Geopolitics gains ground as CEOs still focus on AI

IoT Analytics has published the Q2 edition of What CEOs Talked About, finding that geopolitical issues gained ground in corporate earnings calls while artificial intelligence remained the most discussed digital topic.

Boardroom discussion shifted towards the conflict involving the US and Iran, with executives also talking more often about energy prices, inflation and supply chain disruption. The report tracks themes in corporate earnings calls and measures how often topics appear from one quarter to the next.

Mentions of Iran rose 196% quarter on quarter and appeared in 14% of earnings calls covered by the analysis. References to the Strait of Hormuz climbed 200% and featured in 5% of calls, reflecting concern over a route that carries a large share of global seaborne crude and liquefied natural gas.

The shift suggests political and military risk has become a more immediate boardroom concern after a period in which many executives focused more heavily on digital investment, cost control and demand trends. Energy was one of the clearest ways that concern entered company discussions.

Mentions of energy prices increased 178% quarter on quarter. Inflation also moved back up the agenda, appearing in 33% of earnings calls, up 13% from the previous quarter.

That rise came even as US benchmark rates were held at 3.5% to 3.75% under Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh. The report also cited US annual inflation of 4.2% in May as part of the broader backdrop to renewed management concern about pricing pressure.

AI focus

Despite the stronger geopolitical tone, AI remained present in more than half of all calls reviewed. The topic appeared in 53% of earnings calls in Q2, down four percentage points from the previous quarter, indicating that chief executives still viewed it as a central business issue even as macroeconomic risks intensified.

The study also found a shift in the names that surfaced in those conversations. Anthropic's model Mythos entered boardroom discussions for the first time, appearing in 1.3% of earnings calls after its release and later restriction to government and critical infrastructure users.

At the same time, mentions of Anthropic's Claude moved ahead of ChatGPT in chief executive discussions. Claude was mentioned in about 4% of earnings calls, up 69% quarter on quarter, while ChatGPT appeared in 3.7% of calls after a 1% decline.

The shift points to a more detailed, vendor-specific phase in boardroom AI discussion. Earlier waves of executive commentary often referred to AI in broad terms or focused on a small set of household names. In the latest quarter, chief executives referred more often to individual model families and frontier systems.

Bubble debate

Concern about an AI bubble eased during the quarter. Discussion of an AI bubble fell 22% from the previous quarter to 1.3% of earnings calls, suggesting that more executives now see underlying demand as durable rather than speculative.

That does not mean AI has displaced older operating concerns. Instead, the findings suggest chief executives are now discussing AI alongside harder questions about energy costs, shipping lanes, inflation and supply resilience, rather than treating it as a separate strategic topic.

This mix of themes helps explain the changing tone of corporate commentary. Companies across sectors have had to balance enthusiasm for AI adoption with more immediate concerns over input costs, transport routes and the possible effects of regional conflict on procurement and margins.

The findings also indicate that earnings calls remain a useful window into how large companies rank risks in real time. When references to a geography, an economic variable or a technology model rise sharply, they often reflect what management teams believe investors and boards most need to hear.

In this case, the data suggests a boardroom agenda shaped by two parallel forces: persistent interest in AI and renewed sensitivity to geopolitical disruption. One reflects long-term technology change, while the other captures the near-term pressure that conflict and commodity markets can exert on operations.

Knud Lasse Lueth, Chief Executive Officer of IoT Analytics, said: "AI remains the defining technology topic in corporate boardrooms, but the discussion is becoming more specific. In Q2 2026, Claude surpassed ChatGPT in CEO mentions for the first time, while frontier AI models such as Anthropic's Mythos started entering boardroom discussions. At the same time, geopolitical risks around Iran and the Strait of Hormuz moved sharply back onto the CEO agenda, bringing energy prices and inflation with them as direct operating concerns."