Investing in your people

But it's not just about prioritising investment in AI. Business leaders we are speaking with this year are combining AI technology investments with renewed efforts to support their people to perform at their best.

Leaders are realising they need to upskill their people so they can maximise the value of new technology investments. Many are using AI to automate repetitive business activities to free up their people for more strategic and creative efforts.

Learning and development and company culture top the list of priority actions to improve workforce effectiveness and engagement, and surprisingly some leaders are even using AI tools to aid with both of these efforts.

I believe that it is this magical combination of people-power and AI which will be critical to future business performance, productivity, innovation and, ultimately, profitability.

‘Profit-accelerators’ versus ‘profit-defenders’

Something which caught my eye in this year’s research is the contrasting strategies deployed by businesses with the highest margins. Over a quarter of respondents to our survey indicate their profit margins are growing by more than 5% this year (many achieving 10%+). These high-performing businesses distinguish themselves through:

• Advanced AI adoption to streamline operating models (for example, 75% of are using AI for data analytics vs. 66% of their peers)
• Higher levels of investment in training & development and ‘future leaders’ programmes than their peers
• And, stronger innovation capabilities, perhaps as a result of the choices made around combined investments in AI and workforce

Not surprisingly, these ‘profit-accelerators’ are 10% more confident in business growth than their peers.

A year of critical conversations

It’s been a most interesting year to speak with over 1,200 business leaders around the globe. External pressures continue mounting, from trade wars to cybersecurity risks, many of which are beyond immediate control.

Yet expectations for growth are higher than ever and businesses face heightened performance objectives going forward.

Attend our hybrid launch event

I look forward to sharing further insights from our Annual Survey of Business Leaders at our launch event in January. I hope you can join us to discover more comprehensive research findings, understand more about profit optimisation strategies and gain further insights into business leadership trends.

To register to view the livestream of our expert panel discussion from our event on Thursday 30th January 2025, please use the link below: