KPMG's 2024 CEO Outlook Survey saw AI, the election, and interest rate cuts as key issues the world's biggest business leaders are watching. KPMG CEO Paul Knopp joins Catalysts to discuss the results of the survey and how chief executives across industries are feeling about the overall state of the economy.

Despite economic and political uncertainty ahead, Knopp highlights that CEOs are "very optimistic" about the next three years.

"Upwards of 80% of CEOs are really optimistic about their growth outlook. And I think that's because we've been navigating all kinds of uncertainty the last four years and doing it with with excellence. And now we have some clarity on the direction of interest rates and inflation cooling somewhat. And I think that's giving CEOs some confidence that we can absolutely deal with this environment," Knopp tells Yahoo Finance.

On the hiring front, Knopp notes that the labor market is "very dynamic." He notes that CEOs are concerned about the aging workforce and less students going to college, explaining that these factors will impact the labor force and keep it "somewhat imbalanced and somewhat tight." Knopp adds that talent is a key issue for CEOs as they look to reskill and upskill their employees around generative AI.

As the election is under two months away, Knopp explains that corporate leaders are focused on scenario planning.

"We, as business leaders, believe that we can deal with whatever environment we have, whatever outcome that we might have moving forward into the future. And we're definitely making sure that we're ready for whatever might happen," he says. He points to tax positioning as one way business leaders are preparing for the election, as Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump run on contrasting tax policies.

As AI becomes widely adopted, CEOs are also concerned about the risk of cyberattacks. Knopp explains "we have to have amazing awareness of what's happening to make sure that our employees and all of us do not get caught up in cybercrime. And so it's really important to make sure that you have preventative measures in place, as well as the detective measures we've historically had. But the technology that's out there, right now, is really great. But at the end of the day, it's really about awareness of the risk."

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Catalysts.

This post was written by Melanie Riehl