As businesses attempt to alleviate the impact from current economic disruptions brought about by inflationary pressures, supply chain constraints, labor and skills shortages, and geopolitical threats, they are turning towards technology to help them get there. According to CIO’s latest CIO Tech Poll: Tech Priorities study, 64% of IT decision-makers agree that their organization is accelerating work on technology projects expected to alleviate impact from economic slowdown.

To support this, we see that 51% of ITDMs anticipate their technology budgets will increase over the next 12 months, 37% expect their budgets to remain the same and only 12% expect a decrease. This year’s research also looks at the technologies that organizations plan to invest in to help them overcome challenges due to the recession and tactics in place to help with IT skills shortages. Explore key takeaways from the study below:

Key takeaways:

  • Despite impending economic recession and the impact IT decision-makers expect it to have on their IT organizations, IT leaders expect steady technology budget growth over the next 12 months, with only 12% expecting a decrease in budget.
  • ITDMs are actively researching and piloting AI and machine learning, data analytics frameworks, business process management and workflow automation, employee experience technologies, and IT/OT convergence tools.
  • When it comes to where ITDMs expect to see the largest increase in tech spending over the next year, cybersecurity, BI/analytics tools, data analytics frameworks, AI and machine learning, and business process management and workflow automation top the list.
  • Security continues to be a top priority as the majority say that cybersecurity is the most important tech project they are currently working on, while data & analytics rises to the top for technologies expected to alter business operations.
  • The biggest challenges around new tech implementation are no surprise – lack of appropriate skills and a shortage of staff.

 

View the sample slides below and download the 2023 CIO Tech Priorities executive summary for additional insight.