From risk management to digital transformation and from creating efficiencies to increasing productivity, CIOs face a number of challenges and opportunities in 2025. One big opportunity is harnessing value from the promise of AI, and organizations are looking to their CIOs to deliver that value.
As their role increasingly becomes as much about business as technology, IT leaders are prioritizing driving growth and revenue this year. CIOs are also collaborating across the organization to promote and prioritize innovation.
More than 1,200 CIOs across Gartner C-level Communities shared their top priorities and challenges in our proprietary survey – here’s what they reported.
Cybersecurity and Data Retain Top Spots
CIOs cited cybersecurity and risk management as their number one priority for the fourth year in a row. Data and analytics also continues to be a top priority, while AI has moved up to the third spot on the list. In 2025, IT Strategy, Governance and Operating Models replaced Applications (strategy and architecture), with those two focus areas often shifting slightly in prioritization for CIOs.
Top Enterprise Priority is Driving Growth
Driving growth is the top enterprise priority for CIOs this year. Creating operational efficiencies, which had been the first priority for the past two years, remains important to IT leaders, as does optimizing costs. These two enterprise priorities are possibly correlated to the expectation that CIOs will find efficiencies through AI. New this year, CIOs report that increasing revenue is one of their top priorities across the enterprise, demonstrating that technology is a key revenue driver.
Budgets Are Increasing or Remaining Flat
In 2025, 41% of CIOs say that their budgets increased over last year, while 39% report that their budgets are remaining flat year over year. Similarly, 45% of CIOs are increasing their technology spending this year, and 38% say they will spend about the same as last year on tech products and solutions.
Spending on AI Products & Solutions
Sixty-three percent of CIOs plan to spend on AI and Machine Learning this year – similar to what they reported in 2024. Fifty percent of IT leaders will invest in data and analytics, and 43% in cybersecurity products and solutions, closely reflecting the top functional priorities they cited in the survey.
Each year, we conduct a proprietary Leadership Perspective Survey across Gartner C-level Communities. C-level executives in our communities share their top focus areas and challenges for the year ahead, enabling us to create content based on their most critical priorities. Apply here to join a local CIO community, or if you are already a member, sign in to the member app to view upcoming events in your community.
Based on 1,200+ CIO responses from Gartner C-level Communities’ proprietary Leadership Perspective Survey, March 2025.
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