29 Jun What CEOs are talking about in 2026
Written by David Evans
Media Analyst, Reputation Leaders
The CEO conversation is changing. Understanding how is useful framing because the talking points of leadership serve as a microcosm of wider business developments, an insight into leadership thinking, and a bellwether of how leadership comms is adapting to a morphing technological and geopolitical climate.
To understand the wider CEO conversation, we ran an analysis of what CEOs were posting on LinkedIn January-June 2026 and compared that with the 6 months prior, painting a picture of shifting leadership concerns and talking points.
Here’s the big conversations CEOs have been driving over the past 6 months:
- Technological breakthroughs: AI-benefits are intersecting with other technologies creating advances like AI eye-scans for Alzheimer’s detection. Also, the innovation conversation is finally widening again. The singular focus on AI is relaxing and other tech developments in biotech (regenerative and personalized medicine), space, enterprise systems (ERP and cybersecurity), and energy are finding the spotlight.
- Clean energy and industrial decarbonization: CEOs discussed replacing fossil fuel inputs in industrial processes, energy storage, and grid efficiency to manage the demands of the new AI economy. Mineral and resource scarcity concerns were raised in a context of growing electrification and geopolitical tension. Behind-the-scenes components of sustainability like greening production and supply chains is being foregrounded in the climate conversation.
- Open education: CEOs celebrate the democratization of skills-sharing and highlight metacognition (particularly learning how to learn) and problem-solving as key skills. Continuous learning is a must as, “40% of workers’ current skills are expected to be obsolete by 2030, according to the World Economic Forum.” – UBS.
- The state of social media: The proliferation of AI-slop and rage-bait is creating demand for reliable knowledge sources, stronger moderation/fact checks, and the reprieve of a sentence conjured by a fellow caffeine-fuelled hominid over the linguistic calculation of an LLM.
- Calmness under pressure: Crisis leadership is becoming the norm. Steady handedness amid disruption driven by wars, trade uncertainty, and geopolitical tension is becoming the defining characteristic of successful contemporary leadership.
How do these conversations compare with the 6 months prior?
AI-implementation to AI-impacts. The conversations has shifted from the big questions of how to implement AI, to emerging successes and challenges (e.g., energy demands) posed by AI-implementation. The pressing question is now how to make the AI-transition more sustainable and beneficial to all.
Culture to crisis. The strategic timeframe has compressed. Leaders were previously vocal about long-term and internal challenges like employee well-being, shared values, and company culture. Now leaders’ attention is being drawn outwards as the exogenous demands of global uncertainty are making CEOs more adaptable but also more reactive.
The challenge for CEOs going forward will be to articulate a strategy that incorporates awareness of unfolding events balanced with the clarity of a long-term vision.