S&P 500 CEOs Fixate on These 4 Topics in Earnings Calls in 2025

The S&P 500 tracks a wide swath of major U.S. companies across sectors. But when it comes to what’s weighing on their leaders, there’s striking overlap. “Inflation,” “A.I.,” “tariffs” and “uncertainty” were the top four words that dominated S&P 500 earnings calls over the past year, according to an Observer analysis of FactSet data. Between Q2 2024 and Q1 2025, more than 200 companies mentioned both “inflation” and “A.I.” at least once. “Tariffs” spiked from just 48 mentions to 445, while “uncertainty” appeared in 411 earnings calls during Q1 2025 alone.

That pattern has held steady into Q2 2025. In the past month, 88 S&P 500 companies held earnings calls. Among them, 35 mentioned “inflation,” 51 cited “A.I.,” 69 discussed “tariffs,” and 68 brought up “uncertainty.”

A.I. has been a particularly dominant theme. In Q1 2025, 213 companies mentioned the technology, marking the fifth straight quarter that over 200 S&P 500 firms referenced it. The information technology sector led the pack, with over 90 percent of its companies bringing up A.I. on earnings calls, according to an analysis by John Butters, FactSet’s senior earnings analyst.

These are historic highs. Over the past five years, A.I. was mentioned an average of 114 times per quarter, dropping to 72 across the past decade. CEO enthusiasm has surged alongside Big Tech’s race to advance the field. Google’s Sundar Pichai name-dropped A.I. 23 times in a single 2023 earnings call, while Amazon execs mentioned it 30 times in Q1 2024.

Inflation, meanwhile, may be fading as a dominant concern in recent months. It came up in 228 earnings calls last quarter, below its five-year average of 254.

Instead, tariffs have become a top issue for CEOs in recent months. Amid shifting global trade policies under the Trump administration, the topic came up in over 91 percent of S&P 500 earnings calls between March 15 and May 15, per Butters. A record 445 companies mentioned “tariffs” in Q1 2025, surpassing the previous record of 260 in Q4 2024.

Closely tied to tariffs is “uncertainty,” a fitting term amid volatile markets. It was brought up in 411 calls in Q1 2025, more than double the 187 mentions from the prior quarter.