CIOs Turning to Fundamentals to Stay Grounded Amid AI Disruption: Info-Tech Research Group's Best of 2025 Report

In 2025, even as AI dominates headlines, research usage trends from Info-Tech Research Group reveal that CIOs are still focusing on evergreen frameworks and trusted resources to keep their organizations stable. The newly published Best of Classics in 2025 report from the global IT research and advisory firm analyzes the most frequently accessed research and tools, offering insight into how IT leaders are strengthening organizational fundamentals. The report's findings highlight that organizational resilience depends on these core practices, which enable CIOs to balance rapid innovation with operational maturity.

TORONTO, Sept. 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ - As AI-driven disruption accelerates across industries, CIOs are leaning on proven frameworks and evergreen tools to provide stability and resilience. Info-Tech Research Group has published its Best of Classics in 2025 report, showcasing the most in-demand and consistently used resources by IT leaders this year. The findings show that while emerging technologies capture attention, the most trusted resources remain those that strengthen IT strategy, governance, project management, risk practices, and service delivery.

These findings emphasize a dual focus for IT leaders; CIOs are leaning on evergreen frameworks like IT strategy, data governance, and project management to support innovation, while also seeking guidance on AI roadmaps and risk management. This simultaneous demand shows that the successful adoption of emerging technologies depends on well-managed fundamentals.

"Change is the headline, and fundamentals are the path forward to stability and long-term value creation," says Info-Tech Research Group's Chief Research Officer, Gord Harrison. "CIOs must prepare their organizations for AI-fueled change while ensuring the basics are executed well. By keeping strategy, governance, and process maturity at the forefront, leaders can mitigate risks, align with business priorities, and build a strong foundation for responsible AI adoption."

Key Challenges IT Leaders Face in 2025

Despite growing investment in artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies, CIOs continue to encounter systemic challenges that can hinder progress. Info-Tech's Best of Classics in 2025 report shows that many organizations struggle with the following challenges:

• Balancing AI adoption with operational maturity and risk management.
• Fragmented governance models that slow decision-making.
• Resource constraints and competing priorities that delay project delivery.
• Resistance to change that limits transformation outcomes.

Info-Tech's Top 12 Research from the Best of Classics in 2025 Report

To help address these persistent challenges, Info-Tech's report details the most relied-upon classic resources as actionable priorities for CIOs and IT leaders:

