Oliver Wyman

The companies moving fastest on AI are also changing how they make decisions. Here's why: ➡️ Growth remains the top priority, with 75% of PE-backed CEOs prioritizing a growth lever, while 67% also rank cost management and operational excellence among their top three priorities to fund that growth. ➡️ AI has moved beyond experimentation, with 49% of PE-backed CEOs viewing falling behind on AI deployment as a top business threat and the same share prioritizing AI and technology to increase shareholder value. ➡️ Organizations are redesigning work alongside technology, as PE-backed CEOs place greater emphasis on redesigning roles and workflows (49% versus 35% of public-company CEOs) and decentralizing decision-making (31% versus 17%). ➡️ Talent strategies are shifting with AI adoption, with 57% planning to reduce the share of junior roles and 47% expecting to increase mid-level roles over the next one to two years. ➡️ Boards are becoming more involved in value creation, increasing their focus on finance and capital allocation, operational performance, and AI strategy alongside management teams. ➡️ The contrast extends beyond ownership structure. While public-company leaders place greater emphasis on long-term transformation, governance, and succession, PE-backed firms focus more on decisions that can create value over shorter investment horizons. ➡️ The lessons extend beyond private equity. Revenue growth, operational discipline, faster decision-making, and operating model redesign are choices available to organizations across markets and industries as AI reshapes competition. AI advantage comes from combining it with operating models that move faster, allocate resources deliberately, and translate productivity into growth: https://owy.mn/4feI9SP

Many financial, technology, and commercial entities are exploring stablecoins to capture a share of bank revenue pools generated by corporate operations. Leading banks are developing product offerings, such as tokenized deposits and tokenized money funds, to meet these demands. Other banks are hoping regulators will take steps to limit the risk of disintermediation, such as requiring greater reserves to be held in bank deposits (as in Europe) or limiting the amount of stablecoins that can be held in a wallet (as in the UK). These policies and market dynamics will determine whether banks must compete for corporate customers. While software-focused companies are moving fast, banks still have real advantages in trust, distribution, and credit in the battle for the future of money: https://owy.mn/4bzFtNk

This week’s industry insights explores how leaders are turning difficulties into opportunities. Across defense, private-equity-backed firms, logistics, real estate, health insurance, and travel retail in the Asia-Pacific, leaders are meeting problems head-on with solutions that improve their companies. The Defense Ramp-up Reality Check: https://owy.mn/4fdMV39 The private equity agenda in the age of AI: https://owy.mn/4wY4H0k New investment opportunities in UAE logistics real estate: https://owy.mn/4fdMVjF Top 3 key trends reshaping health insurer performance: https://owy.mn/4pw1ZMV The $5 billion opportunity in Asia-Pacific travel retail: https://owy.mn/4wZvrxr Closing the gap for women in aviation and aerospace: https://owy.mn/4px9x20

In industries heavily reliant on factories and manufacturing, leaders must anticipate which activities will be performed by AI agents, robots, or autonomous equipment, which human roles and capabilities will become more valuable, and how humans and AI can collaborate on the factory floor or in the control room. That anticipation will give firms an advantage in redesigning next-generation workflows. For example, digital twins under development simulate factory and supply chain conditions in advance, identifying bottlenecks and optimizing scheduling before they affect physical operations. Explore more real-world use cases of how AI is transforming industries: https://owy.mn/4wfLUxi

At a time of dizzying economic and geopolitical change, multinational corporations that are eager to diversify their geographic footprint are using a much broader set of factors to make location decisions. There are four major methods cities can use to tempt businesses to expand there: 1️⃣ Win the talent competition. Cities can influence factors that attract and retain talent by backing the arts, affordability, and accessibility that potential employees value. 2️⃣ Expand access to capital. Venture capitalists are more likely to invest in cities that support university commercialization programs, fund startup incubators and accelerators, simplify business formation and permitting, and encourage industry clusters. 3️⃣ Build the connectivity that businesses need. While infrastructure isn’t the deciding factor for businesses, it amplifies the advantages of capital, talent, and industry clusters. 4️⃣ Make resilience a competitive advantage. Cities can increase their appeal by developing credible, long-term climate action plans that address how they hope to prevent or limit disruptions like additional stress on energy grids and water supplies. Learn more: https://owy.mn/4vTLjRf

What is the best career advice you have received? We asked colleagues in our Singapore office to share the advice that has stayed with them — from building resilience to staying curious and learning from the people around them. #OliverWymanCareers

Spain and Argentina are two giants of international football, but how do they compare when it comes to the cities driving the next era of business growth? Of the 33 cities from the two countries featured in the Oliver Wyman Forum's Cities Shaping the Future report, only one ranks among the top 20 of the 1,500-city index. Assessed across five factors—commercial vibrancy, connectivity, supply chains, innovation, and climate resilience—Madrid is the only city to make the top 20, ranking 20th overall. The full top 20: 1 Tokyo, Japan 2 New York, United States 3 Seoul, Korea 4 London, United Kingdom 5 Shanghai, China 6 Los Angeles, United States 7 Paris, France 8 Beijing, China 9 Singapore, Singapore 10 Hong Kong, China 11 Chicago, United States 12 Dubai, United Arab Emirates 13 Dallas, United States 14 Houston, United States 15 Washington, United States 16 Toronto, Canada 17 Atlanta, United States 18 San Francisco, United States 19 Mumbai, India 20 Madrid, Spain The global cities driving the next era of business growth: https://owy.mn/4f9fuP9

While two countries compete in the final, we compare a city from each featured in an index of the cities powering the next era of business growth. Take a look at the full report by the Oliver Wyman Forum, which ranks 1,500 cities representing more than 75% of global GDP across five factors: commercial vibrancy, connectivity, supply chains, innovation, and climate resilience: https://owy.mn/44DHV1t

Conversational AI is evolving rapidly from pilot projects into a strategic capability that reshapes how organizations operate. The benefits are many, but there are three trends making conversational AI a strategic imperative: 1️⃣ Model and tooling maturity that supports growth. Large multimodal models and practical tooling have reached a level of capability that supports reliable, context-aware experiences at scale. 2️⃣ Customers expect personalized and seamless digital experiences. This changes what “good service” looks like across digital channels, raising the bar for speed, relevance, and ease of use. 3️⃣ Conversational AI marketplaces are creating new digital channels. Organizations that proactively adopt conversational AI as an enterprise platform will gain a competitive advantage in acquisition, retention, cost-to-serve, and new revenue generation. Conversational AI can reduce customer effort, boost completion rates, lower cost to serve, and unlock new revenue opportunities, while preserving trust and regulatory compliance: https://owy.mn/4g7NhZR

The world's attention may be on football and the final, but the bigger story is what happens after the final whistle. The Middle East is showing how major sporting events can be used as a catalyst for something much bigger: building a sustainable sports economy that creates long-term value through tourism, participation, destination development, investment, and new operating models. As countries around the world look to maximize the legacy of major sporting events, there are valuable lessons in how the region is evolving its approach — moving beyond world-class infrastructure and successful tournaments to focus on activation, year-round engagement, and enduring economic impact. Ivan Shapochkin and Hatem Chahine explore how the regional sports agenda is evolving from a focus on infrastructure and events towards activation, destination development and the broader ecosystems that support sustainable growth. Whether you're preparing for a mega-event or looking to strengthen your domestic sports ecosystem, the principles in the article extend far beyond the region: https://owy.mn/3ReAaMw