Alliance Perspectives

July 09, 2026

Case categories include: CEO Survey   

Introduction

The Business Barometer was created to provide a real-time pulse from business leaders who are at the helm of businesses in every industry and market sector around the world as they navigate increasing complexity across the global economy. At a time of acute economic and geopolitical volatility, executive decision-making cannot rely on lagging indicators.

Read the full Q2 2026 Business Barometer report here 
(demographics and anonymous, direct quotes from leaders that capture the current mindset)

Summary

This Q2 2026 Business Barometer includes responses from 116 business leaders across every major industry sector who are largely based in the U.S. but also includes leaders in 6 countries.

3 Emerging Signals from 2Q

• Optimism is returning, but uncertainty remains.
  • Positive sentiment increased more than five-fold from 1Q, while negative sentiment was nearly cut in half. Still, most leaders expect economic conditions to remain difficult to predict.
• Adaptability is driving confidence.
  • Leaders are shifting from waiting for stability to building agility, resilience, and faster decision-making into their operating models.
• AI remains the dominant strategic priority.
  • AI investment continues to accelerate, with 69% of leaders developing AI agents and significant AI investment increasing from 47% to 62% over the past year.

2026: AI Is Still The Big Story

CEOs continue to learn how to use AI to drive results. 

• 69% are developing AI agents and twice as many CEO are adding staff vs cutting staff due to AI.
• From June 2025 to June 2026, companies making significant investments into AI grew from 47% to 62% and the percentage of CEOs: 
  • “Using AI as a Core Strategyˮ increased from 21% to 26% 
  • “Starting to integrate AI Toolsˮ increased from 26% to 36% 
  • “Not Doing More than Testingˮ declined from 28% to 15% 
  • With “No Plansˮ to use AI dropped from 9% to 2%

Question of the Quarter: 2Q 2026

What do CEOs view as the most important leadership capability entering 2027?

Why It Matters

These longitudinal trends are not designed to predict outcomes, but to surface the real-world pressures shaping executive decision-making in real time. The Business Barometer provides a grounded signal leaders can use to benchmark their own assumptions, pressure-test strategy, and calibrate priorities amid ongoing uncertainty. We invite your input to strengthen future editions. To participate or share perspective, contact info@allianceofceos.com and follow the Alliance on LinkedIn to stay engaged in the broader dialogue.

Participating Organizations & Members

The Business Barometer is a collaboration of the following independent leadership organizations: Alliance of Chief Executives, Athena Alliance, BenchBoard Executive Coaching (Jim Cook), CEO Roundtable (Minneapolis), The Circle by Founders Circle Capital, Global Data Innovation, The Institute for Entrepreneurship (Atlanta), LXCouncil, Operators Guild, Quade and The Virginia Council of CEOs.