The automotive sector has emerged as the most disrupted major industry in an annual survey of the forces shaping the global economy.
CEOs and other senior executives polled that found autos leapfrogged sectors including healthcare, technology and financial services in the 2025 AlixPartners Disruption Index. Respondents cited the challenges of navigating the uneven growth of electric powertrains, automated-driving technologies, and reconfigured supply networks in the coming year.
Reversing two consecutive years of improvement, the index for the auto industry climbed 4.7 points from last year to 76.7 on a scale of 0 to 100, according to the 3,200 executives polled which included 320 auto-industry executives, including leaders at OEMs, suppliers, dealers and service providers.
Supply Chain Worries
The biggest reported concern for OEMs and suppliers is the forces at work on supply chains, even as pandemic-driven constraints disappear from the rearview mirror. The rising cost of materials and components were the most challenging for a third of these executives, topping tariffs and protectionism efforts as well as the availability and reliability of suppliers.
“A lack of real-time visibility into supply chains remains a big problem and makes it tough for executives to prioritize action,” said Dan Hearsch, Americas leader the automotive and industrial practice at AlixPartners, in a statement released with the survey. “That’s why companies today need a deep and thorough understanding of their true current states and the options before them more than ever before.”
Workforce Worries
The potential impact of tariffs and other protectionist measures under a Trump Administration is something auto executrices express worry about. More than half of automotive respondents said they were worried about their company’s existing strategy to attract top talent, one that AlixPartners noted is far more than any other industry surveyed.
“The candid acknowledgement of workforce concerns is all the more telling given that the industry executives generally lauded their talent-management skills and corporate cultures,” said Stephen Tapley, a partner in the automotive and industrial practice at AlixPartners. “Clearly, the auto industry has a skills gap—especially as the automotive and technology industries converge—and it’s a gap that in general the auto industry is not filling internally.”
Inflation and high interest rates remain issues that executives continue to navigate, which have affected pricing and demand. But that has not stop expansion plans—nearly 70 percent expect to pursue transformational M&A opportunities this year in an effort to harness disruptive forces, a proportion topped only by executives from the technology industry.
Impact of AI
Another area of investment will in artificial intelligence (AI) and software-defined functionality, viewed as a revenue-generating opportunity by a majority of automotive executives in the survey, rather than a method to just cut costs. But executives are wary of AI in two areas: legal and regulatory compliance, and an over-reliance on AI may reduce the critical thinking and problem-solving among employees.
Autonomous-vehicle and driver-assistance technologies were seen as leading disruptive forces, viewed by respondents as offering the most opportunities for adoption to advance automotive organizations. Still, a large number of survey respondents indicated that
The 2025 AlixPartners Disruption Index provides a measure of disruption, based on both magnitude and frequency. The 2025 survey on which the index is based asked CEOs and other senior executives across 10 industries and 11 countries the degree to which their business is being disrupted, the various forces impacting them, the pace at which disruptive forces are accelerating and the strategies they are employing to confront them. The survey utilized responses from executives employed at director level or above and working for a company with at least $100 million in annual revenue.
