IDC made 10 predictions to guide CIOs in developing their forward-looking IT strategies.
The market research firm released a set of 10 predictions on technology strategies CIOs will adopt within the next five years as part of the IDC FutureScapes series. FutureScapes presents information about emerging technologies, markets and ecosystems to help CIOs prepare for changes in their business.
"CIOs must reinvent the IT organization to enable their enterprise to take advantage of the most powerful wave of the digital transformation," said Serge Findling, vice president of research for IDC's IT executive programs. "Moreover, they need to reinvent IT leadership, by orchestrating armies of bots and automated processes in addition to leading people."
Here are IDC's 10 predictions:
1. By 2021, 70 percent of CIOs will deliver "agile connectivity" via application programming interfaces and architectures that connect digital solutions from cloud vendors, system developers and startups.
2. By 2021, 70 percent of CIOs will apply data analytics and artificial intelligence to IT operations, tools and processes to curtail spending, improve agility and accelerate innovation.
3. By 2022, 65 percent of businesses will task CIOs with modernizing IT governance policies to manage AI, machine learning, and data privacy and ethics.
4. Through 2022, 75 percent of successful digital strategies will be built by IT organizations that are "transformed" with new infrastructures, applications and data architectures.
5. By 2022, 80 percent of IT executive leadership will be compensated based on performance indicators and metrics that measure IT's ability to drive business performance and growth.
6. By 2020, 60 percent of CIOs will launch digital trust frameworks that go beyond preventing cyberattacks, enabling their businesses to rebound from adverse events.
7. By 2022, 75 percent of CIOs who haven't shifted their organizations to "empowered" IT product teams that enable digital innovation and scale will "fail" at their roles.
8. Through 2022, the talent pool for emerging technologies will be inadequate to fill at least 30 percent of global demand, leading employee retention to become a defining strategy for businesses.
9. By 2021, 65 percent of CIOs will expand their agile and DevOps practices into the wider business to achieve the "velocity" needed for digital innovation and execution systemwide.
10. By 2023, 70 percent of CIOs who cannot manage the IT governance and operations divides between different business lines will "fail professionally."