Cyber risk is redefining business risk. Regulations are fragmenting global commerce, but payments are finding a way. AI use must now prove measurable value. Business model change is driving more profitability and less disruption.
Those are among conclusions B2B payment and finance leaders should take from Uncertainty and Opportunity: The CEO Playbook for 2026, published in January by The Conference Board (TCB), the New York based non‑partisan, nonprofit, think tank founded in 1916, providing economic data, research, and executive insights for corporations globally.
Based on a worldwide survey of CEOs and senior executives, the report argues that uncertainty is no longer episodic or cyclical. It is structural. It defines how companies must design systems, manage risk, and create competitive advantage.
For B2B payments organizations, this represents a fundamental shift in role. Payments infrastructure is no longer just about moving money quickly and cheaply. It has become strategic infrastructure for resilience, compliance, trust, and growth.
Cybersecurity as Core Differentiator
The report identifies cyber risk as the top geopolitical and security concern among CEOs worldwide. As TCB states in the report, “Cyberattacks and broader uncertainty were [the] two primary concerns,” of responding CEOs, “affecting sectors and organizations of all sizes.”
For B2B payments, that impact is existential. Payments platforms sit at the intersection of financial value, sensitive data, and global connectivity. Any breach directly impacts liquidity, regulatory standing, and brand reputation.
Cybersecurity therefore moves from being a technical safeguard to being a core market differentiator, TCB concludes. Buyers increasingly evaluate payment providers based on the maturity of their security posture, their ability to detect fraud in real time, and their capacity to recover fast from any incidents.
In 2026, trust is being built not just on reliability and performance, but on demonstrable cyber resilience.
Regulatory Fragmentation Reshaping Business Payments
According to the report, “Regulation in primary markets of operation and protectionism were the two main industry and market factors CEOs expect to hamper their business.” CEOs surveyed also expressed concern about regulatory divergence across global regions, which increases complexity and slows expansion.
For B2B payments companies, regulatory fragmentation directly affects onboarding, transaction approval workflows, sanctions screening, data governance, and cross-border settlement. Each jurisdiction adds a layer of operational and legal risk.
But this is also where competitive advantage is created. Payment services providers (PSPs), for example, can manage regulatory complexity centrally and translate it into simple, compliant workflows that move companies up the value chain. Compliance becomes something clients buy, not something they struggle to manage internally.
In an increasingly fragmented world, regulatory simplicity can become a premium service.
How B2B Payments Smooth Out Supply Chain Disruptions
The report also notes that “Supply chain disruptions were cited by 41.6% of CEOs as their top international trade concern,” followed closely by “having to raise prices due to tariffs.”
In B2B environments, supply chains and payments are financially inseparable. When shipments slow, payment terms change. When tariffs rise or fall, pricing models shift. When energy costs spike, working capital strategies must adapt.
This elevates the role of payments platforms as real-time intelligence systems. Treasury and finance teams increasingly depend on immediate visibility into payables, receivables, and liquidity exposure. Used in this way, payments infrastructure becomes a financial control layer that helps organizations respond to volatility with speed and precision.
In effect, payments become the financial nervous system of the supply chain.
AI Must Move from Promise to Proof
Echoing similar sentiments in the wider business world, the report identifies generative AI as the most significant societal and technological risk factor for CEOs. Importantly, this is not because of skepticism about AI’s potential, but because of concerns around governance, regulation, and return on investment.
TCB explains that executives are focused on “enhancing data quality and quantity to measure the return on investment of AI.” That emphasis on measurement is especially relevant for B2B payments.
AI already underpins critical functions in payments: fraud detection, transaction monitoring, reconciliation, customer onboarding, and risk scoring. But in 2026, an experimental dusting of this tech is no longer enough. AI systems must be auditable, explainable, and aligned with regulatory expectations.
The competitive edge in 2026 will go to organizations that treat AI as a financial control discipline, not a freeform experiment.
Business Model Change Becomes the Top Profitability Lever
One of the strongest signals in C-Suite Outlook 2026 is that “business model changes ranked first among CEOs globally as the way to improve profitability,” ahead of both pricing increases and marketing investment.
For B2B payments, this is a direct call to move beyond transaction processing and toward broader strategic value. The industry is shifting from monetizing movement of money to monetizing intelligence, control, and integration.
This evolution is visible in how payments providers are expanding their scope to include:
- Working capital optimization and liquidity forecasting
- Compliance automation and regulatory orchestration
- Embedded payments within operational workflows
- Advanced analytics and financial visibility
- Industry-specific payment experiences
This is the single most important structural shift in B2B payments. The product is no longer just payments. The product is operational intelligence delivered through payments.
Geography and Business Payments Growth
The report shows that in 2026, CEOs prioritizing domestic markets and the US/Canada region for expansion, followed by Western Europe and South Asia, with the Middle East rapidly gaining strategic importance.
For B2B payments organizations, this confirms the need for deep regional readiness: regulatory coverage, multi-currency support, localized workflows, and strong partner ecosystems. Global reach is no longer a branding exercise. It is a functional requirement for serving multinational clients.
Another defining B2B insight is that CEOs surveyed ranked “customer segments as their top expansion priority,” ahead of product categories and distribution channels.
This aligns directly with the new path of B2B payments. Different industries operate on fundamentally different settlement cycles, risk tolerances, compliance burdens, and integration standards. The future belongs to verticalized payments strategies that embed deeply into industry-specific workflows.
Payments as Strategic Infrastructure
Across its findings, The Conference Board’s C-Suite Outlook 2026: Uncertainty and Opportunity report delivers a consistent message: uncertainty is permanent, and resilience must be engineered.
For B2B payments leaders, this reframes the mission:
Security becomes competitive differentiation. Compliance becomes customer value.
AI becomes a governance discipline. Payments becomes strategic infrastructure.
In 2026, companies that win will stop treating payments as plumbing and start treating them as the backbone of enterprise stability and growth.
See the full report: Uncertainty and Opportunity: The CEO Playbook for 2026