Gartner Survey Reveals Only 48% of Digital Initiatives Meet Business Targets, Highlighting AI Investment Trends

Gartner Survey Reveals That Only 48% of Digital Initiatives Meet or Exceed Their Business Outcome Targets

In 2025, CIOs Expect to Increase Investments in Cybersecurity, AI/GenAI, Business Intelligence and Data Analytics, and Integration Technologies/APIs On average, only 48% of digital initiatives enterprise-wide meet or exceed their business outcome targets according to Gartner, Inc.'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 small 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. "This digital vanguard distinguishes themselves from the rest of CIOs and CxOs because they co-own digital delivery," said Raf Gelders, VP, Research at Gartner. "CIOs and CxOs are equally responsible, accountable and involved in delivering the digital solutions their enterprises need. This is a radical departure from the traditional paradigm of IT delivery and business 'project sponsorship' that predominates in most enterprises." The 2025 Gartner CIO and Technology Executive Survey gathered data from 3,186 CIOs and technology executives in 88 countries and all major industries, representing approximately $17.6 trillion in revenue/public-sector budgets and $351 billion in IT spending. This survey was supplemented with insights from 1,126 executive leaders outside of IT (CXOs). Digital vanguard CxOs distinguish themselves from other CxOs because they dedicate more of their personal time and resources to digital delivery. They co-own digital delivery end to end with their CIOs, as well as dedicate 35% of their business area staff to do technology work (vs 21% of the rest of CxOs). They also work very closely with IT, meeting with their CIOs four times more often than the rest of CxOs. "Behind every digital vanguard CxO, a digital vanguard CIO is guiding and enabling CxOs and their teams to co-lead and co-build digital delivery with IT," said Jaime Capella, Distinguished VP, Research at Gartner. "Digital vanguard CIOs nurture their peers to become digital vanguard CxOs. Those CIOs make it easier for their CxOs to lead digital with them and for business area staff to build digital solutions together with IT. "CIOs' success now depends on their CxOs' success," continued Capella. "To succeed at the next phase of digital initiatives, CIOs need their CxOs to work together and co-lead with them. So their fortunes are intertwined: one cannot succeed without the other." CIOs Seek Compelling, Easy-to-Use Platforms for All Technologists Over 80% of CIOs polled in the 2025 CIO and Technology Executive Survey said they expect to increase their investments in 2025 in strong foundational capabilities and technologies such as cybersecurity, AI/GenAI, business intelligence and data analytics, or integration technologies/APIs (see Figure 1). Figure 1: Changes in Technology Funding, from 2024 to 2025 (Percentage of Respondents) Source: Gartner (October 2024) "Digital vanguard CIOs do not invest in these technologies to be used by their IT staff only. They also make them easy to use for potential or actual technologists outside of IT," said Gelders. "On average, there is 26% of business/corporate area staff outside of IT dedicated to building, implementing or managing technology. Many of these technologies naturally lend themselves to easing the burden of work enterprise-wide, accelerating time-to-market and time-to-value, and fostering the accountability of CxOs." At the other end of the spectrum, 43% of 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. CIOs Look to Develop Tech and Digital Leadership Skills for All Technologists Across the Enterprise Only 16% of 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 their digital investments. It condemns them to perpetuate the low number (48%) of digital initiatives that meet or exceed their business outcome targets. Furthermore, just 18% of CIOs said they will prioritize sharing technology leadership with other business areas, a paramount must-have to grow the digital vanguard (see Figure 2). Figure 2: CIO Focus Areas for 2025 (Percentage of Respondents) Source: Gartner (October 2024) "Digital vanguard CIOs plan the needs of digital skills not just for IT staff but also for all potential and actual technologists across the enterprise," said Gelders. Two-thirds of digital vanguard CIOs (vs 22% of the rest of CIOs) go beyond that and help business areas forecast their own needs of digital skills among business staff. More information can be found in "2025 CIO and Technology Executive Agenda: Grow The Digital Vanguard." About Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo is the world's most important gathering for CIOs and other IT executives. IT executives rely on these conferences to learn how to amplify the impact of the technology, insights and trends shaping the future of IT and business. Follow news and updates from the conferences on X using #GartnerSYM, and on the Gartner Newsroom. Upcoming dates and locations for Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo include: October 28-30 2024 | Tokyo, Japan November 4-7 2024 | Barcelona, Spain November 11-13 2024 | Kochi, India About Gartner for Information Technology Executives Gartner for Information Technology Executives provides actionable, objective insight to CIOs and IT leaders to help them drive their organizations through digital transformation and lead business growth. Additional information is available at www.gartner.com/en/information-technology.

