The CEO Agenda Q2 2025

As global trade tensions intensify and operational pressures mount, C-suite leaders are sharpening their focus on controllable execution levers that can deliver near-term resilience. The second quarter of 2025 reveals a fundamental shift in CEO priorities—from long-term transformation narratives to immediate operational imperatives that can buffer their organisations against external volatility.

Kanvic's CEO Agenda Q2 2025 analysis, drawing from quarterly analyst calls across India's most prominent companies, reveals three defining movements in leadership discourse: supply chain conversations have surged dramatically as tariff uncertainties reshape global trade architectures; artificial intelligence discussions are accelerating beyond technology sectors to redefine operational strategies across traditional industries; and sustainability mentions have declined sharply as CEOs temporarily reallocate attention toward growth and financial performance in a challenging macroeconomic environment.

The quarterly analysis provides critical intelligence on where India's business leaders are placing their bets and what this means for competitive positioning in an increasingly uncertain operating landscape.

Supply Chain Emerges as the Dominant Strategic Priority

Supply chain discussions have surged 63% from the previous quarter, catapulting this operational domain to the most mentioned topic across CEO conversations in Q2 2025. This uplift reflects the immediate strategic response to recent global developments, particularly the escalating tariffs war that is fundamentally repositioning global trade and supply chain architectures.

The heightened focus is not merely reactive but represents a wholesale reassessment of supply chain resilience and geographic footprint. As one leader in the Oil & Gas industry articulated: "And the most significant event today is repositioning of global trade and supply chain led by the recent US tariffs." This statement captures the prevailing sentiment across India Inc. that supply chain reconfiguration has become the primary lever for maintaining competitive positioning amidst trade disruptions.

What distinguishes this quarter's supply chain discourse is its pervasiveness across sectors. Unlike other strategic topics that concentrate in specific industries, supply chain appears consistently across all sectors analysed, confirming its position as the broadest operational priority in CEO agendas. This cross-sectoral prominence indicates that supply chain resilience is no longer viewed as a purely operational consideration but has elevated to a strategic imperative that shapes capital allocation, geographic expansion, and partnership strategies.

Geopolitics Reshapes Sector-Specific Strategies

The CEO Agenda analysis reveals that geopolitics has emerged as a defining factor influencing strategic choices, particularly in Construction and Tourism & Hospitality sectors. These industries, which depend heavily on cross-border movement and international project execution, are experiencing direct impacts from geopolitical developments.

One CEO from the Tourism & Hospitality sector captured this challenge: "It was a difficult quarter, because of the various geopolitical events" – citing specific disruptions ranging from Pakistan airspace restrictions to changes in segment sentiment driven by regional tensions. This statement reflects the immediate operational impacts of geopolitical developments on sectors that had previously operated in relatively stable international environments.

The concentration of geopolitical concerns in these specific sectors reveals how external forces create differentiated strategic challenges across India Inc. While globally exposed manufacturing sectors focus primarily on tariff mitigation and supply chain reconfiguration, service-oriented sectors face different but equally significant challenges related to mobility restrictions, safety perceptions, and cross-border operational continuity.

AI Drives Digital Transformation beyond Technology Sectors

Digital transformation has risen 16% quarter-over-quarter, retaining its position as the most discussed theme and continuing the leadership trend observed in Q1 2025. However, what distinguishes Q2's digital discourse is the specific engine driving this growth: artificial intelligence has moved from peripheral experimentation to central strategic priority.

The incremental growth in digital transformation mentions is specifically attributable to AI-related initiatives, with conversations increasingly focused on Generative AI and Agentic AI applications being discussed at the executive level.

Information Technology remains the clear epicentre of AI discourse, with 1,300 mentions underscoring the sector's pivotal role as both the driver and testing ground for enterprise-scale AI adoption. This concentration is expected given the sector's technical capabilities and direct exposure to AI-driven business model disruption. What is more significant, however, is the breakout engagement emerging in traditionally non-technical sectors.

Construction demonstrates remarkable acceleration in AI engagement, with mentions surging from 300 in Q1 to 700 in Q2—a more than threefold increase that signals structural transformation in how this capital-intensive industry approaches operational efficiency and project management. Similarly, Tourism & Hospitality has shown noticeable movement, rising from virtually no AI mentions in Q1 to 300 mentions in Q2. This surge indicates that traditionally physical or service-heavy industries are beginning to embed AI into core operations and customer interfaces, fundamentally reshaping how they deliver value.

By contrast, Telecommunications presents a puzzling reversal. Once a strong AI adopter with 850 mentions in Q1, the sector recorded no AI mentions in Q2, suggesting either a stabilisation of AI initiatives following initial deployment or a strategic pivot toward other pressing operational themes. This divergence highlights the uneven pace of AI adoption across India Inc. and raises questions about sustainability of AI investments in sectors facing immediate operational pressures.

Sustainability Takes a Strategic Backseat

In a notable reversal of recent trends, sustainability mentions have declined 25% in Q2 2025. This reduction indicates that CEOs have temporarily reallocated their attention toward other business priorities, particularly growth acceleration and financial performance improvement in response to near-term operational pressures.

The decline does not necessarily signal abandonment of sustainability commitments but rather reflects a pragmatic recalibration of strategic priorities in a challenging macroeconomic environment. When faced with immediate pressures from trade tensions, supply chain disruptions, and margin compression, India Inc. leadership is prioritising initiatives that deliver near-term resilience over longer-term transformation agendas.

This temporal shift in strategic focus provides insight into how CEOs navigate competing priorities during periods of heightened uncertainty. The data suggests that while sustainability remains important to long-term value creation and stakeholder expectations, it becomes subordinate to operational imperatives when immediate business continuity is at stake.

Strategic Implications for India Inc.

The CEO Agenda Q2 2025 analysis reveals a decisive shift in India Inc.'s strategic priorities toward near-term operational resilience. The surge in supply chain discussions, the AI-driven acceleration of digital transformation, and the temporary deprioritisation of sustainability all point to a leadership cohort focused on strengthening controllable execution levers in response to external volatility.

This recalibration reflects mature strategic thinking: while long-term transformation agendas remain important, immediate operational resilience takes precedence when the business environment presents acute challenges. CEOs are demonstrating pragmatism in reallocating attention and resources toward initiatives that can deliver measurable impact in compressed timeframes.

The cross-sectoral expansion of AI discussions, particularly the dramatic engagement increases in Construction and Tourism & Hospitality, signals that artificial intelligence is moving from a technology-sector phenomenon to a business-wide transformation imperative. This democratisation of AI adoption across traditional industries suggests that competitive differentiation will increasingly depend on successful AI integration, not merely in back-office operations but in core value delivery mechanisms.

The pervasiveness of supply chain discussions across all sectors confirms that operational resilience has become the defining strategic priority for India Inc. in Q2 2025. This focus on supply chain reconfiguration, capacity expansion, and geographic diversification reflects a fundamental reassessment of how businesses position themselves for sustained competitiveness in an era of persistent trade tensions and geopolitical fragmentation.

Most significantly, the quarterly shifts in CEO discourse reveal that India Inc. maintains a decisive bias toward action over analysis. Rather than waiting for external environments to stabilise, business leaders are actively reshaping their operational footprints, accelerating technology adoption, and reconfiguring supply chains to build resilience. This execution-oriented mindset positions Indian businesses favourably for navigating continued uncertainty while maintaining competitive momentum in their respective markets.