The proportion of CIOs adopting disruptive technologies like IoT, AI, and conversational interfaces, is higher in Asia/Pacific as compared to the other CIOs across the globe. This and other findings of Gartner’s survey of 3,160 CIOs worldwide, including 537 from Asia/Pacific, found that the entrepreneurial digital businesses in the Asia/Pacific region are helping the region lead the technology adoption curve.
The report revealed that over 43% of CIOs in Asia/Pacific have either deployed or are planning to deploy IoT, as compared to the 37% ones globally. While the percentage of them for AI is 37 as compared to 28% globally.
28% of Asia/Pacific CIOs have invested in conversational interfaces, compared to 21% globally, and 20% have invested in Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR), compared to 17% globally.
Blockchain technology also got adopted more by CIOs in Asia/Pacific (13%), as compared to 9% 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 also found that the roles of CIOs might extend to other areas of business like innovation management and talent development due to digitalization, but it will help them save their time. About 44% of Asia/Pacific CIOs possess responsibility for digital transformation compared to 55% globally, 37% for innovation compared to 54% globally, and 17% for enterprise change compared to 28% globally.
“The nature of the CIO’s job has changed from the role of delivery executive to that of IT business executive – from controlling cost and engineering processes, to driving revenue and exploiting data,” said Mr. Rowsell-Jones. “Leaders are rapidly scaling their digital businesses, making the remainder of this year and 2018 a defining moment for CIOs who don’t want to be left behind.”
The enterprises are digitalizing and the IT budget growth across Asia/Pacific is strong with an expectation of 5.1% growth compared to 3% globally. However, there are a number of barriers to digital growth, including organizational culture, talent shortage, and resources.
“CIOs need to identify the cultural behaviors that currently exist and what the future state vision is,” said Mr. Rowsell-Jones. “In doing so, they must recognize existing cultural strengths and position cultural change as ‘the next chapter,’ rather than a massive overhaul, to respect employees’ contributions and invite them to come along on the journey.”
Other reports from Gartner released this month, stated that public cloud revenues might grow 42% globally, while 43% in India by 2017.
The survey reports were presented during Gartner Symposium/ITxpo in Australia this week.