Gartner Survey Reveals That Only 48% of Digital Initiatives Meet or Exceed Their Business Outcome Targets By Investing.com

In 2025, CIOs Expect to Increase Investments in Cybersecurity, AI/GenAI, Business Intelligence and Data Analytics, and Integration Technologies/APIs ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--On average, only 48% of digital initiatives enterprise-wide meet or exceed their business outcome targets according to Gartner (NYSE:IT), Inc.'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 small 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. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241022615512/en/ This digital vanguard distinguishes themselves from the rest of CIOs and CxOs because they co-own digital delivery, said Raf Gelders, VP, Research at Gartner. CIOs and CxOs are equally responsible, accountable and involved in delivering the digital solutions their enterprises need. This is a radical departure from the traditional paradigm of IT delivery and business ~project sponsorship' that predominates in most enterprises. Gartner analysts presented the survey findings during Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo, taking place here through Thursday. The 2025 Gartner CIO and Technology Executive Survey gathered data from 3,186 CIOs and technology executives in 88 countries and all major industries, representing approximately $17.6 trillion in revenue/public-sector budgets and $351 billion in IT spending. This survey was supplemented with insights from 1,126 executive leaders outside of IT (CXOs). Digital vanguard CxOs distinguish themselves from other CxOs because they dedicate more of their personal time and resources to digital delivery. They co-own digital delivery end to end with their CIOs, as well as dedicate 35% of their business area staff to do technology work (vs 21% of the rest of CxOs). They also work very closely with IT, meeting with their CIOs four times more often than the rest of CxOs. Behind every digital vanguard CxO, a digital vanguard CIO is guiding and enabling CxOs and their teams to co-lead and co-build digital delivery with IT, said Jaime Capella, Distinguished VP, Research at Gartner. Digital vanguard CIOs nurture their peers to become digital vanguard CxOs. Those CIOs make it easier for their CxOs to lead digital with them and for business area staff to build digital solutions together with IT. CIOs' success now depends on their CxOs' success, continued Capella. To succeed at the next phase of digital initiatives, CIOs need their CxOs to work together and co-lead with them. So their fortunes are intertwined: one cannot succeed without the other. CIOs Seek Compelling, Easy-to-Use Platforms for All Technologists Over 80% of CIOs polled in the 2025 CIO and Technology Executive Survey said they expect to increase their investments in 2025 in strong foundational capabilities and technologies such as cybersecurity, AI/GenAI, business intelligence and data analytics, or integration technologies/APIs (see Figure 1). Digital vanguard CIOs do not invest in these technologies to be used by their IT staff only. They also make them easy to use for potential or actual technologists outside of IT, said Gelders. On average, there is 26% of business/corporate area staff outside of IT dedicated to building, implementing or managing technology. Many of these technologies naturally lend themselves to easing the burden of work enterprise-wide, accelerating time-to-market and time-to-value, and fostering the accountability of CxOs. At the other end of the spectrum, 43% of 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. CIOs Look to Develop Tech and Digital Leadership Skills for All Technologists Across the Enterprise Only 16% of 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 their digital investments. It condemns them to perpetuate the low number (48%) of digital initiatives that meet or exceed their business outcome targets. Furthermore, just 18% of CIOs said they will prioritize sharing technology leadership with other business areas, a paramount must-have to grow the digital vanguard (see Figure 2). Digital vanguard CIOs plan the needs of digital skills not just for IT staff but also for all potential and actual technologists across the enterprise, said Gelders. Two-thirds of digital vanguard CIOs (vs 22% of the rest of CIOs) go beyond that and help business areas forecast their own needs of digital skills among business staff. More information can be found in 2025 CIO and Technology Executive Agenda: Grow The Digital Vanguard. About Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo is the world's most important gathering for CIOs and other IT executives. IT executives rely on these conferences to learn how to amplify the impact of the technology, insights and trends shaping the future of IT and business. Follow news and updates from the conferences on X using #GartnerSYM, and on the Gartner Newsroom. Upcoming dates and locations for Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo include: October 28-30 2024 | Tokyo, Japan November 4-7 2024 | Barcelona, Spain November 11-13 2024 | Kochi, India About Gartner for Information Technology Executives Gartner for Information Technology Executives provides actionable, objective insight to CIOs and IT leaders to help them drive their organizations through digital transformation and lead business growth. Additional information is available at www.gartner.com/en/information-technology. Follow news and updates from Gartner for IT Executives on X and LinkedIn using #GartnerIT. Visit the IT Newsroom for more information and insights. About Gartner Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) delivers actionable, objective insight that drives smarter decisions and stronger performance on an organization's mission-critical priorities. To learn more, visit gartner.com.

