On average, only 48% of digital initiatives meet or exceed business outcome targets, according to Gartner’s annual global survey of more than 3,100 CIOs and technology executives and more than 1,100 executive leaders outside of IT (CxOs).
A cohort of CIOs and CxOs, known as the “Digital Vanguard,” has the highest achievement rate, where 71% of their digital initiatives meet or exceed outcome targets.
Over 80% of EMEA CIOs polled said they expect to increase their investments in cybersecurity, AI/GenAI, and business intelligence and data analytics in 2025.
At the other end of the spectrum, 43% of EMEA CIOs said they expect to decrease their investment in legacy infrastructure and data center technologies.
This is a trend that has become more common in recent years, mainly due to migrating to cloud-based solutions. That compares with 33% who said they expect to increase it, which can be attributed, in part, to those organizations that acquired on-premise infrastructure to experiment and produce GenAI solutions.
Only 14% of EMEA CIOs surveyed prioritize building a technology workforce enterprise-wide (beyond their own IT departments) in 2025. That will limit the enterprise’s ability to get the most from its digital investments.
It condemns them to perpetuate the low number (48%) of digital initiatives that meet or exceed their business outcome targets.
Furthermore, just 19% of EMEA CIOs said they would prioritize sharing technology leadership with other business areas, a paramount must-have to grow the digital vanguard.
Source: Gartner
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