Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo 2024 Barcelona: Day 2 Highlights

We are bringing you news and highlights from Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo, taking place this week in Barcelona, Spain. Below is a collection of the key announcements and insights coming out of the conference. You can read the highlights from Day 1 here.

On Day 2 from the conference, we are discussing the findings of Gartner’s annual CIO & technology executive survey, exploring how to lead in uncertain times, how to understand sustainability growth fundamentals, and how banking CIOs are harnessing the power of GenAI. Be sure to check this page throughout the day for updates.

• Gartner Says CIOs Need to Overcome Four Emerging Challenges to Deliver Value With AI
• Gartner Predicts Fortune 500 Companies Will Shift $500 Billion from Energy Opex to Microgrids Through 2027
• Gartner Survey Reveals Only 48% of Digital Initiatives Are Successful
• Gartner Forecasts IT Spending in Europe to Grow 8.7% in 2025

Presented by Daniel Sanchez-Reina, VP Analyst, Gartner

CIOs continue to face increased challenges and demand during one of the most unique times ever experienced by the enterprise. In this session, Daniel Sanchez-Reina, VP Analyst at Gartner, discussed what should be on the CIO’s agenda for the coming 18 months, given the shifting expectations that CEOs and other CxOs have for their CIO — and the CIO’s expectations of their leadership role and the mandates for their IT organization.

• “On average, only 48% of digital initiatives enterprise-wide meet or exceed their business outcome targets. We call this the curse of random success and we need to better understand how to overcome it.” 

• “We found a cohort of CxOs and CIOs that work closely together and co-own digital delivery. They’re jointly accountable for digital initiatives; they form multi-disc. fusion teams of IT and business area staff that work together and share responsibility for delivering results. We call this group of CIOs & CxOs the digital vanguard.”

• Only 14% of EMEA CIOs surveyed prioritize building a technology workforce enterprise-wide in 2025. This condemns them to perpetuate the low number (48%) of digital initiatives that meet or exceed their business outcome targets. 

• “Over 80% of EMEA CIOs polled 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.” 

• “2025 is the year in which CIOs must develop technology and digital leadership skills across the entire enterprise, not just in IT.”

Journalists can receive additional information and/or request an interview with the Gartner expert by contacting Laurence Goasduff at laurence.goasduff@gartner.com.

Presented by Mary Mesaglio, Distinguished VP Analyst, Gartner

Over and over, we're told that in this volatile world, teams need to be agile. In this session, Mary Mesaglio, Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner, highlighted three leadership tactics to get to the heart of change resistance and make better, more effective leaders at every level of the organization.

• “Your job as a leader is to provide a secure path for your people and culture to change. The operative word here is secure.”

• “The most visible part of your culture are the actions and artifacts that we can see.”

• “Underneath these actions are a smaller set of attitudes. These attitudes are default stances or behaviors vis a vis a particular situation.”

• “Default attitudes are fed by anchor assumptions.” 

• “To adapt to constant change, CIOs and IT leaders need to overturn a small number of invisible, powerful assumptions and attitudes. Surface-level change is not enough.”

Journalists can receive additional information and/or request an interview with the Gartner expert by contacting Laurence Goasduff at laurence.goasduff@gartner.com.

Presented by Sarah Watt, VP Analyst, Gartner

Organizations increasingly use technology to drive sustainable growth. In this session, Sarah Watt, VP Analyst at Gartner, explained sustainability growth fundamentals, and shared actions to shift IT from a service function to a business growth driver.

• “To get the benefits of sustainable growth by applying technology you need to support your organization in making four shifts.”

• “The first shift is to relook at potential market opportunities. Sustainability is driving new and different consumer wants and needs.”

• “The second shift is to look at how technology can enable improved design. Technology can help you streamline the design process and ask ‘what if’ types of questions.” 

• “The third shift is about how you think about the products you sell and the business models.”

• “The consumption treadmill is also resulting in a lot of waste. You can use technology to help you defer the end of product life, or to manage raw materials at the end of product life more effectively.”

Journalists can receive additional information and/or request an interview with the Gartner expert by contacting Laurence Goasduff at laurence.goasduff@gartner.com.

Presented by Sophia Palmstedt, Director Advisory, Gartner

GenAI presents new opportunities to enhance productivity and reshape work within banking. In this session, Sophia Palmstedt, Director Advisory at Gartner, explored how banking CIOs are harnessing the power of GenAI.

• “53% of banking CIOs and technology leaders reported their firm was meeting expectations on GenAI initiatives. Only 6% exceeded expectations.”

• There are three techniques to succeed with GenAI in banking:

  • Instill agile governance

  • Set a clear ambition

  • Deploy modular platform design

• “Review your current governance framework and ask yourself: what parts of it need to be revised?”

• “Pioneering bank CIOs who are at the forefront of Gen AI, understand their GenAI ambition has to be guided by a clear need of their business, not someone else’s. Value that makes sense and contributes to their business’s goals, not someone else’s.” 

• “Plug and play with modules and models that your organization needs to meet its GenAI aspirations in a safe manner.”

Journalists can receive additional information and/or request an interview with the Gartner expert by contacting Laurence Goasduff at laurence.goasduff@gartner.com.