A recent survey reveals that 88% of Australian and New Zealand CIOs and technology executives are prioritizing cybersecurity as their top technology investment for 2025. Data analytics (84%), cloud platforms (83%), and generative AI (81%) closely follow this priority. “With greater government regulation and some of the largest cyber attacks we’ve seen in ANZ this year, organizations are facing increased scrutiny,” said Brian Ferreira, VP EXP Advisory Services.
“This continues to drive significant focus and investment towards cybersecurity and legal compliance into next year.”
The 2025 CIO and Technology Executive Survey gathered data from 3186 respondents, including 109 from ANZ, spanning the public, private, and non-profit sectors. Ferreira noted, “While not included in last year’s survey, it’s hardly surprising that GenAI has risen to the top of the technology investment list as organizations recognize the business value it can offer.”
The survey also identified the technologies that ANZ CIOs plan to reduce investment in next year.
Cybersecurity priorities for ANZ CIOs
Legacy infrastructure topped this list at 43%, followed by augmented and virtual reality technologies (17%), and next-generation compute technology (11%). Managing cybersecurity and other technology risks will be the leading priority for 82% of ANZ CIOs next year. This is followed by managing technology financials (59%), demonstrating the business value of IT (52%), and innovating and modernizing enterprise applications and software (51%).
“The uncertain economic climate over the past few years has increased executive and board scrutiny on technology investments,” Ferreira said. “Next year will be critical for ANZ CIOs to align technology spend and resources with validated, high-priority initiatives at the enterprise level.”
