• replacing human workers is their fondest dream so they want to believe so hard
• they have FOMO "everyone else is doing it and I don't want to lose out"
• everyone else is doing it and if they didn't do it and were wrong, it would be worse for their reputation than following the pack and being wrong
• c suite types talk to each other and they've formed an echo chamber

In summary, CEOs (of large public companies anyway - your mom and pop plumber could also be a CEO) are not smarter than the average person. Just more amoral and having the connections to be CEOs