OUR BEST IDEAS FOR THE C-SUITE

Welcome to the latest edition of The CEO Shortlist, a biweekly newsletter of our best ideas for the C-suite. In this issue, we look at two topics with direct implications for how you run your business: the rapid advance of general-purpose robotics and the three concerns now dominating investor attention. We appreciate the opportunity to connect and hope you find our perspectives useful and thought provoking. You can reach us at Alex_Panas@McKinsey.com and Becca_Coggins@McKinsey.com. Thank you, as ever.

—Alex and Becca

Robots beyond the assembly line. The general-purpose robotics market sits at under $1 billion today, but our colleagues project it could reach $370 billion by 2040—far outpacing growth in traditional industrial automation—with China seeing the steepest investment curve. What is changing is not just the hardware but the intelligence behind it: Robots are increasingly able to reason, evaluate options, and act in hospital wards, retail stores, and homes. The challenge for companies is shifting from what the technology can do to how people and machines can collaborate at scale. In the newest edition of The Next Normal, our series on the future of industries, we examine where robots are gaining ground and what leaders need to consider as these machines move from pilots to widespread deployment.

What investors want. McKinsey’s 2026 investor survey of 112 long-only investors finds three concerns now dominating investment decisions: geopolitical resilience, demonstrated AI value, and capital allocation discipline. And one of these is far and away the most concerning: More than two-thirds of respondents place geopolitics in their top three macro preoccupations, and over a third rank it their single biggest worry, nearly double the rate of any other theme. Investors also identify geopolitical conflict as the most underpriced risk in markets, ahead of inflation and tariff uncertainty—a signal that they are actively probing whether companies have quantified their exposure or are simply hoping those risks do not materialize. Our new research lays out what your next investor conversation should cover.

We hope you find these insights helpful. See you in a couple of weeks with more McKinsey ideas for the CEO and others in the C-suite.

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