The PwC issued its 20th CEO Survey and released its key findings in Healthcare industry. In this year’s Survey, they canvassed the views of 56 Healthcare CEOs from 27 countries about the 2017 hot topics, including globalization, technological innovation, talent and trust.

Under background of globalization, government regulation remains to be the focus of attention.

The same with the last year, the top concern for the CEOs is over-regulation (84%), followed by uncertain economic growth (82%) and geopolitical uncertainty (80%). Given the nature of the healthcare market, the result is not surprising.

CEOs’ confidence in their business prospects remains strong, though they’re increasingly worried about the general situation. 52% of the healthcare CEOs are very confident in the revenue growth of their companies in the future.

Technology and innovation brings challenges and opportunities.

In the healthcare industry, 1/4 of the CEOs reviewed believed that the technology will change the competition climate in the next five years, only 2% of CEOs don’t think the technology will have influence on the industry competition. Moreover, 71% of Healthcare respondents are concerned about the speed of technological change, and 70% worry about shifts in customer behavior.

Technological reform drives talent transformation.

One theme emerging over the last few years of the Survey is the gradual convergence of the technology and talent agendas. As more and more tasks can be automated or taken on by machines, companies are reshaping their workforces and individual roles are changing. This year, 79% of Healthcare respondents told us they have changed their talent strategy according to their future need for skills and employment structures. This proportion is consistent with the mean value of global CEOs.

However, the majority of Healthcare CEOs are actually planning to increase instead of reducing number of employees. The proportion of Healthcare CEOs is noticeably ahead of the average: 64% intends to increase recruitment over the next 12 months, compared to 52% in general, and the equal highest of any sector. That said, 59% (compared to 52% of global average) of the sector’s CEOs are exploring the benefits of humans and machines working together and 52% are considering the impact of artificial intelligence on future skills needs, which is much higher than the 39% average figure.

Network security is a major threat to trust.

Now, though trust becomes more and more important, it cannot be enhanced by just a kind of digital technology: 75% of Healthcare CEOs agree that it's harder for business to gain and keep trust in the new digital world. Breaches in data security and ethics rank as the number one risk to stakeholders’ trust for all respondents in the next five years, scoring 82%. Given the acute sensitivity of the data they handle, this is hardly surprising.