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What are CIO priorities in 2024?

Harness AI to launch exponential IT value creation.

In 2024, generative AI will continue to dominate the conversation. As organizations seek to capitalize on the opportunities and mitigate the risks ushered in by this disruptive technology, CIOs and IT leaders will need to prioritize their initiatives and align their capabilities accordingly.

This year’s CIO Priorities report highlights five key initiatives that will help IT deliver the greatest value in the year ahead, based on data gathered from CIOs and senior IT leaders as they respond to the external trends impacting their organizations.

Seize opportunity while protecting the organization from volatility

Informed by Info-Tech’s Future of IT Survey 2024 and in-depth CIO interviews, this report puts five key initiatives on the radar, as organizations continue to grapple with the risks and the rewards of generative AI:

  • Augment the business with Gen AI – Determine where to add generative AI capabilities to business processes and build or buy accordingly.
  • Right-size AI governance – Design AI governance that won’t hinder innovation and integrates into existing risk management structures.
  • Update vendor risk assessments – Create or revisit vendor risk assessment programs to account for new AI risks.
  • Exponentially increase innovation – Widen the idea-to-pilot pipeline to explore more AI use cases and ramp up the innovation process.
  • Exponentially improve customer experience – Speed up time to value and keep customers satisfied as CX takes center stage.

This report will help guide IT leaders as they develop the IT capabilities that will drive the most value for the organization, as 2024 promises to be another year of exponential change and opportunity.


What are CIO priorities in 2024? Research & Tools

1. CIO Priorities 2024 Report – Focus on developing the capabilities that will create exponential value.

Determine how IT can respond to key trends and prioritize initiatives that will seize opportunities and mitigate threats. See a data analysis of what high-maturity IT departments are planning for 2024.


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What does a CIO need to know?

The chief information officer (CIO) is an executive position responsible for the technological side of an organization, including but not limited to IT. The CIO must ensure that IT's operations and capabilities are aligned with the organization's business strategy and be able to effectively communicate the needs and workings of IT to other members of the organization.


CIO Priorities 2024

Harness AI to launch exponential IT value creation.

Analyst perspective

The already-high expectations on IT are shifting once again and it's time to either rise with the tide or be lost at sea.

When I was evaluating the trends impacting IT organizations for 2024, it was clear that generative AI dominated the landscape. We responded with The Generative Enterprise, a report delving into the new opportunities and risks this disruptive technology is bringing with it. But what capabilities should CIOs focus on improving to respond to those implications? What initiatives should they prioritize to seize upon the opportunities and mitigate the risks for the enterprise?

CIO Priorities 2024: Harness AI to Launch Exponential Value Creation explores those questions with five initiatives that many organizations would do well to pursue if they are not already. The challenge of writing a priorities report like this is that each organization will have its own different internal business context that puts a different lens on the implications before it. Yet in 2024, generative AI is like an elephant in the C-suite office, trumpeting its demands to be addressed. Whether through internal build efforts or through new vendor features, generative AI must be addressed by CIOs.

We've seen this script played out before. The consumerization of IT is just taking up a new guise. Consumers bought iPhones and saw the conveniences of mobile apps. CEOs also insisted that they could use their iPhones to get work done. They demanded digital service models that gave them control over when and how they paid as well as customer service that was a chat message away. Generative AI is the next wave lifting the expectations of our customer and our business stakeholders.

The only question is whether you can build a boat that will lift your organization along with it – or will it sink as the currents surge by?

Brian Jackson.

Brian Jackson
Principal Research Director,
Special Projects,
Info-Tech Research Group

CIO Priorities 2024 is informed by Info-Tech's Future of IT online survey and CIO interviews

Info-Tech's Tech Trends 2024 report details the externalities faced by organizations in the year ahead. They imply opportunities and risks that organizations face. Leadership must determine if they will respond and how to do so. CIOs then determine how to support those responses by creating or improving their IT capabilities. The priorities are the initiatives that will deliver the most value across the capabilities that are most in demand. The CIO Priorities 2024 report draws upon data collected in our Future of IT online survey and companion in-depth interviews to accomplish this analysis.

2024 Future of IT Survey; N=894 (partial), n=496 (completed)

Info-Tech conducted its online survey between May 23 and August 22, 2023. We received 894 total responses with 496 completed surveys. All respondents work in IT departments. More than 36% of respondents are the most senior IT leader in their organization, and 61% are at director-level seniority or above.

2024 Future of IT CIO interviews; N=23

Between July and September 2023, Info-Tech conducted in-depth interviews with 23 CIOs who took the online survey to receive more in-depth answers and explanations.

CIO interviews covered a wide range of organizational experience

Info-Tech sought a variety of different CIO experiences in the 23 in-depth interviews it conducted. Leaders were directly involved in strategy and governance functions at their organization.

  • They represented a variety of organization sizes, with about half coming from large organizations of more than 2,500 employees.
  • IT budgets also varied, with many in the $10 million to $50 million range. Others operated with less than $1 million or more than $100 million.
  • It’s an international group, with respondents from the US, Canada, the Middle East, Great Britain, India, Central America, and South America.
  • A variety of industries were also included, such as Media, Technology, Construction, Transportation, Government, Manufacturing, Gaming & Hospitality, Financial Services, and Not-for-Profit.

Seeking insights from high-maturity IT departments

Every organization will have its own custom list of priorities based on its internal context. Organizational goals, IT maturity level, and effectiveness of capabilities are some of the important factors to consider. To provide CIOs with a starting point for their list of priorities for 2024, we separated our survey respondents into two groups: high maturity and low maturity.

High-maturity respondents indicated their IT departments were either at “expands the business” or “transforms the business” maturity (n=154). Low-maturity respondents were at “struggles,” “supports,” or “optimizes the business” (n=530). We excluded 218 respondents that skipped describing their IT maturity. By doing this analysis of online survey respondents, we can make clear what sets higher maturity organizations apart in terms of setting priorities.

For our 23 CIO interview respondents, we conducted a thematic analysis of responses about priorities and planning decisions to add more depth and context to each priority.

Comparing high-maturity vs. low-maturity organizations

The image shows the maturity ladder compared to the respondents' maturity level. Struggle 14.3%, Support 8.2%, Optimize 28.1%, Expand 8.2%, Transform 14.3%. Those are grouped into Low Maturity respondents 50.6% [Struggle, Support, Optimize], High Maturity respondents 22.5% [Expand, Transform], No response 26.9%.

Harness AI to launch exponential IT value creation.

About Info-Tech

Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.

We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

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  • Five priorities to help manage AI’s opportunities and risks in 2024.
  • Recommendations drawn from 894 survey respondents and 23 in-depth CIO interviews.
  • CIO insights from real-world case studies on each of the five priorities.

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