Bloomberg Talks: The CEO Radar – AI Is Rising on CEO Agendas
Date: November 23, 2025
Host: Edward Adams (Bloomberg Media Studios)
Guests: Rich Lesser (BCG Global Chair), Vlad Lukic (BCG Global Leader, Tech and Digital Advantage)
Episode Theme:
An exploration of how artificial intelligence (AI) is shaping CEO agendas worldwide, based on analysis of more than 4,800 Q3 earnings calls. The discussion covers challenges and advancements with AI adoption, its impact on business models and jobs, pilot project pitfalls, and the evolving skill set required of today’s CEOs.
Main Episode Purpose
The episode unpacks trends from global earnings calls to reveal how CEOs are handling the AI revolution—where they struggle, where they succeed, and how strategies, workforce, and markets are adapting in an era marked by both technological disruption and shifting global trade policies.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
1. Tariffs and the Shift from Policy to Action
- Tariffs remain a top topic, but mentions are down from prior quarters.
- Discussion shift: From “What will happen?” to “How do we navigate these lasting changes?”
"Now it's about, okay, what are we going to do? ... I thought the interesting shift in the types of questions and conversations... was really quite reflective of that shift."
— Rich Lesser [01:33]
2. AI Adoption: The Bell Curve of CEO Engagement
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5% of CEOs are at the “cutting edge” (AI integrated deeply, business model transformation).
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30–40% are “well on the journey.”
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~60% are “struggling,” often stuck in pilot phases or facing the human side of change.
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The hardest part is not the tech, but embedding it in processes and leadership.
"The hardest part of that change is often the human part... How you embed it in processes, leadership skills..."
— Rich Lesser [02:18] -
Strategy for Success:
Focus on fewer, high-value AI applications—and deliver on them.
3. Disconnects within Companies
- Strategy alignment at the top doesn't always reach all levels.
- Ground-level managers (e.g., HR needing to hire new roles) often don’t know how to implement new AI-driven needs.
"If you're running HR... you need to change job descriptions... introduce new titles. And many times they don't know how to do that."
— Vlad Lukic [03:43]
4. Spotting Real AI Impact
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The best indicator: Bottom-line results.
"The ones that have really leaned into AI are growing faster. The numbers are there."
— Vlad Lukic [04:19] -
CEOs increasingly reference concrete AI achievements on earnings calls:
- Insurance (commercial underwriting speed and effectiveness)
- Mining (automated, AI-controlled operations in Australia)
- Consumer (L’Oréal’s “Beauty Genius” platform for recommendations and fulfillment)
“Those are real businesses, not just small pilots to test.”
— Rich Lesser [04:39]
5. Communicating AI Initiatives
- It matters for attracting talent, buyers, partners, and signaling innovation ambition.
"You need to get new talent... The buyers are looking at their suppliers and saying, are you going to be cutting edge..."
— Vlad Lukic [05:39]
6. AI and Jobs: Creator or Killer?
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Short term: No engagements focused on headcount reduction; focus is on growth.
"Not a single one of them has a thesis on reducing the number of labor. It is about growth opportunities..."
— Vlad Lukic [06:14] -
Long term: Some labor displacement is happening (e.g., autonomous mining), but the main effect is role transformation and reskilling.
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Net optimism: New jobs will emerge, but in different fields.
"If you embrace this and do it, you get a superpower and you can be more relevant.”
— Vlad Lukic [07:16]
7. Agentic AI: Promise vs. Reality
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Dream: Self-sufficient agents stringing together tasks autonomously.
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Reality: Agentic AI works best in narrow, end-to-end workflows, still requiring human intervention due to accuracy limitations.
"You still have accuracies in the 80 to 90% range...you do need a human in between...interpreting and fine tuning."
— Vlad Lukic [08:08] -
The big step-change will need better data and infrastructure—right now, agentic projects highlight underlying needs in companies' tech stacks.
