Good morning.
It’s become a commonplace in business to say the pace of change is faster than ever. But what does that mean?
For the last five years, the data crunchers at Accenture have attempted to put some meat on those bones, with their latest effort out this morning.
They ingest more than 40 data series in order to measure change in six areas—technology, economics, talent, geopolitics, climate, and consumer & social. Their conclusion: the pace of change is indeed accelerating.
It has risen steadily since 2019, soaring 183% in the last four years, and 33% in the last year alone. Most of the 3,400 C-suite executives surveyed by the firm (88%) expect change to continue to accelerate in 2024.
What’s driving the change? Technology was the top driver of the six in 2023, after being in last place in 2022. You can credit that to the release of ChatGPT.
Talent fell from the top spot in 2022 to the number two spot in 2023. And geopolitics went from number two in 2022 to number five in 2023.
The report also confirms a point I made last week, that most companies are taking a cautious approach to generative AI.
Only 27% of C-suite executives said their organizations are ready to scale-up generative AI solutions, while 72% agreed with the statement: “The recent backlash on generative AI (e.g., policy issues, lack of accuracy, low initial ROI) will cause our organization to slow down planned investment in GenAI in 2024.”
You can read the full Accenture report here. And if you are wondering why CEO Daily seems so research-heavy this week, it’s because many companies are rushing out research in advance of next week’s World Economic Forum in Davos. Peter and I will both be there, and reporting back here.
Other news below.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
CEO Daily is off for Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday and will be back in your inbox on Tuesday.
