Ardoq Releases CIO report: Emerging Technology Adoption 2024

Are you looking for the key to mitigating technological risks while maximizing the benefits of AI?

We’re delighted to release our latest piece of industry-leading research: the Emerging Technology Adoption Report 2024. We surveyed 700 CIOs and other senior IT leaders in organizations of more than 2,000 employees about their experiences with implementing AI and other emerging technologies.

Our findings show there is a huge opportunity for organizations to reduce risks and achieve a greater return on investment (ROI) from these technologies. CIOs recognise that speed is key, as they are acting fast on AI. However, at the same time they are feeling pressure, as 65% of them believe that AI is the most high-risk technology they've ever invested in, and 81% experience a “moral pressure” to “get it right”.

This pressure to change has created a climate where businesses are taking leaps of faith in the implementation of these emerging technologies, causing them to act without necessarily having the right structures, processes and systems in place to mitigate risk. Regulatory issues, ballooning costs, and inefficient resource use are just some of the consequences of this haphazard approach, which can ultimately result in investments failing to live up to expectations.

One of the biggest barriers to the success of emerging technology adoption projects is an ineffective and unstructured approach. The difficulty in maximizing the benefits of these technologies is compounded by the path ahead often being unclear, requiring continuous reassessment and adaptation to align with business goals, comply with evolving regulations, and ultimately ensure ROI.

Some key statistics from the report include:

• 91% of CIOs say that, if successful, their investments in emerging technologies can put them at the forefront of their market.
• 66% of CIOs are worried that competitors will “eat them for lunch” if they don’t move quickly on AI.
• Only 53% of emerging technology adoption projects in the past five years have delivered measurable benefits and impact.
• 64% of CIOs say they have burned in the past by technologies that have failed to deliver, which has made the business more cautious about future investments.
• 69% of CIOs say it's a nightmare navigating emerging technologies projects through the regulatory minefield.
• 66% of CIOs say AI is the most high-risk technology they've ever invested in, with the burden on their shoulders if anything goes wrong.
• 71% of organizations rely on manual mapping—or do not map at all—to determine the impact of a new technology on existing processes and capabilities and the potential benefits it will deliver.
• 89% of CIOs say it is difficult to maintain full visibility and control of risk across the IT portfolio and anticipate the impact of evolving regulations in emerging technology adoption projects.
• 68% of CIOs recognize the need to be able to constantly alter course to ensure success with emerging technology adoption projects.

To fully realize the benefits from emerging technologies, organizations need a data-driven execution strategy that balances risk and reward and allows them to take a long term view of investment decisions. To enable this, Enterprise Architecture must be matured beyond IT to become a business discipline.

Explore the new interactive research report and arm yourself and your team with the knowledge to understand the risks, costs, and impacts of emerging technologies—be it AI, or whatever comes next.