Forrester presents AI and tech leadership predictions for 2025

Forrester has published its 2025 Predictions reports for artificial intelligence and tech leadership. These reports were part of the new research that Forrester has announced ahead of its Technology & Innovation Summit North America this week.

Artificial intelligence  

AI entered the enterprise this year and spread rapidly, exceeding Forrester’s 2024 AI prediction that 60% of workers will bring their own AI (BYOAI) in 2024. However, BYOAI is not a strategy.  Enterprise AI leaders now realize that for longer-term AI success, they need an effective strategy combining data and AI.  

In 2025, Forrester predicts that: 

* Most enterprises fixated on AI RoI will scale back prematurely. Leaders are realizing that RoI from investments will take longer than they anticipated, and are shifting toward pragmatically delivering ROI over time. However, impatience with AI RoI could prompt enterprises to prematurely scale back investments, which will become a long-term disadvantage.  

* 30% of large-firm CIOs will bring CDOs into the IT fold. With AI often fraught with challenges that stem from problems with data foundations and stakeholder collaboration, CIOs will realise that they not only need Chief Data Officers (CDOs) as partners to assure AI success, but they also need to bridge the gap between technical and business expertise.  

* Three out of four firms that build aspirational agentic architectures on their own will fail. AI agentic architectures require multiple models, advanced data architectures, and specialized expertise. As a result, 75% of enterprises that attempt to build these agents themselves next year will fail – and will turn to consultancies to build custom agent setups or use agents embedded in their existing vendor software ecosystems.  

Tech leadership 

As we approach 2025, technology leaders find themselves navigating a complex landscape filled with economic, technological, and geopolitical challenges. Yet optimism prevails: 91% tech decision makers expect IT budget increases in the coming year and Forrester forecasts that the digital economy will grow at a 6.9% CAGR from 2023 to 2028. 

In 2025, Forrester predicts that: 

* Only one in five tech execs on the hook for digital transformations will succeed. Today, many digital transformations are tech-enabled, especially given AI, and CEOs are increasingly asking CIOs to take the lead. However, these complex programs require coordination with business, operations, HR, and IT leaders, and many will struggle to get them on board. As a result, critical tech-enabled transformations will stall, businesses will suffer, and leaders will exit.  

* Tech execs trying to reduce tech debt will triple the adoption of AIOps. As IT landscapes continue to get ever more complex, more than 50% of technology decision makers will see their tech debt rise to a moderate or high level of severity as they enter 2025. By 2026, this number will increase to 75%. To stem the tsunami of tech debt, tech leaders will look to AIOps platforms that can deliver contextually aware data to enhance human judgement, automatically remediate incidents, and improve business outcomes. 

* 60% of organizations will disclose technology risk as their top strategic enterprise risk. Enterprise risk profiles have evolved over the past three years, reflecting a 20% growth in substantive disclosures of risks associated with technology's critical role in market value creation. In 2025, firms will adapt their strategies to mature their tech risk competencies to stay aligned with shifts in regulatory requirements, tech advancements, and changing stakeholder expectations.