2025 Director Sentiment Survey

What directors told us in 2025

The 2025 Director Sentiment Survey, produced by the Institute of Directors and ASB, shows confidence in the national economy reaching its highest point since the survey began in 2014. Directors are more optimistic about the coming year, but remain focused on resilience, cost control and operational discipline.

Key findings:

• • 55% of directors expect the economy to improve over the next 12 months — up from 52% in 2024 and a significant lift from 28% in 2023.
  • The proportion expecting the economy to worsen has dropped sharply, from 28% to 18%, with most shifting to a neutral position.
  • Shareholder and member activism is emerging as a real pressure, with 44% of directors expecting a moderate or high impact over the next two years.
  • Despite rising confidence, uncertainty remains high, with geopolitics (45%) the top impediment to national economic performance and political/policy uncertainty (41%) the second.
  • Awareness of emerging risks is ahead of action: only 46% regularly review physical climate risks, 20% monitor modern slavery risks, and 57% review privacy and data protection risks.
  • Technology and digital oversight continue to grow in importance, although gaps remain with less than half of boards discussing AI ethics (48%) and 57% regularly reviewing cyber risk.

The 2025 report is based on responses from 900 IoD members, of whom 55% had more than six years’ governance experience, including 32% with over ten years. Among respondents currently in a board role, 46% were board or committee chairs.

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The Director Sentiment Survey is brought to you by the Institute of Directors and ASB.