IT leaders across a range of industries are ramping up AI adoption plans in the year ahead, but traditional focus areas such as cybersecurity, cloud, and privacy still remain critical.
That’s according to ITPro’s 2025 Future Focus report, a piece of in-house research fielding responses from IT executives and business leaders. Conducted as an online survey, we collected responses from 736 C-suite executives, directors, IT leaders, IT decision makers, and decision makers.
The study shows that, while IT leaders are optimistic about the future and the possibilities of emerging technologies, there is also a sense of realism about the many potential hurdles facing them.
AI is top of mind for many, with over three-quarters (78%) saying it will be one of their top three focuses in 2025. This is compared to 41% making the same claim about 2024.
Three-quarters of respondents said AI understanding or readiness would become more important this year, while the study also pointed to a heightened level of investment. Nearly a quarter (24%) intended to spend between 21% and 31% of their IT budget on AI this year.
Other industry research reflects this bullish approach to investment, with analysis from EY in mid-2024 revealing that the number of companies investing $10 million or more is set to nearly double this year.
Notably, IT leaders are having difficulties with AI adoption and deployment. One respondent told ITPro that their business had experienced difficulty integrating AI into daily workflows while another said they lack the in-house technical expertise to maximize the benefits of the technology.
AI skilling has been a persistent issue for a while now, with more than one-in-ten (81%) of IT managers warning of an urgent AI skills gap according to a Red Hat survey last year.
Businesses have a disconnect on cybersecurity
Across every region we surveyed, a combined 74% of respondents said that cybersecurity investment would be more important in 2025 than it had been in 2024, with 27% highlighting its importance.
There is a disconnect, however, as most businesses are not planning to invest in cybersecurity in line with this perceived importance.
Almost half (40%) of respondents in the US, Canada, and EMEA only expect to spend 20% or less of their overall budget on cybersecurity this year. While businesses are contending with rising levels of cyber attacks, this has not translated into bigger budgets for security departments.
Cybersecurity departments are increasingly contending with budget cuts, with research from ISC2 finding that growth in the global cybersecurity workforce had slowed for the first time in six years on the back of budget constraints.
Also testament to shrinking budgets is the cybersecurity skills shortage, with 96% of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) reporting a lack of cyber skills, according to a report from Sophos.
Cloud and data are key areas of focus
Just under two-thirds (64%) of respondents said cloud migration was a greater focus in 2025 than it had been in 2024. Over half (52%) said cloud will be one of their top three areas of investment for this year.
As organizations focus on the cloud as a core part of their overall IT strategy, access to data and the ability to manage it also becomes more important. More than half (56%) of those surveyed put analytics as one of their top three areas of focus or investment for the coming year.
“I see the biggest tech opportunity in 2025 as leveraging cloud and edge computing to enhance data processing and analytics, driving efficiency and growth,” one respondent said.
Cloud investment has been on an upward trend over recent months, with analysis from IDC predicting global cloud spending to reach $1.6 trillion by 2028 at a five-year compound annual growth rate of 19.5%.
