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The Italian results of the 29th Global CEO Survey read from the standpoint of a local business: confidence, artificial intelligence, new markets.
It is the annual survey in which PwC gathers the forecasts of more than four thousand chief executives worldwide, 118 of them Italian. It matters to small businesses too because it anticipates where investment, skills and risks are moving: the themes that within a couple of years reach suppliers and the supply chain.
The survey, presented in February 2026, collected responses from 4,454 chief executives in 95 countries. It is a barometer of expectations, not an economic forecast: it records what those running businesses expect and what they have decided to do. For anyone who is not a multinational, its value lies in the gaps between the Italian figures and the global ones: wherever Italy behaves differently from the rest of the world, both the risks and the opportunities are to be found.
The headline figures on confidence: 62 per cent of Italian CEOs expect the global economy to grow, while confidence in the domestic economy stops at 49 per cent; as regards their own turnover, 53 per cent say they are confident when looking at the next three years. This is cautious optimism, directed more at the international context than at the domestic one.
Legal references: analysis by the Firm based on data from PwC’s 29th Global CEO Survey, Italian results, February 2026
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Source: 29th Global CEO Survey, PwC — Italian findings. Analysis by the firm.
Not for want of technology, but of organisation. 27 per cent of Italian CEOs report the absence of a supportive corporate culture, against 9 per cent globally; 40 per cent have no defined roadmap, almost double the worldwide figure of 23 per cent. For 46 per cent, the main obstacle is in-house skills.
This is the harshest finding of the survey and it concerns businesses of every size. A third of Italian organisations also state that they have not formalised any responsible artificial intelligence processes. The picture that emerges is consistent: buying a tool is easy and cheap, changing the way people work is slow and costs money in training.
A business with ten employees does not need an artificial intelligence strategy: it needs to know which three repetitive tasks can be taken out of a person’s hands, and who checks the result. The question to ask at the year-end accounts stage is not how much the software costs, but how many hours it frees up and who takes responsibility for it. The businesses that gain an advantage in 2026 will not be those with the best technology, but those that have decided who does what with that technology.
Legal references: analysis by the Firm based on data from PwC’s 29th Global CEO Survey, Italian results, February 2026
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Source: 29th Global CEO Survey, PwC — Italian findings. Analysis by the firm.
50 per cent of Italian CEOs say they compete in sectors where they did not previously operate, against 42 per cent globally. In practical terms this means new ATECO codes (the Italian business activity classification), possibly different VAT rates, different deductibility rules and, if the business changes substantially, effects on the accounts and on corporate governance.
This is the point at which a commercial decision becomes a technical matter. Adding a revenue stream is never merely commercial: it affects the classification of the principal activity, the revenue thresholds that determine the accounting regime under art. 18 of d.P.R. 29 settembre 1973, n. 600 (the Italian presidential decree on tax assessment), and it may contribute to exceeding the thresholds that make the appointment of a supervisory body (organo di controllo, the statutory auditing body) compulsory in an SRL, the Italian private limited company, under art.
2477 of the Civil Code. The VAT rates applicable to the new activity and the correct allocation of mixed-use costs must also be checked. These are checks that cost little if carried out beforehand and a great deal if carried out afterwards. It is worth noting that only 23 per cent of Italian CEOs say they are able to anticipate changes before they occur: the majority are overtaken by them.
Legal references: art. 18 d.P.R. 600/1973; art. 2477 c.c.; analysis by the Firm based on data from PwC’s 29th Global CEO Survey
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Source: 29th Global CEO Survey, PwC — Italian findings. Analysis by the firm.
Three measurable things: set down in writing who decides on the adoption of new tools, check that the activity codes match what the business actually does today, and estimate the year’s result before December, while tax choices are still open. None of them requires a large-company budget.
The survey portrays businesses racing towards the new with organisations that have stood still. For a small or medium-sized business the remedy is not to imitate the multinationals, but to close the gap between what is actually done and what the documents show: the visura camerale (the Chamber of Commerce registry extract), activity codes, signing powers, contracts.
It is the least visible work and the work that prevents the greatest number of disputes. In tax terms, the technically decisive moment is not the return but the estimate of the result before the year end, while choices are still open on depreciation, provisions, the recognition of stock and the take-up of optional schemes. In June you pay only what you decided in December.
Legal references: analysis by the Firm based on data from PwC’s 29th Global CEO Survey, Italian results, February 2026
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Italian CEOs are moderately confident and are entering new markets more readily than their foreign counterparts, yet they come to artificial intelligence without a roadmap and without the in-house skills. For a local business the lesson is that the gap to be closed in 2026 is organisational before it is technological. The data cited comes from PwC’s 29th Global CEO Survey (4,454 CEOs in 95 countries, 118 in Italy, February 2026) and is reported for the purposes of commentary and analysis; the analysis and the assessments are the Firm’s own.
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