- Gartner Survey Reveals Only 48% of Digital Initiatives Are Successful
- In 2025, Over 80% of EMEA CIOs Plan to Increase Investments in Cybersecurity, AI/GenAI, Business Intelligence and Data Analytics
Gartner analysts presented the survey findings during Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo, taking place here through Thursday. The 2025 Gartner CIO and Technology Executive Survey gathered data from 3,186 CIOs and technology executives (including 1,376 CIOs in EMEA) in 88 countries and all major industries. This survey was supplemented with insights from 1,126 executive leaders outside of IT.
“Behind every digital vanguard CxO, a digital vanguard CIO is guiding and enabling CxOs and their teams to co-lead and co-build digital delivery with IT,” said 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.”
“CIOs’ success now depends on their CxOs’ success. To succeed at the next phase of digital initiatives, CIOs need their CxOs to work together and co-lead with them. So their fortunes are intertwined: one cannot succeed without the other.”
Figure 1: Funding Changes Among EMEA CIOs, from 2024 to 2025 (Percentage of Respondents)
EMEA CIOs Are Not Prioritizing Tech and Digital Leadership Skills Development Across the Enterprise
Only 14% of EMEA CIOs surveyed prioritize building a technology workforce enterprise-wide (beyond their own IT departments) in 2025. That will limit the enterprise’s ability to get the most from their digital investments. It condemns them to perpetuate the low number (48%) of digital initiatives that meet or exceed their business outcome targets.
Furthermore, just 19% of EMEA CIOs said they will prioritize sharing technology leadership with other business areas, a paramount must-have to grow the digital vanguard (see Figure 2).