Cost control is top of mind for leaders in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region (EMEA) with 33% saying it is a top challenge. Talent is also a persistent obstacle, with 55% of leaders saying lack of skilled talent is hindering growth.

Echoing global findings, leaders in EMEA feel the global landscape is more uncertain (63%) and they also feel less prepared to handle unforeseen changes. Sentiment about AI is also down in EMEA, with just 69% of leaders saying AI will enhance their industry, down from 82% last year, and 47% agreeing that AI will destabilize their industry.

Despite this uncertainty, business leaders in EMEA are still feeling bullish in some areas as they identify opportunity amid disruption. Although overall investments are down year-over-year, 64% leaders say they will increase overall future investments. Sustainability is experiencing a surge of optimism, with 96% leaders saying their organizations are taking steps to be more sustainable, and 38% of EMEA respondents are using AI to enable sustainability.

Turkey is the EMEA country where the highest percentage of business leaders (77%) say that customers influence sustainability initiatives. Turkey is also one of the EMEA countries with the lowest percentage of respondents saying that their companies are not engaged in any sustainability actions (2%), the other being the Middle East, also at 2%.

Some countries saw significant year-over-year declines in the percentage of business leaders who consider customers influential, including Germany (90% to 67%) and the Nordics (90% to 71%). The drop in customer and other external influences could suggest organizations taking the lead when it comes to sustainability initiatives.

Today, Turkey has the highest percentage (47%) of business leaders in EMEA who say they are using AI to become more sustainable, unseating the Middle East, where the percentage dropped to 40% from 49% in 2024. 

Germany and the Nordics saw the largest increases in the region in the percentage of respondents who say their companies are leveraging AI for sustainability, from 28% to 40% in Germany and from 28% to 39% in the Nordics, representing a 43% and 39% year-over-year increase, respectively. Governments in Germany and Turkey, for example, have invested in AI technology for sustainability as part of a larger AI strategy, and those efforts are starting to yield downstream results at the organizational level.

EMEA is a land of contrasts when it comes to the top challenges identified by respondents. This region includes both the country where the smallest percentage of respondents say technology, including AI, is a top challenge, Turkey (21%), and the country where the largest percentage of business leaders sees it as a top challenge, Spain (42%). 

During qualitative interviews, business leaders in the region cited security concerns and regulatory confusion as common obstacles for implementation of AI solutions.

In EMEA, the Nordics saw the largest change in sentiment year-over-year. Just 57% of leaders in the region feel prepared to handle unforeseen macroeconomic or geopolitical changes, down significantly from 88% in 2024. 

The Nordics also saw a dramatic increase in the percentage of respondents who agree that uncertainty is on the rise, from 26% to 59%. This swing in both uncertainty and preparedness is due to a confluence of factors. In interviews, leaders said this swing in both uncertainty and preparedness was a delayed effect from the larger global economic downturn that just started impacting the construction industry in the region, along with uncertainty around the impact of various tariffs and trade embargoes.

Cost control is top of mind for leaders in the Asia Pacific region (APAC) with 34% saying it is a top challenge. Talent is also a persistent obstacle, with 62% of leaders saying lack of skilled talent is hindering growth.

Echoing global findings, leaders in APAC feel the global landscape is more uncertain (68%) and they also feel less prepared to handle unforeseen changes. Sentiment about AI is also down in APAC, with just 68% of leaders saying AI will enhance their industry, down from 72% last year, and 50% agreeing that AI will destabilize their industry.

Despite this uncertainty, business leaders in APAC are still feeling bullish in some areas as they identify opportunity amid disruption. Although overall investments are down year-over-year, 68% of leaders say they will increase overall future investments. Sustainability is experiencing a surge of optimism, with 94% of leaders saying their organizations are taking steps to be more sustainable, and 39% of APAC respondents are using AI to enable sustainability.

Today, Japan has the lowest percentage (57%) of business leaders saying that customers are influential in motivating sustainability efforts, trending down from 64% in 2024. 

The steepest year-over-year decline in the influence of customers was in China, where the percentage of leaders saying that customer influence drove sustainability efforts fell from 85% to 71%. In Australia, where the percentage of respondents saying customers were influential held steady at 85% for the past two years, that percentage dropped this year to 79%.

In 2024, China was the global leader in using AI for sustainability—but no longer. Then, 53% of leaders in China said their organizations used AI for sustainability efforts. This year, that number dropped to 38%.

Taking the lead on incorporating AI into sustainability efforts this year is India, with 52% of business leaders using AI as a sustainability enabler. While this number remains flat for the past two years, it suggests a steady commitment to the strategy and is well above the global average of 39%. 

The steepest and most consistent increase in AI adoption for sustainability is among business leaders in South Korea, with 43% of leaders saying they use the technology, up from 36% in 2024 and 15% in 2023.

Within APAC, the countries where the lowest percentage of respondents say their companies are using AI to drive sustainability are Japan and Australia (30%).

When leaders in APAC were asked about their organization’s top three challenges, their answers tended to differ depending on the country. 

Japan is the only country surveyed where attracting, training, and retaining talent is the most cited challenge; leaders in Australia, India, and Singapore are more concerned with cost, aligning with global findings. 

In contrast, respondents in South Korea, Japan, and China say they are more concerned with technology than with costs, signaling that these countries could be encountering significant roadblocks with implementation at their organizations. Leaders in Australia are both the most concerned about costs (40%) and the least concerned about technology and AI (24%), a deviation from global results.

Most APAC business leaders echoed global trends, with an increase in the perception of uncertainty and a decline in feeling well prepared to handle unforeseen changes in the future. 

China was the only country that saw an increase, however slight (60% to 63%), in the percentage of respondents agreeing that their companies are well prepared to handle unforeseen changes. Leaders in Japan (37%) and South Korea (49%) feel less prepared to handle unforeseen macroeconomic and geopolitical changes.

Overall, Singapore had the highest percentage of respondents saying that uncertainty is on the rise, with 81% agreeing the future global landscape is more uncertain, while South Korea is feeling the most confident about the global landscape, with a 2-point decline in uncertainty.

In contrast to the rest of the world, China did not see a decline in the percentage of leaders who say they will increase investment over the next three years. The APAC region generally saw steep year-over-year declines in the number of leaders who say organizational investments will increase or strongly increase. While China may be the only country where more leaders are saying they will be increasing their investments, India still leads the region, with 84% of leaders saying they will increase investments.