The chief of KPMG on the uncertainty of the CEOs on the prices, the emerging form of the organization of the “source” and the thing “which holds me honestly at night”

Business leaders told KPMG – and its recently ONTE chair and CEO, Timothy Walsh – that they struggle with uncertainty in several different areas of their work. This is well documented and it is to be expected, said Walsh Fortune in an interview. “There is this general, as you can imagine, a general conversation around business uncertainty,” said Walsh, adding that he was at least encouraged to see “alignment” in terms of topics to come to C-Suite conversations.

By taking off the data from the survey, Walsh revealed that a majority of no surprise (89%) said that the prices “will have a significant impact” on the performance and operations of their business over the next three years. And almost as much, 86%, said that their business would increase prices if necessary. They work hard to get around this, 85% saying that their business will endeavor to move its supply strategies to minimize the impact as much as possible. The landscape is so uncertain that almost all CEOs say they have to make a kind of change: 79% have said that they have adapted their growth plans.

Walsh spoke to Fortune On uncertainty about prices and AI, and the importance of confidence in a climate of such uncertainty. CEOs are concerned about another progression technology with terrifying capacities, said Walsh: Cyber ​​and quantum. “It holds me honestly at night.”

Quantum Cybersecurity Challenge

The risks of cybersecurity remain high, in particular as quantum IT approaches. As for the progress of quantum computer science, Walsh said that he could one day be able to break any encryption soon, and companies tell him that they are carrying out complete assessments. It is a “massive effort” to ensure that they are not exposed when this quantum computer capacity arrives, warned Walsh.

Adding the capacities of AI agents in the mixture and, Walsh, said: “In many cases, a national state investment”, it is very concerned about malware and Deepfake type technologies in danger. Over the next three years, 82% of CEOs were questioned said that cybercrime and cyber-in-represented were a higher trend that could harm their organization. Cyber-risk was generally the second highest pressure cited behind the short-term decisions of CEOs. CEOs are the most concerned about detecting and prevention of fraud (65%) and identity theft (52%), but they also said they had plans in place to mitigate.

That said, Walsh said the CEOs “feel optimistic because they see so many growth opportunities”. The economy was surprisingly strong despite all the uncertainty, the technological sector stimulates a very solid stock market, and it even noted that “big offers and transactions” take place with regard to mergers and acquisitions. “The capital flows are starting to move and (be) a little more liquid.”

AI prices and element

Walsh said Fortune These prices are obviously the number one thing in the minds of each CEO. And it is not only the result of the prices but potential changes in the prices, and “uncertainty to know if these prices will continue to change”. There is an overwhelming need for companies not only to consider what will change, but also to become agile enough to work on their supply chains to prepare for the future, always uncertain, of future changes. To this end, 34%of CEOs declared in survey that the resilience of the supply chain is the higher pressure of the conduct of short -term decisions, followed by the risk of cybersecurity (29%) and global economic uncertainty (25%).

Walsh stressed that prices introduce a multidimensional challenge for CEOs. “The CEOs with which I speak address pricing impacts in three areas: to take by costs, optimization of the supply chain, including relocations, excessive considerations and, ultimately, prices.” He said KPMG is actively working with customers in all these areas and that yes, AI is also part of this transformation. The importance of AI is another layer of uncertainty added to the image, but Walsh said that this helped a lot of CEO: “AI is not only a game of efficiency, CEOs focus on the innovation of their commercial models and the introduction of new flows of income and products.”

The hourglass has to come?

Walsh said AI’s capabilities are changing quickly and it recognized that companies were starting to restructure in response. The survey revealed that CEOs “see mainly a form of hourglass” to their organizations over the next three years, said Walsh, noting that this is typical of each deployment of new technology. He added that “nobody knows exactly where (the shape of the workforce) is heading … It is a challenge to be expected as AI advances quickly.” In the survey, 35% said they were planning labor reductions in certain areas in the next two to five years due to AI, and 69% see a hourglass with a higher number of senior leaders and workers at the start of their career and less in the middle (16% said a vertical triangle, 13% a triangle and 2% an inverted pyramid).

Managers face new responsibilities, managing teams with integrated AI agents, for example. Walsh has said that some CEOs describe teams with AI people and agents, “and managers of these teams must ensure that (that) agents complete the stages of the workflow process, that agents have good data inputs so that their results can be invoked and continuously examine these results.” The CEOs questioned said that 86% of them saw AI agents become team members integrated next year, and half of thought managers will be mainly responsible for the performance management of AI agents as opposed, for example, HR or.

Walsh accepted with FortuneThe reports of “human skills” are always important because the implementation of AI shows the need to examine the results of the AI. “Human skills are extremely important,” said Walsh. Even if KPMG invests and spends time increasing its workers on AI and providing them with tools and licenses, he said that he continues to remind leaders that “human human relations are essential … both internally and externally. Confidence is more important than ever. Given the uncertain climate, he added, confidence is a bonus. The highest change that CEOs see to come are preserved and go up the talents with high potential (75%), followed by redesign roles to reflect the collaboration of the AI ​​(65%) and the hiring of AI compatible talents (64%).

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