumably seen it all—are among the least confident about navigating what's ahead.

Some of these leaders have been through multiple recessions, tech bubbles, and global crises. But they’re telling us that 2025 feels uniquely overwhelming.

The Industry Risk Divide

Some industries are in crisis mode while others are relatively calm.

Risk isn't rising evenly, and that unevenness reveals how different industries are absorbing today’s volatility.

“It’s very much sector-dependent,” says Korn Ferry’s Dominic Schofield.

Indeed, in our survey, consumer markets and industrial manufacturing leaders reported sharp risk increases, saying things have gotten significantly worse over the past year. This is likely due in part to rising tariffs and supply chain disruptions that disproportionately affect goods-based sectors.

Financial services and life sciences, by contrast, appear steadier, with fewer than half reporting major increases in risk.

Drill down, and the contrasts get sharper.

Tech leaders feel confident about AI, for example, but less so about economic volatility. Financial services leaders feel on top of talent management but have concerns about their ability to manage global wars and border disputes. And despite being built for crisis, healthcare leaders are among the least confident about handling risk, with barely any of the industry’s CEOs feeling well equipped to solve their talent crisis.

This industry divergence matters. It may be that while some leaders are bracing for impact, others are underestimating what’s coming.

AI Without the ROI

Leaders are panic-spending billions with no promise of a payoff.

Organizations are throwing money at AI while quietly admitting they don’t expect much payoff anytime soon. Fewer than one in 10 leaders express full confidence that they’ll get a strong ROI on AI in the coming years.

Why are leaders placing such massive bets on uncertain returns? The spending spree may be driven more by fear than strategy.

Nobody wants to be the company that gets left behind by a competitor's AI breakthrough, so they're investing first and figuring out the business case later. It’s shaping up to be among the most expensive keeping-up-with-the-Joneses games in corporate history.

And the risk isn’t just financial. There’s reputational risk, not to mention growing regulatory uncertainty. A third of leaders say navigating AI regulation is their biggest barrier.

“Boards are racing to educate themselves as fast as possible,” says Korn Ferry’s Tierney Remick.

Goodbye Emotional Intelligence

The push for digital skills is sidelining what really makes leaders great.

The rush to build tech-savvy teams is overshadowing the very traits that make humans indispensable.

Nearly 70% of CEOs and board directors rank AI and tech skills as the top leadership priority for the next three years—while emotional intelligence and employee engagement trail behind at 38% and 20%, respectively.

At first glance, the shift seems logical. As AI becomes more embedded in business, and digital transformation accelerates, leaders need stronger tech fluency to keep pace.

But this shift misses something essential.

Instead of focusing on what makes humans irreplaceable—creativity, trust, building relationships—organizations are pushing everyone to become better at the technical tasks that machines will eventually do anyway.

The result is a workforce caught in the middle. They're being trained to compete with AI on AI's terms, rather than being developed for the uniquely human work that will actually matter when the robots take over the routine tasks.

The Battle for Buy-In

Many leaders know how to handle risks but are blocked by mindsets and money.

Knowing how to manage rising risks and actually being able to implement the necessary changes are two very different things.

Even when leaders have clear enterprise risk-management strategies, they're running into brick walls inside their own organizations.

The top barriers to managing risk are split almost evenly between mindset and money. Cultural resistance tops the list at 31%, with lack of investment close behind at 29%.

It breaks down predictably by company size. Smaller firms are scrambling for budget while larger companies are wrestling with entrenched cultures that resist change. And American leaders seem particularly frustrated, citing cultural resistance far more than their global counterparts.

“Now is not the time to neglect investment in your people and your leaders,” says Korn Ferry’s Elise Schroeter. “Those are the people who will help you weather the storm and make it through.”