Economic pressure, talent shortages, cyber risk and rapid technology change were among the biggest business challenges leaders expected in 2024. Those findings describe what executives and risk professionals prioritized at the time—not a verified ranking of what happened or a current 2026 outlook. Different surveys measured different things, so there was no single universal leaderboard.
Why 2024 surveys produced different rankings
The surveys below offer complementary views, not interchangeable scores. Some asked about near-term risks, some about CEOs’ internal priorities or growth plans, and one focused on risks to businesses more broadly. Their populations and methods also differed.
| Survey | Who and when | What it measured |
|---|---|---|
| NC State University ERM Initiative and Protiviti | More than 1,143 board members and C-suite executives worldwide; published March 7, 2024 | Thirty-six macroeconomic, strategic and operational risks over one-year and one-decade horizons |
| The Conference Board C-Suite Outlook | More than 1,200 executives, including 630 CEOs; published January 10, 2024. Companion fieldwork information describes 1,247 C-suite respondents surveyed October 24–November 24, 2023. | CEO external concerns and internal priorities |
| Gartner | 416 CEOs and senior business executives across multiple regions; surveyed July–December 2023 and published May 22, 2024 | Business priorities and themes for transformation |
| Allianz Risk Barometer | More than 3,000 risk-management professionals; published January 16, 2024 | Business risks, including risks with insurance and operational implications |
| PwC 27th Annual Global CEO Survey | 4,702 CEOs across 105 countries and territories; published January 15, 2024 | Leaders’ expectations about the economy, generative AI and business reinvention |
Economic pressure and recession readiness
Economic conditions, including inflationary pressure, ranked as the top near-term risk in the NC State ERM Initiative and Protiviti survey. In The Conference Board’s C-Suite Outlook, CEOs named recession their leading external concern and inflation their second. In that survey, only 27% of global CEOs said their organizations were prepared for a recession, and the same share said they were prepared for high inflation.
Together, these results point to concern about uncertain demand, costs and financial resilience. They do not mean every business faced the same exposure: a company’s ability to absorb higher input costs or a downturn depends on its sector, customers, financing and operating model. The Conference Board figures describe CEOs’ reported preparedness, not a measured forecast of which firms would fail.
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Talent, retention and changing skill needs
Talent remained a central challenge even though surveys framed it differently. NC State ERM Initiative and Protiviti ranked the ability to attract, develop and retain talent second among near-term risks. The Conference Board identified attracting and retaining talent as CEOs’ leading internal priority.
Skills development is related, but it is not the same problem as hiring or retention. In PwC’s 2024 survey, 69% of CEOs expected generative AI to require workforce upskilling. That is an expectation about workforce needs, not evidence that every company had adopted AI or already had a skills gap.
Cybersecurity, business continuity and supply chains
Cyber risk ranked third on NC State ERM Initiative and Protiviti’s one-year list, while Allianz’s global Risk Barometer placed cyber incidents first among business risks. Allianz respondents selected cyber incidents in 36% of overall responses; business interruption was selected by 31%, and natural catastrophes by 26%. Those are shares of responses in Allianz’s survey, not estimates of the percentage of companies affected.
The connection between cyber incidents and business interruption matters: a breach, ransomware incident or IT disruption can prevent a company from serving customers or operating normally. Allianz identified continuity management, finding supply-chain bottlenecks and arranging alternative suppliers as practical management priorities. In other words, resilience is not only an IT-control issue; it also depends on whether a business can keep delivering when systems or suppliers fail.
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Mark Beasley, professor of Enterprise Risk Management and director of NC State’s ERM Initiative, described the change across time horizons: “While the economy is the top-ranked risk for the coming year, cyber threats jumped to the top of the list when leaders assessed both near- and long-term outlooks, after not being a top-five risk at all last year.”
AI, technology change and business reinvention
Leaders saw AI as a potential driver of growth and transformation, alongside new risks. Gartner reported that 62% of surveyed CEOs selected growth as their top business priority for 2024, while 34% selected AI as the leading theme of their next business transformation after digital. PwC found that 70% of surveyed CEOs expected generative AI to significantly change how their company creates, delivers and captures value over the next three years.
Those expectations came with concerns: 64% of CEOs in PwC’s survey expressed concern about an associated rise in cybersecurity risk from AI, and 52% were concerned about misinformation. PwC also identified liability, reputation and bias among issues leaders connected with generative AI. These are reported concerns and expectations, not proof that AI produced the same effects at every organization.
Sameer Ansari, Protiviti’s global Security & Privacy lead, said: “Over the next decade, technologies such as artificial intelligence, cloud, and the anticipated emergence of quantum computing will change how organizations secure their data, raising significant security-related questions.”
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The broader strategic issue was how to adapt the business, not simply whether to deploy a new tool. Bob Moritz, PwC Global Chair, said: “As business leaders are becoming less concerned about macroeconomic challenges, they are becoming more focused on disruptive forces within their industries. Despite rising optimism about the global economy, they are actually less optimistic than last year about their own revenue prospects, and more acutely aware of the need for fundamental reinvention of their business.”
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Regulation, geopolitics, climate and other external disruption
In the NC State ERM Initiative and Protiviti near-term ranking, third-party risks were fourth and regulatory changes and scrutiny fifth. Allianz also highlighted natural catastrophes, political risk and supply-chain reliance. PwC described climate transition and technology as forces that could prompt business reinvention.
These exposures vary substantially by geography, sector, organization size and supply chain. A new regulation can affect one industry directly and another indirectly; political or climate-related disruption may matter most to businesses dependent on particular regions, infrastructure or suppliers. The survey findings establish that leaders considered these issues, not that they ranked equally for every business.
How to use the 2024 findings
For a business owner or finance leader, the useful takeaway is not to copy one survey’s ranking. Translate the relevant risks into decisions about cash, people, systems and operations.
- Stress-test finances: consider how lower demand, higher costs or constrained financing would affect cash flow and the ability to meet obligations.
- Plan for skills and retention: distinguish hard-to-fill roles and retention problems from training needs tied to new technology.
- Connect cyber controls to continuity: consider how the organization would operate during an IT disruption and whether it has viable supplier alternatives.
- Assess AI by use case: weigh expected business value against data security, misinformation, liability, reputational and bias concerns.
- Map external dependencies: identify which regulations, regions, suppliers or physical disruptions could materially affect the business.
These are practical implications of the risks leaders identified, not findings that any single response works for every company. The surveys describe expectations and priorities in 2024; they should not be read as a current 2026 ranking or as proof of subsequent outcomes.
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