According to Gartner, Inc.’s annual global survey, only 48% of digital initiatives meet or exceed business outcome targets. A cohort of CIOs and CxOs, known as the “Digital Vanguard,” has the highest achievement rate, with 71% of their digital initiatives meeting or exceeding outcome targets.
Digital vanguards
“This digital vanguard distinguishes themselves from the rest of CIOs and CxOs because they co-own digital delivery,” said Raf Gelders, VP of Research at Gartner. “CIOs and CxOs are equally responsible, accountable, and involved in delivering the digital solutions their enterprises need.”
Daniel Sanchez-Reina, VP Analyst at Gartner. “Digital vanguard CIOs nurture their peers to become digital vanguard CxOs. Those CIOs make it easier for their CxOs to lead digital with them and for business area staff to build digital solutions together with IT.”
Becoming a digital vanguard
Sanchez-Reina said that CIOs in EMEA can become digital vanguards by prioritising access to digital platforms to build digital solutions, teaching the interdependencies between technology and business, helping business leaders become digital innovation leaders, and expanding digital skills beyond the IT department.
Increased investments
The survey of more than 3,100 CIOs and technology executives and more than 1,100 executive leaders outside of IT (CxOs) in 88 countries and all major industries found that over 80% of EMEA expect an increase in their investments in cybersecurity, AI/GenAI, and business intelligence and data analytics in 2025.
Almost half (43%) of EMEA CIOs expect a decrease in their investment in legacy infrastructure and data center technologies.
Only 14% of EMEA CIOs intend to prioritise building a technology workforce enterprise-wide (beyond their own IT departments) in 2025. Furthermore, just 19% of EMEA CIOs intend to prioritise sharing technology leadership with other business areas.
