New year, same problems.
CIOs spent 2024 figuring out how to respond to fast-moving technology demands, grappling with a dizzying spread of solutions from vendors and shifts in global regulations.
As 2025 rolls in, executives remain mired in the same challenges. However, their approach will differ this year as new strategies come into the fold. Leaders will apply FinOps practices beyond the cloud, turning to their vendors to leverage agentic AI and build digital literacy to solve staffing shortages.
Here are 5 trends that will shape CIO roles this year:
1. FinOps expands its scopes beyond cloud
FinOps was born in the cloud, as IT teamed up with finance to put a lid on rising enterprise cloud bills. The approach worked so well that FinOps is spreading organically across the IT ecosystem to help rein in software spending, bringing cost optimization practices to the data center.
AI is also on the FinOps radar, according to Jay Litkey, SVP of cloud and FinOps at Flexera and FinOps Foundation governing board member.
“When FinOps originated, it had the word ‘cloud’ in front of it,” Litkey said. “Cloud doesn’t preface FinOps so much anymore, even when it’s used by the FinOps Foundation.”
Last year, IT and software asset managers forged alliances with cloud-focused FinOps teams to rationalize SaaS procurements and avoid the sting of costly vendor audits. The FinOps Foundation added data center costs, another escalating category of spend, to its scopes in November.
Enterprise software procurements remain ripe for optimization, according to Litkey. Many organizations are overpaying major providers like Microsoft, Oracle and SAP by neglecting licensing portability provisions.
“There’s a gazillion dollars being overspent right now on software in the cloud that people don't need to be buying, if they just apply their entitlements,” he said. “Those providers have terms that say on-prem licenses can be used in the cloud.”
As enterprises feel the pain of rising AI costs in the absence of clear returns, executives are beginning to worry.
“AI is the new cloud — everybody's doing it but nobody knows how much of it they're doing,” Litkey said. “If you asked executives how much they were spending on cloud eight years ago, they couldn’t tell you. The same thing is happening with AI right now.”
2. Vendors will lead an AI agent proliferation
AI providers have not been shy about where they believe enterprise adoption is headed: toward agentic capabilities and services.
Rather than responding to prompts and offering advice, AI agents can decide what to do next without needing step-by-step human guidance.
Last year, Meta, Microsoft, Google, SAP and Salesforce were among a batch of vendors that began shifting messaging toward AI agents and related use cases. In 2025, the list of options for enterprises to choose from is expected to grow.
“Agents range from simple prompts to fully autonomous,” Hadley Griffin, a product manager in Office AI at Microsoft, said during an annual shareholder meeting in December. “They assist with everything from prioritizing leads, scheduling meetings, fulfilling orders and many others.”
Agent-focused predictions peppered vendor-published trends for 2025. Salesforce says this year will be characterized by multi-agent systems taking center stage, and Google predicts agentic capabilities will simplify complex tasks for employees as the technology becomes more popular in businesses.
The shift for vendors from copilot to agent also aligns with increasing pressure from enterprise customers to reach ROI on AI initiatives at a faster pace. Many organizations grappled with roadblocks for the past two years, and agents can offer more direct business value compared to the legwork required with general-purpose models. Even so, there are additional hurdles on the horizon.
While CIOs are interested in agents, nearly 9 in 10 admit their existing tech stack needs upgrades before deploying the technology, according to a survey of more than 1,000 tech leaders commissioned by Tray.ai and published in December.
3. CIOs pursue the CEO seat as tech becomes more critical
The CIO role spent much of the previous decade gaining strategic importance. Organizations expect their technology strategies to drive financial outcomes, prompting more CIOs to align their careers toward the chief executive seat.
Nearly one-quarter of CIOs chose CEO as the top C-suite position they were likely to pursue in the future, according to Info-Tech Research Group.
"Technology has built a foundational layer under leadership and business," said Brittany Lutes, research director in the firm's CIO practice. "Those skill sets that the senior-most individual in the organization needed have shifted to be technology focused."
The CIO's growing scope of influence is already shifting reporting structures, according to Gartner VP Analyst Daniel Sanchez Reina. The firm has tracked an increase in the number of CIOs reporting into COOs, reflecting a closer tie between technology and how businesses operate.
When executives report to CFOs, their remit tends to focus on productivity or profitability. But roles reporting into COOs can have a broader impact on how businesses operate.
"This is what CEOs want," Sanchez Reina said. "CEOs want CIOs to have a much wider perspective of the enterprise."
4. AI governance headaches will persist
CIOs found it challenging to manage the different aspects of AI initiatives in 2024, and analysts expect AI plans to become more complex this year as the technology and regulatory landscape evolves.
“Governance is reappearing as a No. 1 priority because organizations realize that they’re never going to be able to do AI at scale if they don’t have a good and strong governance foundation,” Collibra CEO Felix Van de Maele told CIO Dive. “Governance has almost become sexy.”
Enterprises are up against a fast-evolving landscape. While governance can provide enterprises with the proper bumper-like guardrails to ensure adoption is responsible and compliant, most leaders have yet to crack the code. Less than half of enterprises are compliant with existing AI laws or actively working toward compliance, according to an Omdia survey.
The lack of expertise in how to govern AI is setting enterprises up to start the year on shaky ground, especially for those looking to pursue agentic AI integration.
“The risks become a lot higher,” Van de Maele said. “The control and the confidence that you need to do these things become a lot higher, and I think that’s just not where organizations today are.”
5. Executives will focus on building digital literacy around AI
Fatigued by vendor promises and looking to quick wins, CIOs will spend more resources and time in 2025 building up in-house skills to harness the potential of technology tools.
Part of the solution will come from training. Digital literacy, particularly around AI tools, will emerge as a key executive priority in 2025, said Seth Robinson, VP of industry research at CompTIA.
"We've seen in a lot of our studies [in 2024], surveying HR professionals and hiring managers, that these skills are needed across the entire workforce," said Robinson. "Digital literacy and skills include some working knowledge of what AI is and how it works."
The IT trade group forecasts two-thirds of organizations intend to train current employees to close IT skills gaps in cybersecurity, software, data, and other areas of IT, up from 59% in 2024.
To help enterprises surmount skills barriers, vendors have deployed free and low-cost AI training programs.. One joint effort last year set the goal of upskilling 100 million tech workers in the next decade, in a consortium led by Cisco and backed by Microsoft, Google, IBM, Intel and SAP.
Building internal AI knowledge will require leaders to embed the technology throughout processes, according to Owl Labs CEO Frank Weishaupt.
"You really need to have [AI] at the forefront so you're not just training by putting in an article in a knowledge base for your employees, but you're changing the language of how you communicate," said Weishaupt. "There's so many positives to it that it really needs to be on the top of everybody's mind."
