According to one recent survey, cybersecurity is still the top enterprise technology priority for IT decision-makers, ahead of even attention-grabbing artificial intelligence (AI).
Considering the amount of coverage AI has been getting over the last year or so, you’d think it would be a top priority for enterprise organizations—especially since just about every technology and new IT project these days is infused with some level of AI.
That’s not the case, however: Cybersecurity continues to rank highest among enterprise technology priorities, according to a recent survey by IoT Analytics. The news and information site regularly surveys IT decision-makers on their top technology investment priorities from almost 20 technology topics. And while AI continues to climb in the ranks, it hasn’t yet cracked the Top 5 in IoT Analytics’ survey.
That’s surprising, given that the IT decision-makers surveyed are in the industrial and manufacturing sectors—prime areas for AI improvement. However, given the need for secure systems and processes, it makes sense that cybersecurity is in the top spot.
Top Tech Priorities
The technologies comprising the top 5 for 2024 are:
- Cybersecurity
- Process automation
- IT software
- Cloud
- IoT
In 2025, IoT Analytics predicts a subtle shift in priorities, as companies pull back on cloud spending following major investments during the pandemic. Instead, organizations will focus more of their spending on (surprise!) AI.
The expected top 5 technology priorities for 2025 are:
- Cybersecurity
- Process automation
- IT software
- AI/ML (including generative AI)
- IoT
IoT Analytics regularly covers topics related to IoT devices and operations, so its surveys and reports focus more on how technologies such as cybersecurity impact IoT. In related research, it found that cybersecurity is one of the biggest concerns for OEMs developing connected IoT products, from both regulatory and user-adoption perspectives.
Process Automation, IT Software Also Popular
Since being added to the survey in 2023, process automation has ranked as the second-highest technology priority. Clearly, the idea of automating repetitive business processes appeals to almost everyone. That said, while it has ranked second among North American and APAC companies, European companies ranked it as their fifth highest priority.
IT software, meanwhile, continues to hold its position as the third highest priority (again, since 2023). Companies are restarting or reprioritizing large-scale rollouts of IT software, such as CRM and ERP systems, after having pulled back during the pandemic, when they directed their budgets to cloud spending.
According to additional research from IoT Analytics, many manufacturers are upgrading their ERP systems to “ensure their various data sources are connected before other digital transformation initiatives.”
Despite these surveys focusing on a fairly narrow vertical, they somewhat align with what enterprises are spending their IT budgets on. In its research on enterprise IT spending, research firm Gartner reports IT software will see the largest increase—almost 14%—of any area in IT in 2024, followed by data center systems, which will see 10% growth in 2024. Gartner attributes the data center spending increase to enterprises preparing to executive their generative AI plans.
Regardless of how organizations are spending their IT budgets, they are clearly laying the groundwork for large-scale implementations down the road. Ensuring the security of the data and the systems they run on is paramount, regardless of company size or vertical.
