Business leaders around the world expect remote working and automation will continue after the COVID-19 pandemic comes to an end, a recent survey has found.

According to the survey conducted by global consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers with 699 chief executive officers of firms in multiple countries, remote collaboration and automation were chosen as the most likely long-term trends in the post-pandemic world, with 78 and 76 percent of the respondents respectively saying so.

Having fewer people in the office and securing supply chain safety also made the list of key business trends.

“Business leaders need to simultaneously keep their company running today and fundamentally rethink their strategy for tomorrow, so they come out of the pandemic ready to reconfigure their business to thrive in a very different world,“ said Bob Moritz, global chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers International.

When it comes to preparing for the post-pandemic era, 24 percent of those surveyed saw digitalization as a top priority while 17 percent pointed to virtualization.

It was among CEOs in the financial sector who consider going digital as more important than any other field, with 29 percent saying so.

In the meantime, virtualization was preferred among CEOs in the fields of health care and media, with the backing of 24 percent of those surveyed in the fields.

The company leaders struck a pessimistic tone when it came to the prospect of economic recovery, with 65 percent predicting a decline in global growth and fewer than 1 in 3 believing government support would be sustained.

The survey was conducted between June and July.

By Yim Hyun-su (hyunsu@heraldcorp.com)