KPMG 2024 Infrastructure and Transport CEO Outlook

120 Infrastructure and Transport CEO's

11 countries

$500m USD+ in review

Despite ongoing economic and geopolitical uncertainty, Infrastructure and Transportation CEOs anticipate growth over the coming three years – both in terms of earnings and headcounts. But key challenges continue to create roadblocks to achieving that growth.

The CEOs in our survey noted concerns related to talent shortages, technology adoption and climate risk. They say they are worried about the risks of generative AI and missing their Net Zero targets. They talk of shifting stakeholder expectations and complex technology environments.

Yet they also show encouraging ambition and action. They are intent on investing into expanding their AI capabilities and skills. They are prioritizing their workforce and developing their talent. Perhaps most importantly, they are more focused than ever on building public trust.

Key findings from our research

Growing in an uncertain environment

63% of Infrastructure and Transportation CEOs expect earnings to grow by more than 2.5% over the next 3 years, but they are concerned about the impact of generative AI and other new technologies, the current state of the global economy and the competition for talent.
Building public trust

With confidence and trust in governments declining around the world, 62% of sector CEOs believe the public is looking to businesses to fill the void on societal challenges and 71% are willing to divest a profitable part of the business if it was damaging their organization’s reputation.
Prioritizing climate risk

CEOs think environmental and climate change impacts pose the second biggest risk (behind operational issues) to their organizations but 57% of our respondents also say that stakeholder expectations pertaining to ESG are changing faster than they can adapt their strategy.
Driving digital transformation

68% of sector respondents say that generative AI is a top investment priority, despite ongoing economic uncertainty, but they also note significant concerns about the challenges associated with implementing generative AI led by worries about bias, data protection and lack of transparency, for example.
Shaping the workforce

93% of sector CEOs plan to increase headcount over the next 3 years and the majority expect generative AI to – if anything – increase their headcount. But competition for skills is fierce and sector CEOs say talent challenges will likely have a negative impact on their company’s prosperity over the next 3 years.

The race to embrace emerging technologies, such as Gen AI, has risen up the agenda for CEOs across the infra and transport sector. But as with many sectors, the focus on climate risk continues to be at the forefront with the decarbonizing of supply chains being marked as the top barrier to achieving net zero for sector CEOs. Coming to India, we are likely to see the implementation of one of the largest infrastructure programmes in the 21st century amongst large economies and we believe, creating fiscal sources of capital would be key to this initiative. Steps to unlock foreign and domestic capital via innovative financial structures and facilitating ease of investments would be vital. Another key point from survey is that public trust has also risen to the top of a CEO agenda, and rightfully so because, it is imperative to achieving a license to operate and ensuring that citizens benefit and reap the value of the investments put into infrastructure.

Manish Aggarwal

Partner, Co-Head – Deal Advisory, and Head – Infrastructure, Disinvestments, and Special Situations Group

KPMG in India

Methodology

The KPMG 2024 Infrastructure and Transport CEO Outlook, part of the 10th edition of the KPMG 2024 CEO Outlook, is compiled from the views of 120 infrastructure and transportation chief executive officers, which was conducted between 25 July and 29 August 2024, providing unique insight into the mindset, strategies, and planning tactics of CEOs.

All respondents oversee companies with annual revenues over US$500M and a third of the companies surveyed have more than US$10B in annual revenue. The survey included CEOs from 11 key markets (Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Spain, UK and US) and 11 key industry sectors, including infrastructure and transportation.

NOTE: some figures may not add up to 100 percent due to rounding.

In the infrastructure and transport research, the two largest sub-sectors were mobility and transportation with 50 percent of respondents and rail with 12 percent. The best-represented countries based on organizational headquarters are the US, India, followed by China, Canada, France, Italy and Spain.