Execs see AI and automation as long-term strategic investments

Various surveys performed in the direction of the top of 2025 recommend that IT resolution makers and board-level executives see the deployment of synthetic intelligence (AI) and automation as long-term goals.

The C-suite crucial report from Rimini Road, which based mostly its findings on a Censuswide survey of 4,295 chief monetary officers (CFOs), chief data safety officers (CISOs), CIOs and CEOs, discovered that the highest tactical initiatives amongst respondents have been cyber safety and danger administration (44%).

However when requested about their prime precedence over the subsequent 5 years, 46% of CIOs and 43% of CEOs level to elevated automation and AI adoption. The examine additionally reviews that 35% of C-suite respondents aspire to remodel their enterprise right into a data-driven organisation.
 
Constellation Analysis founder and principal analyst R “Ray” Wang, who’s quoted within the report, mentioned: “AI is all about exponential effectivity. And it interprets to outcomes of 10x sooner and 10x higher – delivered at 10x cheaper.”

To understand this potential, Rimini Road famous that executives must have an organisation-wide view of how one can allow AI for the enterprise, working in tandem and creating a powerful interlock with fellow C-suite counterparts to develop a imaginative and prescient and a well-defined plan to execute in opposition to. This contains securing funds wanted to put money into – and maintain – the price of steady experimentation, implementation and outcomes measurement.

Within the meantime, the examine means that enterprise executives and IT leaders are centered on implementing cloud methods, fortifying cyber safety postures, sustaining compliance and optimising IT prices. These actions – pushed by shrinking IT budgets, more and more refined assaults and rising regulatory complexities – are extra tactical in nature, however crucial for assembly present enterprise wants. In the long run, the survey outcomes reveal a shift in technique akin to adopting new applied sciences, enhancing enterprise continuity and creating inner abilities.

When requested about payback for know-how investments, the Rimini Road ballot discovered that enterprise and IT leaders anticipate roughly 27% of payback within the first one to 2 years, growing to 37% in three to 5 years. After six years, survey respondents anticipate a full return on their know-how funding. In response to Rimini Road, these findings mirror growing stress to prioritise know-how initiatives that create lasting influence whereas sustaining value predictability.

Discussing the findings, Rimini Road CFO Michael Perica mentioned: “As financial and operational pressures intensify, executives are taking a much more disciplined strategy to know-how funding. The findings clearly present that organisations need measurable outcomes, sooner payback cycles and much more flexibility in how they allocate their budgets.”

He instructed IT and enterprise leaders concentrate on a “business-driven enterprise software program roadmap”, which places leaders in charge of the place and once they make investments, which he mentioned permits companies to redirect assets from expensive, low-value actions in the direction of initiatives akin to agentic AI, with the potential to enhance effectivity, strengthen resilience, and help long-term development and innovation.

The survey reviews that 51% of C-suites have a imaginative and prescient for his or her organisation’s IT property, which requires a stable, forward-looking roadmap. Rimini Road believes this means that over the subsequent 5 years, enterprise executives are planning on doing incremental work on transformational actions akin to turning their organisation right into a data-driven one.

The survey outcomes from Rimini Road are mirrored in Deloitte’s newest CFO examine, which discovered that chief monetary officers anticipate UK companies to extend funding in digital know-how and property together with AI over the subsequent 5 years. They don’t anticipate this funding to usher in a interval of improved enterprise efficiency and productiveness development within the brief time period, though they anticipate to see this improve over the subsequent 5 years.

Solely 10% of the CFOs surveyed say they’re investing in worker coaching over the subsequent 12 months, however when requested about their five-year plans, nearly three-quarters (73%) say they intend to put money into workforce abilities.

“CFOs are considerably extra constructive about enhancing efficiency by way of deploying AI and stay upbeat about know-how funding over the medium time period,” mentioned Richard Houston, senior companion and CEO at Deloitte UK.

“We all know know-how was a giant driver of US GDP [gross domestic product] in 2025, and we see actual potential within the 12 months forward for AI to spice up UK enterprise efficiency and gas development. Nonetheless, to understand the total worth from AI, we should mix human abilities with know-how and upskill folks so no person is left behind.”