PwC: Digital transformation, ranks first in top of investment priorities of general managers in Romania

 The vast majority (85%) of general managers in Romania plan to increase investment in digital transformation in the next three years, according to the CEO Survey 2021 conducted by PwC Romania.Thus, the digital transformation climbs to the first place in the top of the domains for which the executives will allocate more funds.Asked about how they have changed their investment intentions as a result of the crisis caused by the pandemic, the general managers in Romania mentioned in order, after digital transformation (85%), the initiatives for cost efficiency (83%), the leadership style - leadership and talent development (79%), cyber security (76%)."Digital transformation has outclassed in 2021 operational efficiency, which has been a priority in recent years and which we would have expected to remain dominant, especially amid the health crisis, as it was in the financial crisis a decade ago. The trend towards digitalization is both an effect of the situation of the last year and a half, when technologies meant including business survival, as well as greater awareness, precisely because of this recent context, that the future belongs to digitalization," said Dinu Bumbacea, Country Managing Partner PwC Romania.The survey also shows that 41% of leaders in organizations have as a priority to increase productivity through automation and technology to ensure their competitiveness in the market. Smart technologies such as RPA, machine learning and chatbot offer companies new opportunities to improve the performance of operational processes and achieve significant savings."Most companies have been investing in technology lately, and we see that 85% say they want to invest more. Of these, more than half (53%) will invest in digitalization by at least 10% more than in previous years. However, in addition to investing, companies should be concerned with how they integrate technologies into the business model so that we can truly talk about digital transformation. Digital transformation is a strategic, digital-centric approach that means much more than improving services or products due to technology. Therefore, the vast majority of companies are just beginning this path to digitalization and need more investment. For example, globally, our studies show that only 5% of companies are now truly digital," explained Dinu Bumbacea.According to the research, in the new context, it is to be expected that the use of advanced data analysis will be more intense and the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in substantiating management decisions, including thosconomy advances 6.5pct in H1 2021e related to risk management, will be conducted on a large scale. Consequently, 62% of CEOs affirmed they would focus more on the digitalization of the risk management function.At the same time, the interest of general managers in Romania for digital transformation is similar to that expressed by global and regional leaders, who also plan to increase over 10 percent of investments in digital transformation.PwC is a network of companies present in 155 countries with more than 284,000 professionals offering quality services in audit, tax and business consultancy services.