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The CIO Perspective: Eight AI Trends and Priorities for 2025

7th of December 2024

Whilst 2024 saw the adoption of Generative AI (GenAI) accelerate, it also witnessed significant debates and challenges surrounding its use within business from security and data privacy perspectives, with questions also being raised surrounding its true value.

As CIOs get ready to take on AI in 2025, Richard Farrell, CIO of Netcall, shares the top AI trends and priorities that must be addressed in the year ahead to ensure successful adoption.

“As organisations continue to embrace AI in 2025, CIOs face increasing demands to deliver secure, efficient and practical AI applications that genuinely add value. While individual predictions like balancing cybersecurity, streamlining copilots and embedding AI offer actionable strategies, an integrated platform approach simplifies and accelerates their implementation.”

Richard Farrell

Chief Innovation Officer, Netcall

1) Balancing security and AI demands

Cybersecurity remains a top priority for today’s business leaders. As cyber threats escalate, CIOs, in particular, face intensified pressure to secure operations, while CEOs expect fast-track GenAI innovations. Managing both demands in tandem requires careful strategy, with security remaining central to this.

Unfortunately, organisations often have finite resources available in this area, making the task of addressing cybersecurity extremely challenging.

To overcome this, organisations looking to adopt AI in 2025 would be wise to use solutions that mitigate some of the associated security and data privacy risks.

One option is processing AI within the same managed environment as workflows and applications – keeping it local, safe and secure and ensuring that sensitive data is protected and not used for future AI training.

2) Overcoming “Co-pilot overload”

Many organisations under pressure to bring AI into the business have adopted various Co-pilots this year. However, rather than reducing workflows, the current overload of various Co-pilot systems is likely to complicate them if not managed effectively.

Currently, Co-pilots are available across internet browsers, alongside CRMs and numerous other office applications. This siloed and uncontrolled approach can not only become costly for organisations using multiple Co-pilots, but the information obtained is likely to be inconsistent leading to additional time being spent reviewing it before it can be used.

Instead, a streamlined platform approach can help CIOs avoid over-dependence on fragmented AI tools, ensuring robust, cohesive tech operations in the year ahead.

3) From AI hype to practical application

There has been immense hype surrounding AI in 2024 – and GenAI in particular – however, this hype will begin to fade as the focus moves towards practical application in business. According to the Gartner Hype Cycle for Artificial Intelligence, 2025 will see the progress of GenAI slide into the trough of disillusionment stage as negative press increases and governments increase focus on regulation.

Whilst many organisations can now say they are using GenAI in their business via various copilots, the reality is that this is merely scratching the surface of what the capabilities of AI can offer a business. It may be a tick in the box when it comes to whether a business is engaging with this technology, but it isn’t necessarily driving substantial value.

4) Agility through embedded AI

Based on this, by 2025, CIOs will need to distinguish hype from genuinely valuable AI applications. Organisations will start to recognise this and lean towards AI that is embedded within applications, rather than a standalone function.

Platform-based applications offer tailored tools that can evolve alongside core teams, enabling CIOs to develop practical solutions with clear business outcomes. Following this embedded approach to AI also allows businesses to accelerate digital initiatives whilst safeguarding core operations from the risks associated with rapid GenAI deployment.

5) Sustainability-driven IT choices

With increasing scrutiny on sustainability, 2025 will also see CIOs face pressure to make eco-friendly choices surrounding AI deployments. Now that many have picked the low-hanging fruit when it comes to ESG (low-power lighting, green energy contracts, hybrid work locations and some migration to cloud services), more focus is being placed on sustainability in the supply chain and around new technologies introduced into the business.

Whilst determining the exact energy cost of AI models is challenging, it is clear that their carbon footprint is growing at an alarming pace, with a recent article from Carbon Credits suggesting they use more energy than any other type of computing.

Attention, therefore, will turn to the introduction of agile frameworks that support sustainability innovation, allowing businesses to scale AI responsibly. Suppliers can support this movement by hosting AI in data centres that are powered by 100% renewable energy. Used effectively and via an integrated approach, AI can also support organisations to become more efficient and sustainable in their own operations, by reducing manual processing and significantly cutting carbon emissions.

6) Leveraging citizen developers for faster transformation

To meet rapid digital demands, CIOs will increasingly rely on citizen developers and employees outside of the IT function that contribute to application creation. This is something we expect will continue to increase in the year ahead as the pressure to transform grows, a sentiment also echoed in Gartner’s 2025 CIO Agenda. Within the eBook, Gartner promotes the empowerment of employees in business areas, not just IT staff, to use digital platforms to produce digital solutions.

However, with great power comes great responsibility and ensuring the necessary guardrails are put in place surrounding development at both a citizen and IT employee level is crucial. Fortunately, today, platform-based low-code solutions are enabling broader teams that operate at the coal face of the business to co-create applications, reducing dependency on scarce developer resources while maintaining quality control. This is particularly important in highly regulated industries and environments that are seeing the rise of ‘fusion teams’ or ‘digital factories’ that strike the balance between IT and stakeholders across the business to innovate together in order to provide the best outcome.

7) Enhanced data privacy controls

With privacy regulations evolving, data governance will remain critical in 2025. When considering AI, data – and personal data in particular – continues to pose significant challenges, with organisations needing to ensure they have a lawful basis for processing and that they are aligning to both current and upcoming regulation.

In November, for example, the Data (Use and Access) Bill was discussed in parliament, which will see potential changes made to the UK’s data protection legislation. Organisations will need to keep abreast of these legislative changes and ensure they are opting for embedded AI solutions that have integrated privacy by design to help CIOs maintain compliance even with extensive AI use.

8) AI with clear ROI expectations

Finally, as we move into 2025, there is a real need for organisations to set clear ROI expectations around AI. As mentioned previously, this means moving away from the hype and being able to demonstrate real value from AI applications within the organisation.

This year we have seen success stories around the implementation of AI through chatbots to deflect calls away from the contact centre, but what is not clear is how the customers have felt about this, whether this has helped improve customer experience, or if it has meant that contact centre opening hours can be reduced.

This year we have seen success stories around the implementation of AI through chatbots to deflect calls away from the contact centre, but what is not clear is how the customers have felt about this, whether this has helped improve customer experience, or if it has meant that contact centre opening hours can be reduced.

By focusing on ROI-driven AI use cases delivered through embedded AI applications rather than speculative AI projects, CIOs will be able to effectively secure board support and prove value through steady gains in productivity and customer satisfaction.

A platform-driven AI future

As organisations continue to embrace AI in 2025, industry platforms will enable organisations to unify AI and process workflows, embedding security, data governance and sustainability frameworks into core operations. This approach not only addresses specific challenges like “Co-pilot overload” but also ensures that AI deployments are scalable, compliant and ROI-driven.

“With embedded tools for privacy-by-design, citizen developer support and AI sustainability, platforms, like our Liberty platform, empower CIOs to manage rapid digital demands while delivering measurable productivity and customer satisfaction gains. By consolidating innovation with a cohesive architecture, platforms allow CIOs to meet rising expectations without compromising security or operational agility.”

Richard Farrell

Chief Innovation Officer, Netcall