C Suite Looking To Invest In Technology As A Route Out Of The Recession

A Special Report from the Worldcom Confidence Index (WCI) shows that leaders in the C Suite are planning to invest in technology – particularly Artificial Intelligence – to address the challenges of global recession, high inflation and the attitudes of consumers.

 

The report, entitled: The role of technology in responding to the challenges of global inflation and recession, and the implications for technology companies, draws on the analysis of online conversations from over 80,000 C Suite executives between July and December 2022.  The report helps technology leaders, and businesses in general, gain insight into areas of concern, opportunity and need. It also highlights the communications implications of their response and its impact on the confidence and trust of stakeholders.

The data shows that business leaders are planning to invest in technology – particularly Artificial Intelligence – to address the current economic challenges. Both topics saw a significant increase in engagement from September to December 2022 as leaders’ minds turned to planning for 2023. The latest monthly WCI data for December 2022 reinforces the report findings, as AI and technology to collaborate and innovate were the only topics to see an increase in engagement.

In addition to investing in AI, the other technologies that received special attentions are:

  • Technology to enable hybrid working is seen as improving productivity and suggests that hybrid working is here to stay
  • Disruptive technologies are being considered to remove inflationary drivers from the supply chain
  • Concerns about the widening tech skills gap is seeing a move to low code or no code software by small to medium tech vendors.

The report also covers the consumer view over the same six month period. Full analysis can be seen in the report, but highlights include:

  • Consumers are keen for organisations to embrace new technologies to minimise the risk of layoffs, although some see technology being used to enable layoffs
  • Just like the C Suite, consumers see the use of Artificial Intelligence as a positive move to help prevent recession
  • People are concerned about the Catch 22 of moving to low carbon technologies in a period of high inflation.

The different views of the C Suite and consumers, around the use of technology, raises some interesting communications implications for technology vendors. As a result, Worldcom’s tech experts have included a special advice guide in the report on how technology vendors can best to address those communications implications.

Download the Worldcom Confidence Index 2023 Special Technology Report here.

 


The Worldcom Confidence Index is the world’s most extensive monthly study of what the C Suite is talking about. And it is the only global study that shows the change in confidence across a range of important business topics. This extensive data is now available via an interactive online portal and can be filtered by geography, industry and role. Explore the archive and updates of WCI data online.  Our Worldcom partners in 115 cities are ready to provide even more local context. Contact Todd Lynch to start the discussion.

 

Artificial Intelligence provides unrivalled view of trending topics and leaders’ confidence levels in addressing them

The Worldcom Confidence Index is the world’s largest monthly study of what the C Suite is talking about. And it is the only global study that shows the change in confidence across a range of important business topics. It is able to operate at this scale, and in nine different languages, because the data is captured using a breakthrough approach powered by artificial intelligence (AI). This allows us to discover the issues that concern leaders – and their confidence levels in addressing them.

The chosen research firm, Advanced Symbolics Inc. (ASI), has developed a patented method of building representative samples and then capturing information with their AI tool. By using ASI’s AI tool, we have produced a truly global perspective on the business issues of the moment and where they rank in terms of leadership attention. We’ve also calculated the confidence index level for every topic and audience and identified how it changes for 42 countries around the world. This is incredibly valuable insight because it not only represents what leaders are talking about, rather than responses to questions, but also shows their confidence or concern in addressing each topic. It means you can compare your own thoughts with more than 100,000 of your global peers.