Last week, Just Capital brought together some of the world’s most influential business leaders, philanthropists, and government officials at Nasdaq’s MarketSite for our 2026 Best of American Business Celebration — supported by sponsors Accenture, Bank of America, and many more.
The day was defined by candor with seven fireside chats moderated by leading media figures. The conversations occurred under Chatham House rules, so we cannot directly attribute quotes, but we’re sharing two themes that dominated the discussions.
One refrain we heard repeatedly was the importance of keeping humans in charge of AI systems. One organization said their ethos was “humans in the lead” not just humans in the loop. It’s a deceptively simple idea, but in a world racing to automate, it’s a radical one.
Speakers also emphasized that neither government nor business alone cannot absorb the disruption that’s coming. Addressing AI’s impact on workers will require public private partnership to fundamentally reimagine how value is defined, rewarded, and shared One speaker even mentioned how dealing with this impact will go beyond workforce issues, and will force us to rethink how America handles things like health insurance, childcare infrastructure, and the social safety net at large.
There was a pointed message to CEOs in the room about the choice before them: use these tools to help people do more and better work, or use them simply to reduce headcount. One speaker referenced NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang’s recent statement that leaders who laid off employees were “lacking imagination” in how AI tools could transform employee work, and it was clear the moral weight of how to handle this transition will define how history judges this generation of business leaders.On an optimistic note, there was general agreement that, with the right guardrails and widespread access, AI will provide significant value to society through innovations in healthcare, engineering, and education. Our latest polling shows that the American public agrees. Many leaders also believed that academia and nonprofits lack access to frontier models, which presents a structural problem that deprives these sectors of many of the technology’s gains if this continues.
On an optimistic note, there was general agreement that, with the right guardrails and widespread access, AI will provide significant value to society through innovations in healthcare, engineering, and education. Our latest polling shows that the American public agrees. Many leaders also believed that academia and nonprofits lack access to frontier models, which presents a structural problem that deprives these sectors of many of the technology’s gains if this continues.
If AI was the operational challenge in the room, the state of capitalism was the philosophical one.
Several leaders spoke with striking frankness about the erosion of public trust across the spectrum: in business, in capitalism, in the accessibility of the American dream, and in “brand America” abroad. It was clear that those in attendance were worried about the possibility of AI exacerbating these issues.
This concern was echoed from leaders across sectors – corporate leaders, investors, philanthropists, and policymakers. The idea that the very foundations on which markets depend is at risk was not an outlying perspective. It was a common thesis of the night.
There was also a belief that specific sectors were more vulnerable than others. One speaker drew a direct parallel between the major social media platform liability cases moving through the courts today and the first successful lawsuits against big tobacco, a flashpoint where public opinion decisively turns on one of the largest sectors of the American economy.
Leaders agreed that all of these issues could present an economic and social crisis soon.
In the end, the event left us debating profound questions: What kind of future do we want? How do we in this room shape it?
We at Just Capital believe in the power of markets and the private sector to advance society and build a better future for more people at scale. In an AI-powered future, the best of American business will continue to do just that.
Thank you to our insightful speakers and moderators, and thank you again to our sponsors!
New York, NY, March 17, 2026 – Today, in partnership with CNBC, we are announcing our 2026 Rankings of America’s largest public companies. Now in their 10th year, the Rankings celebrate companies for their performance on the issues that matter most to the American people, such as paying a fair, living wage; supporting worker well-being, advancement, and training; communicating transparently; and acting ethically at the leadership level.
The 2026 Rankings showcase responsible business leadership across 20 industries. As AI and other transformative technologies reshape the economy, business leaders require precise, decision-grade data to weigh tradeoffs, manage risk, and plan for the future. In service of this, ranked companies can now explore their performance in-depth through Just Capital’s flagship Just Intelligence product. The platform has been updated to include an AI-enabled chatbot, currently in beta, which allows users to pose queries that draw on Just Capital’s robust corporate performance database and business case library.
This year, Just Capital is proud to celebrate 21 companies with Industry Leader designations. View them below, and explore the Rankings here.
Automobiles & Parts: Lear Corporation
Banks: M&T Bank Corp
Basic Resources: Freeport-McMoRan Inc
Chemicals: Ecolab Inc
Construction & Materials: Trane Technologies
Consumer Products & Services: Nike Inc
Energy: Marathon Petroleum Corp
Financial Services: S&P Global Inc
Food, Beverage & Tobacco: The Hershey Company
Health Care: The Cigna Group
Industrial Goods & Services: Union Pacific Corp
Insurance: The Hartford Insurance Group
Media: The Walt Disney Company
Personal Care, Drug & Grocery Stores: CVS Health Corporation
Real Estate: Zillow Group Inc
Retail: Lowe’s Companies, Inc.
Technology: HP Inc
Telecommunications: Ciena Corporation
Travel & Leisure: Starbucks Corporation
Utilities: Constellation Energy Corporation & Public Service Enterprise Group Inc
The 2026 Industry Leaders demonstrate common areas of strength across sectors including workforce investment, governance discipline, and environmental transparency. All Industry Leaders are ranked in the top 100 overall, and 16 of 21 improved their overall rank year-over-year
“At a time of great uncertainty, and with questions being asked about the future of capitalism, our Rankings are designed to celebrate American business at its best,” says Just Capital CEO Martin Whittaker. “This year’s Industry Leaders demonstrate that delivering value for shareholders, the economy, and society at large is not a trade-off, it’s a blueprint for success.”
Just Capital tracks the financial performance of the top performing companies in their analysis. The organization’s flagship index (JULCD) tracks the top 50% of performers across each industry and, as of March 10, 2026, has outperformed the Russell 1000 benchmark by 12.7% since inception in 2016. The Just 100 Index which tracks the top 100 overall performers has outperformed the Russell 1000 equal-weighted index by 55.6% since inception in 2019.
In February 2026, the organization released enhanced capabilities within its flagship Just Intelligence product. Just Intelligence supports strategic planning and decision-making by offering a comprehensive view of public expectations and sector realities, and by connecting those signals to core business outcomes. The platform is built on more than a decade of Just Capital’s public opinion research and corporate performance data, and surfaces areas of relative over- and under-performance across a company’s stakeholder ecosystem, including workers, customers, communities, environment, and shareholders.
Just Intelligence now includes a new AI-powered chatbot for users to understand and improve their company’s stakeholder performance in a more accessible and engaging manner. Users can pose queries in natural language to quickly surface actionable insights from Just Capital’s database of performance analysis and business case library. The chatbot is currently in beta and available to paid subscribers of Just Intelligence.
Since 2015, Just Capital has surveyed nearly 200,000 Americans on their priorities for just business behavior. The annual Rankings assess 933 of the largest publicly traded U.S. companies using a model grounded in the priorities of the American public. Companies are evaluated across 17 issues spanning workforce investment, customer trust, governance accountability, environmental performance, and community impact.
For the 2026 Rankings, Just Capital updated its industry classification to align with Industry Classification Benchmark (ICB) supersectors. This year the organization introduced new industry-specific data points and removed data points that were less relevant based on industry context. Many metrics continue to be evaluated across the full universe, ensuring comparability on cross-industry topics including broadly applicable governance and workforce practices.