1. Build a Business-Aligned IT Strategy: This research is popular because it helps CIOs develop a mission-driven IT plan that aligns directly with business priorities, sets clear guiding principles, and translates them into an actionable roadmap. The result is stronger executive communication, better initiative prioritization, and governance structures that ensure IT consistently delivers business value.
2. Standardize the Service Desk: Leaders repeatedly turn to this research to build a solid foundation for IT service by assessing maturity, designing incident and request workflows, and documenting standard operating procedures. This improves efficiency, eliminates redundancies, and delivers faster, more reliable support for both users and technicians.
3. Tailor IT Project Management Processes to Fit Your Projects: Right-sizing project management practices to match the scope and risk of each initiative is critical. By applying lightweight approaches to small projects and rigorous frameworks to complex ones, IT leaders are able to increase throughput, reduce delays, and strengthen executive confidence in delivery.
4. Establish Data Governance: CIOs are using this resource to create an enterprise-wide governance program that aligns with business strategy and value streams to ensure data produces measurable business results. The outcome is stronger data quality, reduced risk, and a culture of data-driven decision-making.
5. Optimize IT Governance For Dynamic Decision-Making: This research provides guidance on redesigning governance structures to reflect how the organization truly operates by clarifying decision rights, defining accountability, and equipping committees with effective charters. It's popular because it leads to faster, more transparent decision-making that avoids bottlenecks and supports business performance.
6. Design Your IT Organization For The Future: CIOs rely on this research to architect an IT structure that consistently delivers on enterprise objectives by aligning capabilities to business priorities, clarifying roles, and building adaptable teams. The outcome is a high-performing IT function that closes service gaps, boosts performance, and attracts and retains talent.
7. Implement AI For Customer Experience: Leaders use this resource to transform the customer journey from reactive to proactive by targeting high-impact AI use cases, defining requirements and governance up front, and designing scalable pilots. This enables greater personalization, faster resolution times, and stronger customer loyalty while managing risk.
8. Build an Information Security Strategy: This comprehensive blueprint remains essential because it helps organizations develop a holistic, risk-aware, and business-aligned security program. By gathering requirements, assessing risks, conducting a gap analysis, and creating a flexible roadmap, security leaders are able to strengthen cyber resiliency and ensure security investments generate measurable business value.
9. Build a Robust and Comprehensive Data Strategy: IT leaders continue to access this research to align data initiatives with business goals by engaging stakeholders, defining guiding principles, and mapping projects to measurable outcomes. The result is stronger executive support, better decision-making, and long-term business value from data investments.
10. Design an Enterprise Architecture Strategy: CIOs turn to this resource to build EA strategies anchored in business value by defining vision, goals, principles, and services that connect enterprise objectives to IT outcomes. This approach clarifies EA's role, strengthens stakeholder support, and enables architects to guide projects in real time.
11. Develop a Project Portfolio Management Strategy: This research helps leaders create a coherent portfolio approach that balances supply and demand, secures executive buy-in, and aligns processes to strategic goals. IT leaders and project managers use it to maximize project value, improve throughput, and deliver initiatives that consistently meet business expectations.
12. Rationalize Your Application Portfolio: CIOs frequently leverage this blueprint to establish an evergreen application portfolio management program that eliminates redundancy, reduces costs, and improves scalability. By assessing the current state, creating a central inventory, and aligning applications with business priorities, IT leaders are simplifying oversight, retiring low-value apps, and building roadmaps that deliver measurable ROI while supporting digital transformation.

The firm's Best of Classics in 2025 report also highlights the top diagnostics, SoftwareReviews vendor quadrants, training programs, workshops, industry research, keynotes, and AI marketplace reports that remain essential to the success of IT leaders. Together, these resources are providing CIOs with evergreen frameworks and structured methodologies to support transformation while maintaining resilience. The blueprints outlined in the report also include tools to assess governance maturity, concierge services to streamline vendor analysis, training programs to build leadership and AI skills, and workshops to solve pressing IT problems with measurable outcomes.

"Even as emerging technologies shift priorities, the fundamentals remain the backbone of IT leadership," explains Harrison. "Info-Tech's research classics deliver enduring value by ensuring organizations don't just move fast, but also move wisely."

Info-Tech's Best of Classics in 2025 report brings together the most relied-upon blueprints, diagnostics, vendor guides, and training programs that CIOs use to keep their organizations grounded. Collectively, these resources provide practical tools and structured methodologies that help IT leaders align strategy with execution, strengthen governance, and sustain transformation efforts while preparing for the accelerating AI revolution.

For exclusive and timely commentary from Info-Tech's experts on any of the associated research, and access to the complete Info-Tech's Best of Classics in 2025 report, please contact [email protected].

About Info-Tech Research Group

Info-Tech Research Group is one of the world's leading research and advisory firms, serving over 30,000 IT and HR professionals. The company produces unbiased, highly relevant research and provides advisory services to help leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. For nearly 30 years, Info-Tech has partnered closely with teams to provide them with everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

To learn more about Info-Tech's divisions, visit McLean & Company for HR research and advisory services, and SoftwareReviews for software buying insights.

Media professionals can register for unrestricted access to research across IT, HR, and software, and hundreds of industry analysts through the firm's Media Insiders program. To gain access, contact [email protected].

For information about Info-Tech Research Group or to access the latest research, visit infotech.com and connect via LinkedIn and X.

SOURCE Info-Tech Research Group