The CEO Agenda: Decoding India Inc.'s Strategic Priorities

India Inc. is navigating an unprecedented convergence of global mega trends that are fundamentally reshaping the business landscape. From geopolitical disruptions and artificial intelligence breakthroughs to sustainability imperatives and trade tensions, C-suite leaders are steering their organisations through a complex web of interconnected challenges that transcend traditional industry boundaries.

In response to this shifting paradigm, Kanvic has developed The CEO Agenda—India's first AI-powered tool that distils the voices of top leaders from over 250 of the country's most prominent companies. 

Drawing insights from quarterly analyst calls across 24 sectors and over 100 strategic topics, this proprietary tool enables business leaders to isolate critical signals from market noise, providing a real-time view of strategic priorities of Indian companies.

Executive Summary

Our inaugural analysis of The CEO Agenda reveals a decisive shift in CEO mindspace: mega trends now dominate strategic thinking, with 93% of the top 10 discussion topics linked to global forces, including digital transformation, sustainability, trade dynamics, and artificial intelligence.

This paradigm shift signals that traditional industry-specific challenges are increasingly overshadowed by cross-cutting forces that shape performance trajectories across all sectors of the Indian economy.

Digital transformation emerged as the most talked-about topic in Q1 2025, with sustainability and supply chain management following closely behind. What is particularly noteworthy is the evolution in how companies discuss digital initiatives. CEOs are no longer speaking of digital transformation in broad, aspirational terms. Instead, they are articulating specific and monetisable digital initiatives that directly impact business performance.

Furthermore, our analysis reveals a striking disconnect between the narrative and the execution of artificial intelligence adoption. Despite widespread discourse about AI's transformative potential, the technology remains under-penetrated across India Inc. In half of the 24 sectors studied, AI was not mentioned at all in quarterly analyst calls, suggesting a significant gap between rhetoric and reality.

The geopolitical dimension has also become increasingly prominent in CEO conversations. Tariffs and trade tensions, particularly the recent 50% tariff on Indian exports to the United States, have begun to cast a long shadow over business sentiment. Our sentiment analysis reveals that tariffs, trade, and geopolitics evoke the most negative reactions across all discussion topics, reflecting the anxiety these external forces are creating in boardrooms nationwide.

Despite this external turbulence, a clear pattern emerges: India Inc.'s leadership focus remains squarely on controllable execution levers. CEOs demonstrate a pronounced bias for action over waiting for macroeconomic conditions to improve, suggesting a maturation in strategic thinking that prioritises internal capability building over external dependency.

Digital transformation- the best defence for profit protection

Digital transformation was the most talked-about topic in Q12025. The evolution in how India Inc. approaches digital transformation represents one of the most significant strategic shifts revealed by The CEO Agenda. Companies across all sectors have intensified their focus on digital initiatives, but the nature of these discussions has undergone a fundamental shift.

Rather than broad commitments to "digital transformation," CEOs are now detailing very specific digital initiatives that suggest a pay-back-centric approach to technology spending. This shift reflects a more mature understanding of digital's role in business performance and a greater emphasis on measurable returns on technology investments.

The digital initiatives being prioritised fall into three distinct categories, each addressing different aspects of business transformation:

• Customer-facing initiatives represent the most prominent category, encompassing digital marketing capabilities, e-commerce platform development, customer journey redesign, and customer experience upgrades. 

• On the operational front, CEOs are driving end-to-end process digitisation, automation, predictive maintenance systems, and Industry 4.0 implementations across manufacturing and supply chain operations. 

• Additionally, forward-looking organisations are placing strategic bets on quick-commerce scale-ups, robotics and humanoids pilots, and cybersecurity infrastructure hardening. These initiatives suggest that companies are not merely digitising existing processes but are exploring entirely new business models and revenue streams.

A leading consumer durables CEO articulated this evolution: "We made serious investments in reshaping the way we work, with investments in digital to enhance customer experience and productivity." This sentiment reflects the prevailing view across India Inc. that digital transformation serves as the most effective defence for profit protection in an uncertain operating environment.

Digital transformation has also emerged as a common priority across all sectors, with industrial goods companies leading the way, followed by healthcare and information technology firms. This cross-sector adoption suggests that digital capabilities are increasingly viewed as fundamental business requirements rather than sector-specific advantages.

A compelling example comes from the automotive sector, where a leading player is positioning itself for the humanoid robotics market, estimated to reach 10 million units by 2035. The company plans to leverage its core competencies to participate in this adjacent growing market. This strategic thinking demonstrates how traditional manufacturers are identifying new growth opportunities through technological convergence.

AI Adoption Gap in India Inc

Despite three years of widespread discourse around artificial intelligence, The CEO Agenda reveals a striking disconnect between narrative and execution: In half of the 24 sectors analysed, AI was not mentioned at all during quarterly analyst calls, indicating a significant implementation gap between public discourse and actual business priorities.

