Wolters Kluwer welcomes Stacey Caywood as its new CEO at a moment defined by both strength and acceleration. Building on a strong foundation of long standing customer relationships, deeply embedded workflows, and consistent investment in cloud and AI capabilities, Caywood sees this transition as an opportunity to advance the company’s strategic direction with greater speed and precision. In this HBR Video Quick Take, she shares her perspective on leading through technological and economic change, and on accelerating the deployment of enterprise grade AI and agentic solutions that are grounded in proprietary content, expert knowledge, and trusted governance.
The conversation highlights the growing pressure professionals face to deliver meaningful productivity gains amid workforce shortages, rising client demands, and increasing complexity. Caywood explains that unlocking value requires more than advanced models. It requires AI and AI agents built on verified data, embedded within professional workflows, and developed with strong governance and responsible AI principles. In high stakes environments, reliability, transparency, and expert oversight are essential. When innovation is grounded in trusted content and domain expertise, it enables professionals to reduce complexity, work smarter, and move from information to confident, high impact decisions at scale.
Todd Pruzan, HBR
Welcome to the HBR Video Quick Take. I’m Todd Pruzan, senior editor for research and special projects at Harvard Business Review. We’re here today with Stacey Caywood, the CEO of Wolters Kluwer, a global provider of expert information, software, and services for professionals. In this video quick take, Stacey will give us her perspective on leading through transition, navigating growing complexity, and why trust, expertise, and responsible innovation matter more than ever for professionals making critical decisions.
Stacey, thank you so much for being with us, and congratulations on your new role as CEO. As you step into this role, how are you balancing continuity for Wolters Kluwer with the strategic priorities you plan to focus on?
Stacey Caywood, Wolters Kluwer
Great. First, Todd, thanks so much. I really appreciate being here with you today. And as I step into the CEO role, I see this moment as building on the strong foundation we’ve created at Wolters Kluwer and an opportunity to accelerate our strategic direction.
We are fortunate to have long-standing and trusted relationships with our customers, with solutions that are deeply embedded in their workflow. The strong foundation is partly due to years of consistent investments into our products, being early to the cloud, and early to create an AI Center of Excellence 10 years ago. Demand for our AI and agentic tools is increasing as our customers rely on us to help them deliver more productivity and high-value outcomes.
So as I think about 2026, my strategic priorities are clear. First, we will deepen the deployment of AI across our portfolio to drive value and growth. Second, we will expand our partnerships to embed more fully within our customers’ ecosystems and workflows. And third, we will strengthen our commercial capabilities to drive growth and scale our impact. Together, these priorities are the engine of our continued momentum and will ensure we keep meeting the evolving needs of the professionals we serve.
Todd Pruzan, HBR
Thank you for walking us through your plans. Stacey, professionals today are under intense pressure to deliver more value with fewer resources. What are the top challenges you’re hearing most consistently from your customers, particularly around productivity?
Stacey Caywood, Wolters Kluwer
Todd, you’re absolutely right. We see our customers face growing pressure to achieve meaningful productivity gains. Many of our professionals are dealing with persistent workforce shortages, rising demands from their clients, and the need to make high-stakes decisions quickly with limited resources.
And in that environment, they’re looking for ways to reduce complexity while ensuring high-quality decision making. What they need are solutions that help them work smarter—so tools that streamline workflows, surface the most relevant insights at the moment of need, and translate information into confident action. Because we’re so deeply embedded in professional workflows, we’re uniquely positioned to help unlock these productivity gains.
Todd Pruzan, HBR
Thanks, Stacey. AI is becoming embedded in professional decision making. What will distinguish AI that truly delivers value in high-stakes environments?
Stacey Caywood, Wolters Kluwer
Yeah, that’s a critical question, Todd. And what will distinguish AI and agentic solutions that truly deliver value is whether they perform reliably in real-world high-stakes environments. And that requires more than advanced models. It requires AI and AI agents built with proprietary content and data and expert knowledge built into the AI models. We call that thinking mode. When AI is grounded in that foundation and created by experts who understand the workflows and requirements of enterprise-grade solutions, it produces consistent, dependable outcomes and supports confident decision making at scale.
That is what is required to deliver value for the high-stakes professions we serve. AI and AI agents that are not grounded in trusted, expert-curated content, data, and workflows carry real risks, including hallucinations and inconsistent outputs—problems that are unacceptable in a high-stakes environment. So that’s why enterprise-grade AI and agents must be built on verified data, strong governance, and responsible AI principles to ensure transparency, accuracy, trust, and security.
Todd Pruzan, HBR
Stacey, thank you so much for sharing your insights about leadership and change in the age of AI.
Stacey Caywood, Wolters Kluwer
Appreciate it, Todd. Thanks so much.
Todd Pruzan, HBR
We’ve been speaking today with Stacey Caywood, who is CEO of Wolters Kluwer. Our producers at HBR today are Elie Honein, Samantha Holloway, and Simona Sparane. And you can learn more about Wolters Kluwer and how it helps professionals make confident, high-impact decisions by combining advanced expert AI with decades of domain expertise, trusted content, and proven workflows. To learn more about Wolters Kluwer, just click the link below.