Aussie business leaders among most confident in 2025 outlook

A new report published by the Capgemini Research Institute has found that Australian business leaders rank quite high in terms of confidence in their organisation’s outlook for 2025 compared to the last two years.

The report, titled Navigating uncertainty with confidence – Investment priorities for 2025, indicated that despite persisting market volatility and uncertainty, the majority of global business leaders feel more positive about the performance of their organisation in 2025 than they did in 2024 and 2023.

Australian business leaders were the second-most confident in 2025 (70 per cent), trailing only Sweden at 76 per cent. This is a significant jump from Australia’s previous results, including only 52 per cent confident in 2023 and 54 per cent confident in 2024.

The only countries to record either stalling or falling positivity included the UK (2024 and 2025 both at 62 per cent), Canada (dropping from 65 per cent to 59 per cent), France (from 59 per cent to 56 per cent), Spain (from 52 per cent to 51 per cent), and Brazil (from 53 per cent to 48 per cent).

According to the report, the majority of global business leaders expected to prioritise reducing costs of growing revenue in 2025 (56 per cent), with 50 per cent of Australian business leaders also indicating that they intend to increase their investment throughout the year.

“As we look to 2025, business leaders are navigating uncertainty with an attitude of confidence and resilience – two qualities that our research shows they are looking to instill in their organizations through technology investment,” Aiman Ezzat, Chief Executive Officer at Capgemini, said.

“Technology has a key role to play to improve competitiveness and productivity, while reducing costs and making all-important efficiency gains.

“With a focus on innovation, supply chains and sustainability – which is increasingly being harnessed for its value-driving potential – leaders will set themselves up to succeed in an uncertain environment and build resilient, adaptable organizations. Crucially, this will help shape a more innovative, sustainable and inclusive global economy.”

More than half (65 per cent) of Australian business leaders also said they believe their organisation is not investing enough in technology to remain competitive, at the same time as 74 per cent of all respondents ranking artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI (genAI) as the top technology investment to make this year.