Eighty-eight percent of Australian and New Zealand (ANZ) CIOs and technology executives revealed cybersecurity remains the top technology investment in 2025, according to Gartner, Inc.’s annual global survey of CIOs and technology executives. This is closely followed by data analytics (84%), cloud platforms (83%) and generative AI (GenAI) (81%).
“With greater government regulation, coupled with some of the largest cyberattacks we’ve seen in ANZ this year, organizations face greater scrutiny as they batten down the hatches to avoid becoming the next target or breaching stewardship,” said Brian Ferreira, VP EXP Advisory Services at Gartner. “This continues to drive significant focus and investment towards cybersecurity and legal compliance into next year.”
The 2025 Gartner CIO and Technology Executive Survey gathered data from 3,186 respondents, including 109 from ANZ across the public, private and non-profit sectors. Gartner analysts are discussing the latest CIO investment trends during Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo, taking place on the Gold Coast until Wednesday.
“While not included in last year’s survey, it’s hardly surprising GenAI has shot towards the top of the technology investment list for next year as organizations continue to navigate their way towards realizing the business value that GenAI can offer as the hype subsides,” said Ferreira. “They’re also facing more stringent laws to increase stewardship obligations.”
The top three technologies ANZ CIOs said they will decrease investments in next year are legacy infrastructure (43%), human augmentation – augmented reality, virtual reality and immersive technologies (17%) – and next-generation compute technology (11%).
Top CIO Focus Areas for 2025
According to the Gartner survey, managing cybersecurity and other technology risk is the leading priority for 82% of ANZ CIOs next year. This is followed by managing technology financials (59%); demonstrating the business value of IT (52%); and innovating and modernizing enterprise applications and software (51%).
“The uncertain economic climate businesses have operated in the last few years has increased executive and board scrutiny on technology investments,” said Ferreira. “Next year will be critical for ANZ CIOs to prioritize technology activities, in conjunction with executive stakeholders, by aligning technology spend and resources to validated high-priority smart spending levers at the enterprise level.”
Critical Outcomes of Digital Technology Investments
The Gartner survey indicated that 94% of ANZ CIOs said improving operating margins is the most critical outcome from digital technology investments in 2025, up from 48% in 2024. This is followed by ensuring compliance and minimizing risks (92% – up from 57% in 2024) and excelling in customer or citizen experience (87% – up from 70% in 2024).
“As the Australian regulatory landscapes continue to evolve, it is incumbent upon CIOs to steer their organizations towards a future marked by digital stewardship, responsible innovation, stringent compliance and active participation in shaping regulatory norms,” said Ferreira.
ANZ CIOs have already been laying the foundation for democratized digital delivery with technologies such as low-code platforms, which 55% said they have deployed or plan to deploy in the next 12 months. Other leading emerging digital technologies include generative AI (69%), AI (62%), industry cloud platforms (51%) and 5G (48%).
“To ensure continued success of these foundations, CIOs have reconfigured their spending patterns for democratization and to understand consumption economics,” said Ferreira.
By 2027, the Gartner survey indicates a much higher level of deployment, with 95% planning to have deployed AI, 92% GenAI and 79% low-code platforms. Gartner
