Two-thirds of companies plan AI automation projects in 2025

By: Trademagazin Date: 2025. 02. 17. 10:09

This year’s most significant technological focus areas will be AI, business intelligence and automation, while the biggest challenge may be cost and human resource constraints, according to the Protechtor CIO Navigator survey, which was conducted by interviewing more than 70 domestic corporate IT managers. The intention to innovate is therefore present, and in fact, 56% of companies are now following a predefined digitalization strategy, which is a huge step forward. At the same time, there is a serious divide in the market: while the majority of managers are optimistic about 2025 and 50% of them hope to manage from an expanding IT budget, the same number are concerned about having to cope with the increasing technological competition with unchanged or lower financial resources.

Stylers Group conducted the Protechtor CIO Navigator survey for the first time this year with the aim of mapping the factors behind the strategic decisions of Hungarian IT leaders, revealing the main market trends for 2025, and the challenges that CIOs are most concerned about. The survey was conducted among 72 innovative CIOs and CTOs from medium-sized and large companies, representing companies that are dominant in their markets, including in industries such as banking, chemicals, construction, logistics, and the military industry.

“While the responses paint a picture of the IT market that is torn between extremes, the majority of respondents agreed on two things: they experienced 2024 as a particularly difficult year (57%), and this year the most important priority for CIOs remains cost-effective operation and optimization of business processes”

– summarizes Gábor Laczkó, one of the founding owners of Stylers Group, which operates the technology and business knowledge sharing community Protechtor.

Although 60% of respondents expect positive market changes in 2025, there are also plenty of challenges. CIOs are most concerned about the impact of negative market processes on their IT budget (28%), closely followed by AI implementation and the optimal and secure use of technology at 22%. In this regard, a significant number of companies struggle to build the appropriate competencies, which also requires the effective structuring of data assets. In general, regulatory compliance, such as NIS2 and other data protection regulations, is a major hurdle in the way of adopting innovative technologies. This poses a major challenge for IT decision-makers, who know that if they fall behind the competition or fail to implement new technologies effectively, there will be serious consequences.