EY-Parthenon survey: 80% of corporate leaders say growth has become more challenging and look to AI as a catalyst

• Ninety-seven percent of organizations report outside factors like geopolitical volatility and technology innovation have led them to change their growth strategy in the last 12 months
• Corporate growth leaders are bullish on AI as a growth driver; 78% believe that AI will allow them to accelerate their growth
• However, many are still stuck in AI productivity phase, as 63% are primarily using AI for efficiency and productivity
• Companies are early in the learning curve for how to use AI for growth, with 34% or less of corporate leaders currently trusting AI output for key growth decisions

NEW YORK, April 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Corporate growth leaders remain firmly focused on growth, even as geopolitical volatility, technological disruption and market uncertainty make execution increasingly complex, according to the inaugural EY-Parthenon Growth Survey. While 80% of US executives surveyed say the growth environment is more challenging than last year, they are optimistic about the potential for AI to drive acceleration.

"Leaders are operating in constant turbulence in today's environment, but the urgency to prioritize growth has only intensified," says Mitch Berlin, EY Americas Vice Chair, EY-Parthenon. "Despite ongoing headwinds, from geopolitical conflicts and supply chain instability to now energy shocks, leaders need to actively signal confidence to the market and their stakeholders. The companies that will win are those that figure out first how to leverage AI to drive growth — by innovating faster, hyper-personalizing their offerings and launching new products and services."

The survey of 271 US corporate growth leaders, including C-suite and other senior leaders across industries, finds that nearly all respondents (97%) have changed their growth strategy in the last 12 months due to external factors, such as:

• 73% noted geopolitical pressures and volatility, including changes in interest rates, changes in trade policy, changes in inflation and changes in global supply chain stability
• 58% noted technology innovation, including new AI or technology capabilities, have changed what is possible or differentiating
• 46% noted shifts in customer behavior, such as a significant change in consumer values or purchasing behavior
• 40% noted regulatory/legal changes, such as new compliance requirements or constraints that make a previous strategy illegal or too costly

When asked to identify the main barriers to outpacing competitors, most executives cited internal obstacles, which can speak to a company's ability to adopt AI and emerging technologies. The top challenges cited were risk and compliance requirements (35%) and legacy technology and infrastructure (34%). Encouragingly, these are challenges leaders have within their control to resolve.

Tapping into accelerated AI-driven growth
To break through these external and internal growth constraints, executives are optimistic about AI-driven growth, with 78% of respondents believing that the rise of AI will ultimately accelerate their organization's growth rate. Despite this high optimism, the survey finds that certain barriers for AI-driven growth remain:

• Corporate growth leaders share a balanced view of both opportunity and risk in AI. Executives believe that their investment in AI will create new growth markets (57%) and improve how they sell to and serve customers (63%). At the same time, there are substantial percentages of fear that AI is enabling new market entrants that will compete against their organization (41%) and that AI is threatening some of their existing business/revenue streams (34%).
• Most organizations are still stuck in the AI productivity phase. Companies are using AI primarily for efficiency and productivity (63%), rather than proactive revenue generation like staying ahead of competitors (14%) or diversifying revenue streams (7%).
• Significant trust gap impacts AI adoption for growth. The biggest gap that companies face is building confidence in AI's ability to drive high-stakes decisions that fuel growth as only about a third or less trust AI inputs for optimizing pricing (34%), new product or service development (28%) and M&A evaluation (27%). Furthermore, only 49% "strongly agree" their organization knows how to best leverage data and AI to enable growth.

"The appetite to leverage AI for growth and acceleration is undeniable. However, we are seeing a disconnect between this ambition and strategic adoption," says Berlin. "It is still early days to drive revenue through AI, but that is exactly what this next era of growth demands. By bridging the current trust deficit, leaders can evolve from productivity to AI-enabled growth strategies that don't just optimize the present, but future-proof the entire organization."

While it is still early days of truly implementing AI for strategic growth, there is AI technology reaching a level of accuracy that allows for complex reasoning. For example, neurosymbolic AI is one emerging solution companies are already using to address the trust gap, as it turns data into transparent, auditable predictions about revenue and value creation, overcoming hallucination issues associated with generative AI. 

For additional findings on the survey, visit EY-Parthenon Growth Survey Report.

Methodology
EY-Parthenon team commissioned a third-party vendor to conduct an online survey among 271 corporate growth leaders, defined as those on the VP level or above who oversee growth at their company (n=101 C-suite leaders and n=170 below C-suite level) at organizations with an annual revenue of at least $500m.

Industries surveyed included: Advanced Manufacturing & Mobility/Industrials (25%), Consumer Products and Retail (25%), Technology (25%), and all other industries (25%).

The survey was fielded between February 19 and March 12, 2026, which overlapped with the start of the Iran conflict (February 28, 2026). The margin of error for the total sample at the 95% confidence interval is +/- 6 percentage points. 

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SOURCE EY