8. Market Valuations and Investment Commitment
- If “Magnificent Seven” AI stock valuations drop, real-economy investment in AI will persist:
"I think it will have very little effect on the real economy... The more companies see the kinds of impacts they can drive...that will be what drives momentum.”
— Rich Lesser [09:29]
9. Pilots: When to Persist, When to Quit
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Many companies quit promising pilots too soon, missing out as rapidly evolving tools can quickly improve results.
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Conversely, some companies persist with low-impact pilots, wasting resources on non-bottleneck processes:
"If you know that there is a lot of value in that workflow, sweat it out, stick with it, don't abandon it too soon..."
— Vlad Lukic [10:55]
“Stop those much sooner...instead of creating zombies in the organization.”
— Vlad Lukic [11:36] -
Bottom line: Apply AI where it drives measurable, value-creating operational change.
10. The CEO Skillset in 2025: Resilience and Back to Basics
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Resilience is paramount—navigating unexpected, disruptive events and quickly adapting.
"This ability to take unexpected things and...adapt and then reimagine—that set of attributes is turning out...really critical in this world."
— Rich Lesser [12:30] -
Success comes from resilience plus a willingness to ask basic questions:
"The really good ones went back to the basics. Okay, what problem are we solving? For which customer?... Combination of resilience and going back to the basics was the winning combo this year."
— Vlad Lukic [13:39]
11. Tariffs: A Catalyst for Strategic Reassessment
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Tariffs forced companies to rethink core relevance, value proposition, and supply chain risks.
"It forced people to step back and think, okay, how do we make money in this business?...and I would argue for a lot of them to fall back in love with the business..."
— Vlad Lukic [14:09] -
Companies have built geopolitical and supply chain muscles that will serve them in the long term.
"This year pushed people to build geopolitical muscle that they probably needed to build in the long term anyway, but it really accelerated it."
— Rich Lesser [14:26]
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
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On AI pilot failures:
"They're closing some of them too soon, and with some of them they're just sticking on for way too long.”
— Vlad Lukic [00:33, 10:55] -
On the human factor in tech adoption:
"The hardest part of that change is often the human part...”
— Rich Lesser [02:18] -
On AI job impact:
“Not a single one...has a thesis on reducing the number of labor. It is about growth opportunities and growing the business.”
— Vlad Lukic [06:14] -
On the skillset for CEOs in a volatile era:
"Resilience... that set of attributes is turning out...really critical in this world."
— Rich Lesser [12:30]
Segment Timestamps
- [00:33] — Correct and incorrect approaches to AI pilots
- [01:20] — Tariffs remain a dominant (but changing) topic
- [02:18] — The “bell curve” of AI adoption among CEOs
- [03:43] — Disconnects between CEO strategy and execution layers
- [04:19] — How to spot real AI impact (bottom-line results)
- [04:39] — Specific case studies: insurance, mining, L’Oréal
- [05:39] — The importance of publicly communicating about AI
- [06:06] — Is AI a job creator or killer?
- [07:57] — The hype vs. reality of agentic AI
- [09:29] — Will a market crash halt AI investment?
- [10:44] — The dilemma of AI pilots: sticking too long or abandoning too soon
- [12:20] — Key CEO attributes in 2025: building resilience
- [13:39] — The CEO’s “back to basics” approach
- [14:09] — Tariffs as a forcing mechanism for business model clarity
- [14:26] — Building geopolitical and supply chain muscle
Summary Takeaway
The global AI wave has CEOs rethinking how they operate, where they place big bets, and how they lead. Most companies are still learning (and struggling) with the complexity of embedding AI at scale—especially the human side. The greatest growth comes not from flashy pilots, but from targeting high-impact, value-creating transformations and remaining resilient amid change. Meanwhile, the shift towards action (after years of policy hand-wringing) and a renewed focus on fundamentals are helping CEOs steer through volatile global forces and an accelerating tech landscape.