CEOs rewriting the future: Bold reinvention underway amid AI and climate disruption; key insights from a CEO panel event.

PwC’s 28th Annual Global CEO Survey indicates Australia’s CEOs are optimistic about economic growth in 2025. However, the survey also found many local CEOs are moving slower than overseas peers to fully embrace AI and maximise the benefits of climate-positive strategies.

On the flipside, the survey suggests CEOs who do harness AI and climate action are equipped to drive big, bold reinventions that boost productivity and maximise value a sentiment was brought to life at a recent business breakfast co-hosted by PwC Australia and Business Sydney.

Setting the scene at the event, PwC Chief Economist Amy Lomas outlined Australia’s fiscal outlook. She emphasised that economic indicators such as inflation and interest rates in Australia are lagging nations like the US and UK by about six months. For Australia’s CEOs, this could be a window into the future. To leapfrog local competitors, Australian businesses can learn from those overseas that have already achieved productivity gains in similar economic conditions.

Amy also revealed several headline numbers from PwC’s recent CEO Survey, which drew on data from 4,701 business leaders from every region in the world’s economy including Australia. In the face of today’s economic uncertainty, more overseas leaders are acting decisively to reinvent their company and capture value-creation opportunities. While many of Australia’s CEOs (55%) report having taken at least one significant reinvention action, this is lower than the global average of 63%. And fewer local companies have tackled more ambitious actions such as pioneering new routes to market or collaborating to create new ecosystems.

Still, there are some local exemplars who are taking these steps, and several of them spoke at the Sydney event. The audience heard from guests including Marika Calfas Chief Executive Officer, NSW Ports, Richard Kirkman Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Veolia Australia and New Zealand, Susan Wheeldon Country Manager, Airbnb, alongside Kevin Burrowes Chief Executive Officer, PwC Australia who spoke about how they are challenging and changing their organisations from within, enabled by AI and/or climate-positive strategies.

PwC’s CEO Survey found that leaders have high expectations for AI but remain cautious about using it. 40% of Australia’s CEOs expect GenAI to boost profitability this year, and 88% say AI adoption is important to achieving their company’s business strategy in the next three to five years. But only a third of local CEOs have a high degree of trust in AI, similar to their global peers.

The panellists showed what can be achieved when AI is embedded into organisations with sufficient governance and guardrails to give leaders confidence in its applications.

Airbnb is in a constant state of reinvention. In the past three years, Airbnb has launched 535 new features and upgrades; many of which harness AI to facilitate faster and more effective customer support.

Meanwhile Burrowes explained that PwC doesn’t just see AI as a source of productivity savings, but also revenue uplift. The firm has created its own GenAI tool, ChatPwC, and is focusing on upskilling its workforce: “We are trying really hard to reinvent ourselves. There is no doubt in my mind that artificial intelligence is going to disrupt the knowledge management industry,” he said.

According to CEO Survey respondents, overseas leaders have unearthed more value from their sustainability strategies and climate actions. One third of CEOs globally reported a rise in revenue from climate-friendly investments over the past five years, compared with 17% of Australia’s surveyed CEOs. Similarly, climate change ranked relatively low as a key threat according to Australia’s CEOs, suggesting leaders locally may be underestimating the urgency of the issue—and the size of the opportunity.

The expert panel highlighted how local organisations can make further headway. To boost its recycling management operations, Veolia minimised costs and maximised efficiencies by embedding existing suppliers’ AI capabilities, such as Salesforce. Veolia is now feeding its own data into trusted suppliers’ AI models and partnering with organisations, such as Green AI lab Mistral AI, to monitor facilities and enhance waste sorting and recycling.

As a crucial link in Australia’s supply chain, NSW Ports is also pursuing a range of opportunities to enhance productivity and operations that ultimately have a climate benefit. Conscious of its role in importing renewable energy hardware (solar panels, hydro generators) NSW Ports is exploring how to expedite the supply chain, such as working on a port terminal for the assembly of offshore wind towers.

NSW Ports is advocating for transport containers to be full in both directions, to minimise wasted emissions. And supports consistent climate change policies for shipping across the globe. As the panel pointed out, when whole industries have climate change actions mandated there’s a higher chance for cost savings for all businesses and a huge gain for the environment.

Together, the expert panel made a compelling case for reinventing business models. By using AI and climate-positive strategies, they are each discovering new products, services and revenue streams as well minimising costs. The need for Australia’s CEOs to spearhead this was summed up by PwC’s Kevin Burrowes, with a striking statistic. “Consider the Forbes 500: 52% of the businesses that were on it in 2000 had ceased to exist within two decades. Our message to businesses is: Don’t wait. Make sure you’re thinking about the world of possibilities now.”

Thank you

PwC Australia extends their sincere thanks to event partners Business Sydney and their Executive Director, Paul Nicolaou, who was instrumental in supporting this event.