Dive Brief:

• Cybersecurity threats emerged as tech executives’ top challenge and area for investment, according to a report published Tuesday by IT resources and managed services provider Experis.   
• Nearly three-quarters of the 1,393 survey respondents — which included 480 C-suite tech executives and 913 senior IT decision-makers from nine countries — said they planned to increase cybersecurity spend in 2025. CIOs also prioritized modernization efforts and emerging tech through increased spending on cloud and AI, cited by 68% and 67% of respondents, respectively.
• IT leaders plan to address a tech skills shortage in 2025 by blending external hiring and upskilling efforts with role redesign. More than half of respondents reported embedding AI skills into existing roles as a way to build expertise.

Dive Insight:

CIOs and CTOs have their hands full in 2025. In addition to addressing critical security, innovation and talent concerns, they're juggling cyber imperatives, digital transformation efforts and emerging tech initiatives.

The concern that topped the list for tech leaders is the ever-present threat to enterprise security, with 41% of respondents indicating this is the issue keeping them up at night. Their concerns are not unfounded as attacks become more sophisticated, frequent — research found that cryptocurrency ransomware-specific payments decreased 35% year-over-year in 2024 but activity spiked — and expensive. In 2025, Forrester Research predicts global cybercrime costs overall could reach $12 trillion.

While cybersecurity also topped its list for increased spend in 2025, Experis noted investment can’t happen in a vacuum. Cyber strategy and tool adoption need to be jointly coordinated, an example of how C-suite functions are converging and why working with non-IT executives is now critical.

That criticality could extend to chief HR officers, given the skills gaps CIOs are facing. In a recent study from Revature, 4 out of 5 respondents expressed concern about finding tech talent this year.

Yet only 14% of those surveyed by Experis consider the CIO-CHRO an essential relationship to success in 2025, despite reporting that employer-led training programs and in-person training are effective paths to skill building. 

Experis found that CIOs bridging talent gaps by redesigning job roles, offering AI upskilling and providing more opportunity for versatility.