CIOs are strategizing how to transform their businesses while harnessing the power of emerging technologies like AI, CIO’s State of the CIO 2025 report found.
Here are eight things to know from the May 5 report that surveyed 906 IT leaders and 250 line-of-business professionals:
1. Ninety-four percent of healthcare CIOs take the lead on digital transformation, a higher percentage than in other industries.
2. Forty-one percent of healthcare CIOs are women, compared to 24% across sectors.
3. Healthcare CIOs’ top technology initiative in 2025 is security and risk management (with 48% ranking it No. 1), while machine learning/AI was first across industries.
4. Healthcare IT leaders are more likely to invest in customer experience technologies, at 35% compared to only a quarter of IT leaders overall.
5. Healthcare CIOs are more likely than IT leaders in other fields to tap machine learning and AI to streamline support and customer service interactions (with 46% of them doing so).
6. Healthcare IT leaders (74%) are more likely to take an external view of AI adoption.
7. Healthcare IT leaders (89%) plan to be more involved with AI/machine learning efforts in the next year (compared to 75% of IT leaders overall).
8. The need to solve IT skills and staffing shortages is more pronounced in healthcare (61% compared to 54% across industries).