The secret to successful digital initiatives is pretty simple, according to Gartner

Only 48% of digital initiatives meet or exceed their business outcome targets, but the successful ones seem to have one big thing in common. A new Gartner survey suggests that almost nine in ten companies intend to ramp up investments in key technology areas, boosting expenditures by at least one-third over current levels. But, so far, returns on investment for digital technologies have been fuzzy for most companies. According to the survey of 4,312 technology and business executives, 87% of business and technology executives intend to ramp up investments in cybersecurity and generative artificial intelligence (gen AI) in 2025. Only 2% have any intention of cutting back in these areas. The consultancy finds that the average planned budget increases per company are 37% for gen AI and 31% for security technologies. Also: Gartner's 2025 tech trends show how your business needs to adapt - and fast Operational AI will also see significant gains; the average increase in operational AI spending will be about 30%. In addition, 84% of survey respondents plan on increasing operational AI spending, with an average increase of 32% per company. Other areas expecting increases include business intelligence/analytics (82%), cloud (79%), and application modernization (74%). The survey also shows slow, disappointing progress in the decades-old digital revolution. Only 48% of digital initiatives meet or exceed their business outcome targets. Even with the added flavor of artificial intelligence (AI), most businesses are still trying to figure out how to make digital technologies pay off. Also: CIOs must also serve as chief AI officers, according to Salesforce survey As with all technologies, seeing results from AI comes down to focusing like a laser beam on the problem at hand: "In my experience, the businesses that start with a real use case and problem are seeing an ROI," Julian LaNeve, chief technology officer at Astronomer, a data platform company, told ZDNET. "They define a well-scoped, impactful problem and use gen AI to solve [it], and it's easy to measure success and ROI. The most successful business cases identify how to solve a problem that the business already cares deeply about and [will] deliver additional value to customers." Technology maturity also makes a difference in success rates. "Previous generations of AI were narrower in scope but have been successful," said Dominic Sartorio, vice president at Denodo, a data management provider. "AI is helping with predictive maintenance of manufactured goods, predicting demand spikes in [the] markets, and finding the optimal routes for logistics, and [has] been successful for many years." Also: Think AI can solve all your business problems? Apple's new study shows otherwise Furthermore, according to Gartner, companies that treat their digital initiatives in a collaborative fashion -- between business and IT leaders -- rather than leaving all things digital up to their IT departments are successful with technology. "This is a radical departure from the traditional paradigm of IT delivery and business 'project sponsorship' that predominates in most enterprises," said Gartner analyst Raf Gelders. These companies taking a more collaborative approach report at least 71% of their digital efforts deliver business benefits. In addition, Gartner estimates that 26% of staff on the business side are now building and deploying technology. Of course, with a higher degree of collaboration comes much greater communication about deliverables. However, awareness of business outcomes is critical to seeing the success of investments. Also: Southeast Asia reiterates pledge to collaborate amid growing cyber threats in AI era In addition, executives within more collaborative enterprises dedicate more of their personal time and resources to digital delivery, the Gartner researchers explain. "They co-own digital delivery end to end with their CIOs, as well as dedicate 35% of their business area staff to do technology work -- versus 21% of less-collaborative organizations. At least 43% of CIOs overall in the Gartner survey said they expect to decrease their investment in legacy infrastructure and data center technologies. Interestingly, the survey finds that 33% expect to increase investments in on-premises infrastructure. The researchers attribute some of this investment to a desire to experiment and produce gen AI solutions in a secure fashion.