Prioritizing Stronger Alignment with Chief Data Officers will Ensure AI Becomes a Business Strategy, Not Just a Technology Strategy — Forrester

According to Forrester, the key to sustained enterprise success over the longer-term success is to data and AI strategies with business transformation objectives. For tech leaders, a key focus in 2025 will be prioritizing stronger alignment with chief data officers to ensure that AI becomes a business strategy, not just a technology strategy.

Stephanie Balaouras, VP and Group Research Director at Forrester

While Forrester predicts that nearly 90% of global tech decision-makers anticipate that their firm will increase investment in data infrastructure, management, and governance, tech leaders will remain pragmatic when investing in AI to maximize the business value derived from the technology. As an example, given challenges that arise when applying generative AI (genAI) to meet growing customer expectations, organizations will pivot back to predictive AI applications such as predictive maintenance, customer personalization, and supply chain optimization for more than half of AI use cases. Additionally, they will rely more on AIOps platforms to reduce technical debt and improve business outcomes.

Noteworthy new research from Forrester includes:

  • The State Of High-Performance IT, 2024. Businesses continue to face complex economic dynamics that are driving business teams’ expectations of IT departments to deliver stronger results. Forrester will unveil new research showing that high-performance IT organizations are 1.8 times more likely to grow faster and have higher levels of customer loyalty.

  • Ten More Top Emerging Technologies For 2024. Following Forrester’s initial list of the top 10 emerging technologies for 2024, this report identifies additional technologies that can deliver tangible return on investment for firms over the next two years. These include aerial drones, AI chips, sustainability management technology, and synthetic data.

  • Deploy AI-Augmented Enterprise Business Applications Securely. This research helps tech and business leaders close an AI trust gap with a primer on AI grounding rules. These rules strengthen leaders’ understanding of key requirements and best practices for welcoming the adoption of AI-augmented enterprise business apps as part of their AI strategy.

    Vector Databases Explode On The Scene. As genAI advances, the need for a modern data platform has become imperative. This research explores the significance of vector databases for enterprises, their expanding use cases, and why investing in them is crucial amid the ongoing genAI revolution.

“Among tech leaders, AI continues to dominate conversations,” said Stephanie Balaouras, event host and VP and group research director at Forrester. “But prior conversations about what’s possible with AI are now centered around how tech leaders can get the quickest return on their AI investment.”

To learn more, visit: www.forrester.com

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