When it comes to investing in technology, data privacy, regulatory compliance, and AI’s impact on sustainability and energy consumption are three top areas of concern for CEOs, according to a new global survey commissioned by NTT and conducted by WSJ Intelligence. The resulting white paper, “Future-Ready Innovation: Strategies for 2025 and Beyond,” highlights the perspectives of CEOs on technology investments and the challenges of balancing innovation with ethical, environmental, and operational considerations.
The survey polled 351 global CEOs, representing U.S. companies with annual revenues exceeding $1 billion and non-U.S. companies with revenues of $500 million or more. Nearly all (89%) of the global CEOs surveyed rank AI as the most critical technology for ensuring future profitability and competitiveness, with 77% planning to increase AI budgets in 2025.
“NTT and WSJ Intelligence collaborated on this survey to examine how business leaders are prioritizing technology investments while balancing ethics and social responsibility in this exciting time of exponential technological growth,” said Vito Mabrucco, Global Chief Marketing Officer at NTT. “These results make it clear that AI is poised to receive increased investment commensurate with its outstanding potential. However, further conversations and global cooperation among business leaders, regulators, developers and the public are needed to realize an AI-empowered future that ethically and sustainably benefits all.”

AI Governance And Responsibility
A vast majority (87%) of CEOs surveys identified an “urgent” need for AI governance and risk management frameworks, highlighting three key areas of concern: threats to data privacy and security; abiding by regulatory compliance; and the impact of AI on environmental sustainability and energy consumption.
- Data Privacy and Security: 87% of respondents believe companies must establish more robust safeguards for the data that feeds their AI models. Additionally, 70% of CEOs who consider AI a “crucial” technology in their firm named data privacy as a top concern, while 38% in that category listed cybersecurity risks as a top concern.
- Compliance: 33% of CEOs listed compliance as a key challenge, with that figure rising to 46% among U.S.-based respondents.
- Environment and Energy: 85% of all respondents expressed both enthusiasm for AI and concerns about its growing energy consumption.

AI Leads Enterprise Technology Deployment, Investment Priorities
When asked to select the three technologies most important to their organization’s future success, 44% of respondents named generative AI—22% selected AI-augmented software development and another 22% highlighted governance and democratized AI. IoT ranked second at 25%, with industry cloud computing close behind at 23%.
Aligning with these expectations, about 70% of respondents anticipate net increases in their technology investments in 2025. Among them, 48% predict an increase of 1-10% in generative AI investments, and 29% expect an increase of more than 10%.