Within the industries that do discuss AI initiatives, information technology and telecommunications emerge as clear front-runners. This concentration is particularly significant given the urgent need for India's IT sector to evolve its business model as traditional service delivery approaches come under increasing pressure from automation and commoditisation.

The limited penetration of AI discussions across other sectors suggests that while technology transformation dominates CEO agendas, the specific application of artificial intelligence remains nascent for most of India Inc. The AI implementation gap presents both a challenge and an opportunity for business leaders who must navigate the transition from digital foundation-building to AI-powered innovation.

Trade & Tariff Pressures Reshaping Strategy

While CEOs are accelerating long-term initiatives, such as digital transformation and AI preparation, their short-term outlook is increasingly clouded by trade and tariff risks for Indian companies stemming from US tariffs and other global headwinds.

Our sentiment analysis reveals that tariffs, trade dynamics, and geopolitical tensions generate far more negative reactions compared to other strategic topics. As one CEO from the consumer durables sector noted, "while there is relief from easing inflation pressures, the negative impact on global growth resulting from US tariffs remains a significant concern". 

Interestingly, discussions on supply chain management within the broader geopolitics and trade theme tend to be more positively oriented, suggesting that companies view supply chain optimisation as a viable response mechanism to trade uncertainties.

The strategic response to trade tensions is becoming increasingly sophisticated. The playbook involves localising inputs, diversifying markets, and implementing selective cost pass-through mechanisms—a response that signals a broader industry shift toward developing tariff-agnostic supply chains.

This strategic evolution is influencing capital allocation decisions for 2025-26, with companies increasingly directing their capital expenditures (capex) and sourcing investments toward India and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

Global exposure drives strategic focus

A clear pattern emerges when analysing how different sectors approach strategic priorities, with the distinction primarily driven by their level of global market exposure.

Globally exposed sectors, including automotive, chemicals, and metals, demonstrate a high focus on tariffs, China-related dynamics, export strategies, and sustainability initiatives. These companies are directly experiencing the impact of international trade tensions and are consequently developing more sophisticated strategies to navigate global market volatility.

In contrast, domestic demand-driven sectors such as FMCG, financial services, and building materials exhibit greater concern with digital adoption, inflation management, and profitability optimisation. As one FMCG executive observed, "Although some uncertainty persists, we are confident to see an improvement... inflation has impacted affordability." This perspective reflects the sector's primary concern with local market dynamics and consumer purchasing power rather than international trade considerations.

Execution bias over external dependency

The most encouraging finding from The CEO Agenda is the apparent bias toward action demonstrated by India Inc.'s leadership. While all companies acknowledge various forms of macroeconomic or trade friction, they devote significantly more discussion time to controllable internal improvement initiatives. 

This execution focus encompasses product and process innovation, logistics rollouts, digital brand scaling, capacity utilisation optimisation, and route-to-market technology implementation. The emphasis on these controllable levers signals a boardroom preference for self-help strategies over waiting for external environments to improve.

Sustainability becomes a strategic hedge

A particularly compelling insight from The CEO Agenda analysis is the strong correlation between companies that acknowledge macro headwinds and those that emphasise sustainability or energy-transition initiatives. 

This correlation suggests that business leaders are increasingly viewing sustainability initiatives not merely as compliance requirements or stakeholder expectations, but as strategic hedges against volatile external factors, including foreign exchange fluctuations, tariff uncertainties, and energy price volatility.

Strategic implications for India Inc.

The insights revealed by The CEO Agenda indicate a fundamental evolution in how Indian business leaders approach strategy in an increasingly complex global environment. The dominance of mega trends over traditional sector-specific forces demands a more sophisticated strategic approach.

The emphasis on monetisable digital initiatives suggests that the era of digital experimentation is giving way to a more disciplined approach to technology investment. Companies that can successfully bridge the AI implementation gap while maintaining focus on proven digital transformation initiatives are likely to emerge as leaders in their respective sectors.

The strategic response to trade uncertainties—through supply chain diversification, market expansion, and operational resilience building—demonstrates how India Inc. is adapting to a more fragmented global trading environment while maintaining growth ambitions.

Perhaps most significantly, the action bias demonstrated by Indian CEOs suggests a leadership culture that is increasingly confident in its ability to navigate uncertainty through superior execution rather than external dependency. This mindset, combined with the strategic integration of sustainability initiatives, positions India Inc. for continued growth and resilience in an uncertain global landscape.

The CEO Agenda will continue to provide real-time insights into how India Inc.'s strategic thinking evolves, enabling business leaders to stay ahead of emerging trends while learning from the collective wisdom of the country's most successful companies.

About the authors

Deepak Sharma is Cofounder and Director at Kanvic Consulting where Ashish Kumar is an Associate Consultant.