Nearly 70% of C-suite executives rank tech change as top threat

Only 46% feel prepared, whilst GenAI technical-skills readiness stands at 20%. 

Technological change was the leading external threat cited by 69% of C-suite executives in the first half of the year, but only 46% said they were prepared for it.

Such concerns rose from 48% in the second half of 2025, according to a Russell Reynolds Associates (RRA) report.

Geopolitical uncertainty ranked the second top threat at 61%, declining from 75%, followed by cyber threats and uncertain economic growth at 40% each. Availability of key talent and skills was cited by 37%.

On preparedness, RRA said the figures suggest that although businesses recognise the importance of digital transformation, capability-building is still ongoing.

Readiness also varied across the leading risks, with only 38% reporting preparedness for geopolitical uncertainty.

Cyber readiness was substantially higher, with 87% of the city-state’s executives saying they were prepared for cyber threats. 

The high level of reported preparedness comes amidst warnings that organisations may be overestimating their cyber resilience as artificial intelligence (AI) expands attack capabilities and exposes existing data vulnerabilities.

A previous study by Veeam Software found that whilst 90% of organisations were confident they could recover from a cyber incident, only 28% of ransomware victims managed to restore all their data. 

“The largest preparedness gaps are in economic uncertainty and geopolitical uncertainty. Only 21% feel prepared to address uncertain economic growth, despite it ranking as a top-three threat,” RRA said.

'GenAI ready?'

Singapore also recorded the lowest generative AI (GenAI) technical-skills readiness across the Asia Pacific (APAC) at 20%.

“Enthusiasm outpaces execution,” RRA said.

Companies have nevertheless adopted AI widely. According to a Hitachi Vantara report, almost all local firms reported some level of use. However, only 23% reported strong readiness to generate returns from their AI investments.

Governance also emerged as a constraint. JFrog research found that 60% of Singapore DevSecOps stakeholders regarded governance and policy enforcement as their largest time burden, whilst 41% said reviewing AI-generated code was draining resources.

Sunny Rao, JFrog’s senior vice-president for Asia-Pacific, said modern applications increasingly combine internal code with open-source packages, cloud services, AI-generated code, models and third-party tools, with each component creating another potential route into business systems.

RRA said half of respondents believed they had the right skills to implement AI, whilst 48% said their organisations had the internal technical capabilities required.

Strategic thinking was identified as the most critical leadership capability by 57% of APAC respondents. Change management, decision-making and resilience followed at 29% each, whilst innovation was selected by 26%.

The regional study surveyed 332 C-suite executives across Greater China, India, Japan, Singapore, and Oceania. The Singapore external-risk findings were based on 31 respondents.