![\"Johnny](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/FOI646VRG5HCZE5EMMI5QNZHXY.jpg\")
Johnny Hanna, partner-in-charge of KPMG in Northern Ireland. <\/p>\nNorthern Ireland business leaders remain committed to growth and innovation, but their outlook is shaped by a more cautious economic context compared to peers in the Republic and globally, a new report shows.<\/p>\n
The 11th edition of the KPMG CEOs Outlook, which interviewed 1350 chief executives between August 5 and September 10, found that 80% of bosses in Northern Ireland expect earnings to rise over the next three years (up from 70% in 2024). <\/p>\n
This is ahead of the RoI figure of 57% and broadly in line with global optimism. <\/p>\n
Johnny Hanna, partner-in-charge of KPMG in Northern Ireland. <\/p>\n
But confidence in the wider economy is more muted, with headcount growth in the north anticipated to come at a lower level that in the Republic and globally.<\/p>\n
Johnny Hanna, partner in charge at KPMG in Belfast, said: \u201cWe\u2019re seeing cautious optimism. CEOs are committed to AI adoption, enhanced cyber-security, and sustainability investment that makes business sense. <\/p>\n \u201cBut the backdrop of modest growth, elevated costs, and wage pressures are pushing business leaders to think carefully about where their priorities should lie.\u201d<\/p>\n Artificial intelligence (AI) is the clear strategic priority for Northern Ireland leaders, with 80% ranking it as essential \u2014 substantially higher than the Republic (63%) and above the global average (71%).<\/p>\n However, fewer leaders in the north (32%) expect to allocate 10% to 20% of budgets to AI over the next year, compared with 43% in RoI and 69% globally.<\/p>\n Confidence levels around AI are lower in Northern Ireland with 51% believing they can keep pace with its rapid development, versus 60% in RoI and 74% globally. Nine in 10 Northern Ireland CEOs agree AI will deliver competitive advantage, mirroring international sentiment.<\/p>\n But cyber crime is a critical concern for 77% of NI chiefs, with investment in digital risk resilience (46%) well above RoI (23%). Supply chain resilience (29%) and climate risk (43%) also rank high.<\/p>\n Mr Hanna added: \u201cThe risks are increasingly interconnected. Northern Ireland CEOs are right to prioritise cyber resilience, but they must also ensure they don\u2019t under-invest in the broader supply chain to protect against heightened geopolitical risks.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Northern Ireland business leaders remain committed to growth and innovation, but their outlook is shaped by a more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[323,24891,13313,82062,1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-577623","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-confidence","10":"tag-cyber-crime","11":"tag-kpmg","12":"tag-northern-ireland","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115568967145432072","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Three](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/LVTEOOZN4RACVF6EXUEUX5RPII.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"Preparing](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/DFVU3BPJBZM7NJ25K2OECWZD2Y.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n