Big companies have big hopes for 2024

The financial outlook of large-company leaders in business and industry continues to brighten.

Sixty-one percent of U.S.-based CEOs expect higher revenue growth in 2024 than 2023, and 69% expect higher profitability, according to the latest EY CEO Outlook Survey. The CEOs were polled in September and October.

The EY survey pulled out a subset of data from EY’s global survey and found similar attitudes toward growth. In the global survey that canvassed 1,200 CEOs, 66% forecast higher revenue growth in 2024, and 65% forecast higher profitability. Three-fifths of the CEOs canvassed lead companies with annual revenues of $1 billion or more.

Though not an apples to apples comparison, 45% of U.S. CPA decision-makers surveyed in August said they were optimistic about their businesses according to the third-quarter Business and Industry Economic Outlook Survey from AICPA & CIMA, together as the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants. That survey focuses on small and midsize companies.

The increase in optimism appears to be affecting the appetite for mergers and acquisitions (M&A), but to different degrees in different parts of the world. While 52% of U.S. large-company CEOs in the EY survey said they expect to be involved in M&A activity over the next 12 months, just 35% of respondents to the global survey said the same.

Every U.S. CEO surveyed said they were currently making or planning significant investments in generative AI – GenAI, for short – the term that describes artificial intelligence that uses existing data to generate new content. Sixty-two percent said their companies must act now to avoid giving competitors a strategic advantage, but that isn’t easily achieved; 61% said uncertainty around GenAI makes it challenging to develop a strategy.

The survey comes on the heels of the EY European Financial Services AI Survey, in which 68% of respondents said that up to one-quarter of their workforce will require AI training in the next six to 12 months.

— To comment on this article or to suggest an idea for another article, contact Bryan Strickland at Bryan.Strickland@aicpa-cima.com.