“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.
@dhinchcliffe #CIOChat A4 - I'm not sure if AI can keep us on track. We'd have to get the information out of people's heads for that. I think periodic rejustification is helpful and I have been ...places where that is done and there was definitely less spend on failure.
@dhinchcliffe #CIOChat A4: 100% yes. But as a collaboration with IT #CIOS should also start treating the tech estate (and especially data) like a tangible asset that must pay its own rent. No ...contributions to top and or bottom line, or EBITDA kill or discontinue the project
A) if you're "really" an executive and not just that "IT person," & B) if you are willing to be unpopular by making the hard call (i.e., will you bet your job on your decision?)
#CIOchat
#CIOChat Great chat today! Join us at 2pm ET next Thursday. Topic: IT Strategy
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.
@CPetersen_CS I keep a "quick win" team separate from my project teams. We need to move fast at times, but not distract the folks making big, consequential changes.
#CIOchat
@dhinchcliffe @nyike And the beauty of adopting an #Agile mindset and any kind of Deming-inspired improvement cycle is that we can improve the processes as well as the products. #ciochat
A4. Projects should be evaluated often for cost/schedule/business case issues (which needs a strong #PMO rather than cool #AI tools). I run monthly finance 'true-ups' & steering committee reviews... + quarterly #BoD tech committee updates.
Decaying projects quickly start to smell
@dhinchcliffe #CIOChat A3 - Agile has helped identify gaps much faster in larger implementations. Unfortunately agile has often meant I can change my mind at any time which then allows getting off ...track faster as well. Strategic alignment is the key to any project for any methodology.
A4) 🤯 Maybe, but it's hard to imagine that kind of cycle not driving psychological safety and morale down fast. I am allergic to "quick wins" in a similar way. You're either behind this for real... and ready to see it through or don't start it.
#ciochat
@waynesadin It's an easy thing to underestimate, even when you do your level best to be realistic about the amount of change and the individual and group impacts.
#CIOchat
Amen to that! You quickly learn just how interconnected things REALLY are when you start trying to extract targets for changing.
#CIOchat
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VP, Custom Research · The Futurum Group
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