Gartner Newsroom

“Nothing, yet everything, has changed for the CIO since the onset of COVID-19.”

“Top performing enterprises are prioritizing digital Innovation and will come out of the pandemic stronger than their typical- and trailing-performing counterparts.”

“The 2021 Gartner CIO Agenda survey revealed 4 ways CIOs can make a difference in digital business acceleration and in long-term agility: 1) win differently, 2) unleash force multipliers, 3) banish drags and 4) redirect resources.”

“As new attack surfaces appear due to the shift to remote work, CIOs reported prioritizing investments in cybersecurity primarily, followed by business intelligence/analytics and cloud services.”  

“In 2021, CIOs must build on the momentum they created for their enterprises. The better CIOs perform for the business, the more the business will ask of them next year.”

Learn more about the survey findings in the Gartner press release.

Use mixed role teams on every AI project you do. “That’s going to give you diversity of perspective.”

Invest in variety for mixed-role teams. “Variety in skills and knowledge across the business is important.”

“Experimentation and variety of perspectives are important, but when technology delivers increasingly substantial amounts of value to an organization, you need a governance strategy to bring formality into your project plan.”

Do fewer proof of concepts (POCs). “Narrow your ambitions and focus your strategy. Do fewer POCs and deliver the ones that you choose to pursue with the greatest possible quality.”

Commit to financial and risk analysis. “Performing financial and risk analysis increases your credibility at the C-suite. Now you can use data to discuss what works best for AI and talk credibly about where not to apply it.”

Include top executives in strategy and funding. “Involving executive sponsors and leaders in your AI projects help them to understand and commit to its value.”

“Organizations that assign their AI budget to a corporate function at the C-level are twice as likely to have achieved level 4 maturity for AI. That’s a very compelling story.”

By 2025, 40% of physical experience-based businesses will improve financial results and outperform competitors by extending into paid virtual experiences. “Immersive experiences are getting better, more realistic and more fun, and the pandemic has caused us to consider how we can do things remotely without risking our physical selves.” 

By 2025, customers will be the first humans to touch more than 20% of the products and produce in the world. “Automated factories and farms will actually do most of the heavy lifting, from planting to picking to packing to shipping.”

By 2024, 25% of traditional large enterprise CIOs will be held accountable for digital business operational results, effectively becoming “COO by proxy.” “The generation of above-the-line value has to be done through a deep understanding and a fusion of technology and business goals, and the CIO is in a great position to do that.”

By 2024, 30% of major organizations will use a new voice of society metric to act on societal issues and assess the impacts to their business performance. “ Being tone deaf to societal issues can hurt, and a brand can go away overnight.”

By 2023, large organizations will increase employee retention by more than 20% through repurposing office space as onsite childcare and education facilities. “Worker demand for childcare is still unmet, and it needs to be met. It is a perk to work for an organization that does this.

Learn about five additional top predictions in the Gartner press release.