5 Mindshifts CEOs Must Make to Win with AI
The 2025 IBM CEO Study dropped recently, and I dug into all 70+ pages. It’s a dense read, but packed with insight. They surveyed 2,000 CEOs across 33 countries and 24 industries—and one thing is clear:
If you’re not shifting how you lead in the age of AI, you’re getting left behind.
Here’s my breakdown of the five biggest mindset shifts CEOs need to make, based on the report—and what I think they mean for real-world business leaders.
1. Make Courage Your Core
Most CEOs say they need to take more risks than their competition to stay in the game. But not reckless ones.
Only 37% believe it’s better to be fast and wrong than slow and right.
That means:
Set bold goals that cut through complexity
Break them into manageable moves
Give leaders across your org real decision-making power
Shift budgets fast when market conditions change
If you’re still waiting for perfect data before making a call, you’re moving too slow.
2. Embrace AI-Fueled Creative Destruction
68% of CEOs say AI is reshaping their core business models. That’s not small.
This isn’t about using ChatGPT for summaries. It’s about:
Rethinking how you sell, operate, and grow
Letting go of “how we’ve always done it”
Using AI agents to decide what to rebuild or kill off
61% say whoever has the best generative AI wins. But that doesn’t mean buying the biggest model.
Smaller, focused models trained on your own data are delivering better results with lower cost.
3. Cultivate a Vibrant Data Environment
Your AI is only as good as your data.
72% of CEOs say their own data is key to unlocking AI’s potential—but half admit their systems are a disconnected mess.
You need:
Integrated, accessible, clean data
Cloud-native platforms that feed AI agents in real time
A framework for governance, privacy, and security
If your people can’t get what they need when they need it, AI won’t save you.
4. Ignore the FOMO, Lean into ROI
Only 25% of AI projects have delivered the ROI CEOs expected. That stat should make everyone pause.
Chasing shiny tools doesn’t pay off.
The CEOs seeing results focus on:
Forecasting and planning tools
Measurable CX and operational gains
Scaling only what proves its value early
Every initiative should have ROI metrics—even if it’s experimental.
If you can’t measure it, stop it or fix it.
5. Borrow the Talent You Can’t Buy
54% of CEOs are hiring for AI jobs that didn’t even exist last year. Good luck staffing that internally.
The smart approach is:
Build: Reskill your current team
Buy: Hire critical roles
Bot: Use automation to fill gaps
Borrow: Partner for what you can’t develop fast enough
Also: CEOs are shifting to fewer, higher-quality partners. The days of juggling 12 vendors for one outcome are over.
Final Thought
This report doesn’t sugarcoat it—most organizations are still stuck in pilot mode with AI. But the top-performing CEOs? They’re already building momentum by getting these five things right.
They’re not waiting.
If you’re a founder, executive, or team lead reading this, ask yourself:
Where are we stuck in “safe mode”?
What’s one process we could rebuild using AI today?
Who can we bring in to close our talent gap this quarter?
The edge goes to the bold. Especially now.
Let me know if you want help making sense of how to apply these shifts in your business—I’ve been mapping this stuff out in real time.
—
Tim de Vallee
Business Strategist | Digital Builder | Not waiting for disruption to settle
