'CIOs in Asia/Pacific lead adoption of disruptive technologies'

By Anuj Sharma - October 31, 2017
gartner
The survey indicates that 95 per cent of CIOs expect their jobs to change or be remixed due to digitalisation. While world-class IT delivery is a given, it will increasingly take up less of the CIO's ....

CIOs in Asia/Pacific report higher adoption of disruptive technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI) and conversational interfaces than their global peers, market research firm Gartner has said.

Forty three per cent said they have deployed or are in short-term planning for deployment of IoT technologies (compared to 37 per cent globally) and 37 per cent for AI (compared to 25 per cent globally). Investments have been made in conversational interfaces by 28 per cent (21 per cent globally) and virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) by 20 per cent (17 per cent globally). Thirteen per cent have adopted blockchain or distributed ledger technology, compared to 9 per cent globally.

"Asia/Pacific is home to some very successful and entrepreneurial digital businesses, as well as to established manufacturing, financial services, protein export, mining, government agencies and higher education establishments, that are driving the region up the technology adoption curve," said Andy Rowsell-Jones, Vice President and Distinguished Analyst at Gartner.

The survey indicates that 95 per cent of CIOs expect their jobs to change or be remixed due to digitalisation. While world-class IT delivery is a given, it will increasingly take up less of the CIO's time. Respondents believe that the two biggest transformations in the CIO role will be becoming a change leader, followed by assuming increased and broader responsibilities. Inevitably, the job of CIO will extend beyond the traditional delivery roles to other areas of the business, such as innovation management and talent development.

The survey results show that Asia/Pacific CIOs increasingly have responsibility for areas of the business outside traditional IT, but significantly less than global peers. Forty-four per cent are responsible for digital transformation (55 per cent globally); 37 per cent for innovation (54 per cent globally) and 17 per cent for enterprise change (28 per cent globally).

CIOs in Asia/Pacific expect their budgets to grow 5.1 per cent, higher than the global average of three per cent, the survey noted. In Australia and New Zealand, CIOs are expecting an average 3.2 per cent increase in IT budgets, an improvement from the two per cent increase expected last year.

Only 15 per cent CIOs in Asia/Pacific have achieved digital scale and three per cent are already at the stage of harvesting and refining their digital strategies, which is on par with global peers.

The main barrier appears to be organisational culture, according to 42 per cent of Asia/Pacific CIOs (46 per cent globally). This is followed by a shortage of talent (24 per cent) and resources (19 per cent).

The 2018 Gartner CIO Agenda Survey of 3,160 CIOs worldwide included 537 across 17 countries in Asia/Pacific (113 of those in Australia and New Zealand), representing approximately US$3.4 trillion in revenue/public sector budgets and $49 billion in IT spending.

 

 

 

 

 

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