Thousands of CIOs across Gartner C-level Communities share their outlook for the year ahead in our annual, proprietary Leadership Perspective Survey. CIOs from the world’s leading organizations tell us their top functional and enterprise priorities, anticipated challenges and planned spending areas.
As business leaders, CIOs are focused on driving growth, revenue and innovation in 2025. In their technology function, executives aim to deliver value from AI, manage risk to the organization, and improve data and analytics capabilities.
Nearly 1,400 CIOs have responded to our annual survey – here are highlights of the results.
Operating Budgets Are Steady and Increasing
An equal percentage of CIOs – 40% – report that their operating budgets for the year increased or stayed the same as last year. Only 19% of IT leaders say that their budgets decreased year over year, perhaps a sign of the critical role of technology in achieving organizational objectives even in a volatile economic environment.
Planned Spending to Increase
Forty-four percent of CIOs report that their planned spending on technology and services will increase this year. Similar to their operating budgets, about 40% of IT leaders say that their spending will remain the same. Only 16% plan to spend less this year than last year.
CIOs Are Investing in AI
For the second year in a row, almost two-thirds of CIOs in our survey plan to spend on AI and machine learning tools and solutions. Half of IT leaders (50%) will invest in data and analytics products, and 43% in cybersecurity solutions.
CIOs’ Top Priorities Are Cybersecurity and Data
In 2025, CIOs remain focused on cybersecurity strategies and data and analytics as their top two priorities for the third year in a row. Delivering AI value has moved up to the third spot on the list this year. CIOs’ top 3 focus areas for the technology function are closely aligned to their top three spending areas above.
Topics of Interest for CIOs
In addition to their top priorities, CIOs share what they most want to discuss with their C-level peers and solution providers at community events. These are the trending topics for 2025:
- Leading Artificial Intelligence Adoption
- CIO Role Evolution
- Shaping a Data-Driven Culture
- IT Leadership & Influence
- Aligning Business & IT Strategy
To learn more about sponsoring Gartner C-level Communities and events and how our proprietary data can help your message resonate with C-level decision makers, contact us.
Based on 1,400 CIO responses from Gartner C-level Communities’ proprietary Leadership Perspective Survey, March 2025.
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