“As AI becomes integral to business strategy, CIOs are being forced to reconsider how and where it’s optimal to deploy compute resources. The need for low latency, cost efficiency, and compliance in AI applications is driving a rapid shift toward hybrid and multi-cloud strategies. For IT leaders, this means 2025 will be a pivotal year for a comprehensive realignment of their infrastructure with the realities of the AI era.”
Enterprise IT in 2025 is entering a period of profound reinvention as CIOs push AI beyond isolated functions, wrestle with the immature foundations of agentic AI, and escalate efforts to counter suddenly looming post-quantum threats. Futurum’s Q2 2025 CIO Insights survey reveals 89% of IT leaders driving AI for strategic transformation, 80% elevating quantum-resilient security to board-level priority, and 71% rethinking optimal cloud environments under intensifying AI workload pressures.
Three primary reasons are driving this change.
Dion Hinchcliffe is a distinguished thought leader, IT expert, and enterprise architect, celebrated for his strategic advisory with Fortune 500 and Global 2000 companies. With over 25 years of experience, Dion works with the leadership teams of top enterprises, as well as leading tech companies, in bridging the gap between business and technology, focusing on enterprise AI, IT management, cloud computing, and digital business. He is a sought-after keynote speaker, industry analyst, and author, known for his insightful and in-depth contributions to digital strategy, IT topics, and digital transformation. Dion’s influence is particularly notable in the CIO community, where he engages actively with CIO roundtables and has been ranked numerous times as one of the top global influencers of Chief Information Officers. He also serves as an executive fellow at the SDA Bocconi Center for Digital Strategies.
Agents will become the biggest users of software sooner than most think.
Our apps now has to be available to be used headless via API, at least if SaaS firms want subscribers.
It’s not that ...agents can’t use a UI, it’s that they’ll nudge their users toward better interfaces.
@dhinchcliffe #CIOChat A2: outcome attainment, app telemetry, workflow completion, revenue linkage, cost-to-serve
#CIOChat Good chat today. Join us at 2pm ET next Thursday. Topic: CIO Succession
Hope you enjoy our movie tie-ins to intro next week’s topic.
Please suggest topics and invite your IT colleagues. ...Every Thursday at 2pm ET.
A2) All of the above. Prepped for much of the direct #CapEx migration through charge-back and show-back all the way down through the infrastructure layers. #ciochat
A3) Yes. I'm a big fan of lead rather than lag metrics. However, also balancing quality, success, and incident metrics to keep the "promises" around AI, velocity above all, etc. grounded. #ciochat
#CIOChat Q4: Looking ahead, do we move to continuous ROI (real-time telemetry and optimization) vs. periodic business cases?
What operating model changes (FinOps, product ownership, value ...engineering) are required to make ROI measurable and managed daily?
#CIOChat Q3: Traditional ROI models break down when value is distributed, compounding, or behavioral (productivity, experience, speed). How are you redefining ROI, such as leading indicators, value ...realization tracking, product-level P&Ls, to make it actionable?
#CIOChat Q2: The CFO conversation has shifted from “strategy decks” to usage, adoption, and outcome telemetry. What data are you using—app telemetry, workflow completion, revenue linkage, ...cost-to-serve—to prove value?
#CIOChat Q1: Across SaaS, cloud, AI, and platforms, CIOs are being asked to justify spend with hard evidence now, not narratives.
Where are you actually seeing provable ROI today, and where is it ...still mostly assumed?
Joining #CIOChat from a rather warm Athens, where I am preparing to move onward. Details on that next chat!
#CIOChat: Welcome to today’s chat. Topic: The ROI Crisis
Join this week’s #CIOChat 2-3 p.m. EST today. Topic: The ROI Crisis
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