IT leaders face 5 key priorities from CEOs in 2024

The evolving relationship between CEOs and CIOs reflects a fundamental shift in how technology leadership drives business strategy in 2025. As AI moves from buzzword to business imperative, chief executives are tasking their technology leaders with implementing practical AI solutions that deliver measurable value while simultaneously addressing core business challenges including customer experience, digital transformation, and security. This strategic realignment demonstrates how technology has become central to addressing both the perennial business objectives and emerging economic uncertainties facing today’s enterprises.

The big picture: CIO.com’s 2025 State of the CIO Survey reveals that researching and implementing AI products and projects has become the top CEO priority for IT departments, reflecting a shift from experimentation to practical implementation.

• Other top CEO priorities include improving customer experience, strengthening IT-business alignment, leading digital transformation, and upgrading security to reduce corporate risk.
• These priorities emerge against a backdrop of economic uncertainty, with 46% of CEOs identifying economic downturn or recession as a high-impact issue for 2025.

Why this matters: The emphasis on AI implementation signals that CEOs now view technology leadership as essential to solving fundamental business challenges rather than just supporting operations.

• “Driving revenue growth, improving customer engagement, making people more productive — these are evergreen goals, but now it’s also about AI and how to integrate AI into your tech stack and everything you do,” explains Laserfiche CEO Karl Chan.
• This represents a significant evolution in the CIO’s role from technology manager to strategic business partner.

The AI imperative: Since ChatGPT entered the C-suite vocabulary in late 2022, CEOs have moved beyond AI curiosity to demand concrete business value from implementation efforts.

• Mark Taylor, CEO of the Society for Information Management, notes that CEOs are now thinking about “using AI to disrupt the company, to remake the company, and to replace the existing business with a new one.”
• This shift requires CIOs to collaborate closely with business leaders to deliver measurable outcomes through productivity gains, efficiency improvements, or business transformation.

Economic context: Geopolitical factors are significantly influencing CEO technology priorities as businesses prepare for potential economic headwinds.

• The Conference Board survey found 80% of CEOs are looking to alter supply chains to lower costs and reduce potential disruptions.
• An overwhelming 98% of CEOs expressed concern about global tariffs, highlighting how international trade tensions are shaping technology strategy.