We’re back with the fifth edition of our annual IT Priorities Report, in which we survey 800 IT decision makers from around the world to explore the challenges, opportunities and priorities of modern technology leaders.
2025 outlook: What’s on the mind of IT decision makers?
As technology evolves and new innovations are emerging faster than ever, it’s hardly surprising that integrating AI remains a key priority for survey respondents. What is surprising, however, is the year-over-year jump we’ve seen. The number of IT decision makers placing it as their top priority for the year ahead increased from 35% to 46% in this year’s report, far outpacing reducing IT costs (27%) and reducing security risks (25%).
Eyes in the sky, with a twist
Eighty-seven percent of IT decision makers haven’t deemed managing cloud costs or applying FinOps practices as a top priority in the past twelve months, despite costs weighing heavily on their minds (71%). With concerns of cost and overspend piling up, these findings suggest that FinOps will likely be even more important in the coming year.
Emerging technologies
Given that integrating AI is the top priority, it’s therefore no surprise that 74% of IT decision makers say their organization will be using more AI in the year ahead. But many are also looking beyond just AI into the use of machine learning (47%), which IT leaders expect to increase investment in over the next two to three years.