Looking back at the year, 45 per cent of global FT readers found 2025 to have been more turbulent than they had anticipated, while only 12 per cent thought that it had been less volatile than expected. In the Americas, 55 per cent of respondents were surprised at the level of instability – further evidence, perhaps, that Trump’s second term is qualitatively different to his first. But has it all been bad? Tej Parikh argues that there have been economic upsides to Trump 2.0.

Indeed, when asked about the robustness of the global economy over the course of 2025, FT readers were divided: 40 per cent said they thought it had been more robust than expected; 34 per cent thought it had been about as robust as expected; and 26 per cent felt it had been less robust. This lack of consensus surely confirms the FT editorial board’s view that “anyone searching for a simple, overarching narrative to net out all the contradictions will be disappointed”. Our kaleidoscopic global economy is at once resilient, lucky and fragile.

By contrast, there was overwhelming consensus when it came to our current political moment: 87 per cent of FT readers said they felt the global state of democracy has been weakened over the course of 2025. But, despite the growing ascendancy of autocracies, Simon Kuper argues that all is not lost and that democrats can fight back.

When asked which political or economic events had significantly impacted their companies in 2025, “political and fiscal uncertainty” (50 per cent) and “slowdown in economic growth” (40 per cent) were the top two answers. But there were a couple of specific events that also affected business in 2025. Predictably, the first was the US tariffs, which were cited by 32 per cent of respondents (48 per cent in the Americas). At least, as Alan Beattie argues, it seems unlikely that Trump’s haphazard approach to trade will be emulated by governments around the world.

The second was the “AI boom and volatility”, which significantly impacted the companies of 21 per cent of FT readers. Given the potentially revolutionary impact of the technology and the enormous sums of money involved, this is hardly surprising. But is it possible that another tech revolution could be brewing beneath the AI bubble?

Looking ahead to 2026, FT readers predict that “political and fiscal uncertainty” (56 per cent) would have the biggest impact on their businesses, followed by “slowdown in economic growth” (48 per cent). In 2025, these sat slightly lower at 50 per cent and 40 per cent respectively. Fears about the impact of tariffs look to be easing somewhat, with 29 per cent of readers predicting they will affect their business in 2026. But the effects on companies of the current fracturing of geopolitics look set to continue, with 16 per cent of readers citing “global supply chain realignment” as something to reckon with in 2026 – a figure that jumps to 29 per cent in APAC. Will global trade’s increasingly complex delivery routes become a fixture of economic life?

The “AI boom and volatility” significantly impacted 21 per cent of FT readers in 2025, but a higher proportion (26 per cent) think it’s likely to affect business in 2026 – a figure that rises to 38 per cent among readers working in tech. Whether the impact turns out to be positive or negative remains to be seen, but readers might take heart from Richard Waters’ assertion that AI bubble trouble talk is overblown.

Over the course of 2025, readers’ confidence in the global economy followed an uneven upward trajectory; however, the starting point was already very low. In Q1 ’25, 75 per cent of FT readers thought that global economic conditions would decline over the following six months. In our most recent survey of Q4 ’25, that number was down to 50 per cent. Some 21 per cent of readers think things are set to improve, up from 16 per cent in Q3 ’25. This small uptick in confidence suggests that at least some FT readers might agree with Martin Wolf’s observation that “the remarkable thing… is how well the world economy has coped with the shocks and the uncertainty, at least so far”.

When it came to FT readers’ feelings about the prospects for their local conditions, the mood was a little more optimistic: 24 per cent of readers felt things would improve, up from 19 per cent in Q3. In the Americas, just 18 per cent of readers expected an improvement, compared with 61 per cent who thought things would decline. To what extent is this pessimism driven by fears that polarisation is paralysing the US economy?

Interestingly, widespread pessimism about the state of the global economy was somewhat at odds with how FT readers felt about their company’s outlook. Over the course of 2025, the proportion of respondents who expected their company results to improve rose steadily from 39 per cent in Q1 to 43 per cent in Q4. Among FT readers working for SMEs in the UK, optimism about company outlook was a couple of points up on the average, at 45 per cent. This suggests that many of those working for small businesses are aware that, for all the bad press, the British economy is actually dull rather than disastrous.

When asked about their industry’s economic conditions over the next six months, FT readers were divided, with 41 per cent predicting that there would be no real change. Unsurprisingly, there was considerable variation across sectors. Among readers working in professional services, pessimism prevailed throughout 2025; the year ended with 36 per cent of respondents working in the industry predicting a decline in conditions and only 22 per cent thinking things will improve. This reflects a difficult year for the Big Four accounting firms.

By contrast, the end of the year saw a surge in optimism among FT readers working in the tech sector in CEMEA: 48 per cent thought things would improve over the next six months – up from 35 per cent in Q3. There’s no doubt that Europe’s tech sector is evolving fast, but, as John Thornhill asks, is it evolving fast enough?

In terms of company goals, 2025 has seen “cost cutting” and “improving market share” battling it out to be the number one priority among FT readers. But the real story of the year has been the rise of AI. In Q1, embracing the technology was placed fifth in the hierarchy of goals, behind “finding and keeping talent” and “developing new products or services”. But by Q4 AI was third, with 32 per cent of readers considering it a pressing priority, up from 24 per cent at the start of the year.

Unsurprisingly, there was considerable variation between sectors, with only 17 per cent of readers who work in energy, manufacturing or engineering considering it an important goal (compared with 40 per cent of readers who work in finance). Still, that of course means that 60 per cent of readers who work in the sector don’t consider it to be so important – evidence perhaps that, like the analysts at McKinsey, no one is sure whether AI will transform banking.

The other notable story of 2025 was the continued slide of ESG. As recently as Q3 ’23 “managing or developing corporate ESG or sustainability goals” was a key company goal for 18 per cent of FT readers working in retail, travel or leisure. By Q4 ’25 it had bottomed out: not a single respondent from the sector considered it a priority. Nonetheless, there is a chance that ESG might be more resilient than its critics expect.

Despite all the turbulence, business confidence remained remarkably steady over the course of 2025. In Q1, 70 per cent of global FT readers were optimistic about their company’s ability to successfully navigate the current economic and political climate, a figure that had risen to 73 per cent by the end of the year. Nonetheless, there was considerable variation between regions with surging optimism among FT readers in APAC, where business confidence was up from 68 per cent in Q1 to 81 per cent in Q4. Which is likely to have been more of a factor: the acceleration of India’s tech evolution or Jensen Huang’s prediction that China will win the AI race?

One of the interesting trends of 2025 was the confidence gap between those in C-suite roles and the overall FT readership, with the former consistently more optimistic than the latter. However, even among the boosterish C-suite, business confidence started to wane over the second half of the year: down from 84 per cent in Q2 to 78 per cent in Q4. How much of a factor, we wonder, is CEO burnout?

When it came to corporate messaging, “trust” dominated throughout 2025. In Q4, 48 per cent of FT readers reported that trust was an important message to communicate to stakeholders. In an age of cyber crime and AI chatbots, it’s perhaps no surprise that it is taken so seriously. In July 2025, the FT and the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) released a study, Bridging the Trust Gap, which showed that trust is now the second most powerful business driver after product quality. However, only about 22 per cent of companies treat trust as a board-level KPI, which highlights widespread “trust gaps” across sectors and links higher trust measurement with stronger profits and customer outcomes. Indeed, such is the crisis of trust that organisations have started appointing Chief Trust Officers. Is it time your company got one?