This Tuesday, I had the privilege of attending the PwC CEO Survey 2026 launch event. On top of the joy of meeting inspiring people in honest, deeply grounded conversations, the report brought some much-needed data on the reality and state of mind of Czech CEOs and their expectations for 2026.
Conservative, optimistic, and AI-confused – that’s how I’d dare to describe the mood among Czechia’s top leaders after reading the report and listening to its interpretation on stage during the launch.
In total, 192 CEOs responded to the PwC CEO Survey; 62% of them represent Czech companies, while 38% lead local branches of multinational corporations. Large companies accounted for 38% of the survey, with the remaining 62% going to small and medium-sized enterprises.
WHAT’S THE GROUND FOR CZECH CEOS’ SKYROCKETING OPTIMISM?
According to the PwC report, after being pummeled for six years by successive crises – from the Covid pandemic to Ukraine’s invasion by Russia and to the subsequent energy and hyperinflation crises – Czech CEOs learned to live with crisis rather than being surprised by it.
In 2026, the main reason for optimism lies with the robust health of the local Czech market. Compared to 2025, when only 36% of CEOs were positive about their company developments throughout the year, 62% of local CEOs expect 2026 with optimism – a skyrocketing jump.
Czech CEOs do perceive a certain degree of risk connected to geopolitical instability, but much lower than it could be expected.
For example, 76% of CEOs didn’t take any measures to counterbalance the potentially negative impact of US tariffs; 14% of CEOs translated the potential impact into their final prices, and only 3% of respondents shared they considered moving production outside the EU.
On the other hand, what’s keeping Czech CEOs up at night are three key factors: excessive regulation, a lack of qualified workforce, and limited access to funding.
This is interesting.
On the one hand, Czech CEOs perceive limited funding – cash flow troubles, difficult capital acquisition – as the third largest threat for their companies (38% of CEOs perceive this risk as very significant, significant, or rather significant).
On the other hand, Czech CEOs are quite happy with the activities of the Czech National Bank – 74% responded that CNB handled inflation very well and well.
Surprisingly, the number of Czech CEOs who are very positive about a potential Euro adoption dropped from 31% in 2025 to 29% in 2026. Overall, the number of Czech CEOs would perceive very positive or rather positive benefits from Euro adoption for their companies remained steady at 69% in 2025 and 2026.
One significant development boosting the mood of local CEOs is the extraordinary appetite of Czech companies to engage in mergers and acquisitions (31% of companies plan a major acquisition this year) and to invest in defense (5% of companies plan to step into the defense industry in 2026).
After all, the recent success of the CSG Group, which was publicly listed in Amsterdam earlier this year, may have emboldened many industry leaders.
Back to acquisitions, it’s relevant to note that Czech companies are not just buying competition – they also buy back operations from multinational players and they strive to expand their international footprint through strategic acquisitions.
In a word, the Czech conservative approach to finances may pay off – Czech companies do have money to expand and grow through mergers and acquisitions. Will this kind of growth be enough to help Czech companies reinvent themselves and future-proof their operations for a global AI-first landscape?
That remains to be seen.
WHERE THE GRASS IS NOT SO GREEN?
After listening carefully to the opinions expressed in the report, on stage, and informally over a glass of wine, here are three realizations that sat with me.
- Czech CEOs are lagging behind in terms of AI mindset reinvention compared to their European and global peers. Czech CEOs use AI for personal productivity rather than anything else. In all other aspects – corporate services, generating new demand, AI integration into product and service offer, and strategic stewardship, Czechia is lagging behind global, European, and CEE peers. Perhaps we should ask ourselves: Could it be that the relative health of the Czech economy is putting local CEOs to sleep when it comes to the urgency of using AI to transform their own mindset? Could it be that the local conservative culture might whisper: “Let someone else try it first and if they fail, at least we won’t pay the price?” I don’t know. For now, we don’t have enough data about these soul-searching subtleties.
- Even though the lack of a qualified workforce is the second most burning challenge for Czech CEOs after excessive regulation (32%), Czech CEOs still don’t talk solutions. Honestly, I have been listening to this discourse since I was writing about human resources for Czech Business Weekly back in 2006. “People are missing. We can’t grow because we can’t find enough qualified workforce.” At the same time, whenever I approach Czech companies as a robust supplier of learning & human growth services, the usual reply is: “We are not schools.” I can’t help but wonder what needs to happen for Czech companies to start taking real responsibility for the gap between their workforce needs and people’s actual level of tech and human skills. Hopefully, this will lead to more effective investments in people development in the future. Hopefully.
- Cybersecurity is considered a serious threat, but not enough to trigger prevention. In the survey, cybersecurity comes in 5th place among the main concerns for Czech leaders. Even so, very few CEOs are ready to invest sufficiently in cyber-threat prevention. “This gap between CEOs’ perception of the risk and their capacity to invest time, attention, and money into prevention is unsustainable. It’s only a matter of time until a massive cyber-crisis will throw leaders into action,” said Petr Špiřík, the PwC partner for cybersecurity, quoted by Forbes Czechia.
Further good news: A total of 71% of Czech CEOs and their companies plan to hire people this year compared to 23% who expect to lay off people. Fortunately, only 1% expect layoffs larger than 15%, while 8% of the CEOs in question expect workforce growth by over 15%.
On the map of Europe, the Czech economy is an interesting case. Cradled by a phenomenal geographic position that places it at the heart of Europe, Czechia benefits from the concentric energies that bring investments here with ease. Equally, the cultural proximity to Germany makes the Czech business culture rather conservative – savings and caution prevail, way ahead of individual drive and fast innovation appetite.
While it’s a breath of fresh air to learn about Czech CEOs’ optimism for 2026, one fundamental factor remains: the deep, structural reinvention of both Czech companies and the Czech economy is a direct function of local CEOs’ mindset. After all, a culture is only as open as its CEO’s mindset. With AI transforming the world around us at incredible speed, real resilience may lie elsewhere than in a conservative approach fueled by good geography: in personal courage, daring, hungry curiosity, and agile learning. When all these elements come into play, perhaps our optimism can last well beyond 2026.
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