Nearly 95% of chief executives and founders running Inc. 5000 companies express optimism about AI's potential, up from 91% in 2024. Nearly two-thirds of CEOs surveyed by IBM report adopting AI agents that autonomously perform tasks. Many CEOs lag in integrating AI into personal and professional routines, with generative-AI usage most reported by entrepreneurs and tech executives. Some describe AI as "weird and off-putting" and note psychological resistance even among those who know they should use it. Weber Shandwick, a 4,000-person communications consultancy, uses the CEO office as an experimentation test bed to build client credibility and master AI.
Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I'm Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning.
CEOs appear to love artificial intelligence (AI). Nearly 95% of chief executives and founders running Inc. 5000 companies-the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the U.S.-say they are optimistic about AI's potential to run their operations. That's up from 91% who held that same opinion in 2024. Nearly two-thirds of CEOs surveyed by IBM say they currently are adopting AI agents-software that autonomously performs tasks.
But many CEOs-present company included-are lagging when it comes to adopting AI in their personal and professional routines. When I recently sought responses from global CEOs on how they use generative AI to do their jobs, the only leaders who responded were entrepreneurs and tech executives. The New York Times recently published a piece highlighting the deficiencies of AI usage in corner offices.
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