A survey of 203 enterprise CIOs conducted by the Futurum Group finds IT leaders are pursuing a nuanced approach to managing application workloads while simultaneously looking to safely drive more adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) applications.

For example, well over half of the CIOs surveyed plan to reevaluate where workloads run to better align with cost, security, and performance needs, compared to 28% that for now are not planning any changes. Specifically, Salesforce (38%), ServiceNow (41%), and Microsoft Azure (35%) are cited as the top three platforms being considered, according to the report.

At the same time, nearly all CIOs report AI is now being pervasively used across the enterprise, with sales (68%), operations (67%), and marketing (64%) being the most AI-enabled functions. Top priorities for future AI investments include automation (69%), productivity (67%), and customer experience (63%).

However, CIOs are also clearly concerned about data privacy (79%) and output bias (57%), with more than two thirds (68%) reporting their organization has well-formed AI policies already in place.

Not surprisingly, talent acquisition and retention (72%) is the top challenge identified, followed distantly by cybersecurity (49%), but when it comes to strategic investment priorities the survey finds cybersecurity tops the list (81%), followed by digital transformation (66%) and emerging technologies (63%).

Dion Hinchcliffe, vice president and practice lead for digital leadership & CIO at Futurum Group, said that while CIOs, as usual, are navigating competing priorities there are proven tactics that can be used to make the IT budget go farther. For example, some CIOs are freeing up funds by consolidating vendors, noted Hinchcliffe. Others are investing in automation by driving modernization efforts that reduce the total cost of IT, he added.

More creatively, IT leaders are crafting co-investment strategies with other business unit leaders to help fund new application development and infrastructure initiatives, said Hinchcliffe.

Regardless of the type of initiative, it’s clear CIOs need to align their strategies around high-impact investments. The challenge, as always, is determining which projects will have the most impact for business when there are so many competing initiatives in need of funding.

At the same time, CIOs would also be well advised to carefully consider to what degree a new tool or platform they might invest in is likely to one day become a feature of another tool or platform their organization has already adopted. CIOs will also need to weigh to what degree the provider of that tool or platform might be around for the long haul given the pace of mergers and acquisitions that occur across an IT industry sector that still relies heavily on funding from venture capital firms that often need to show a comparatively quick return on their investments

In the meantime, CIOs can take comfort in the fact that there is generally a much greater appreciation for the value of IT in the age of AI. The issue, of course, is tempering expectations with reality when so many business leaders are counting on AI to drive a level of return on investment (ROI) that might not be as universally realized to the degree any time near as soon as the IT vendor community would like everyone to think.