The 2025 IT Mandate: Align Cyber Resilience, Cost Discipline, and AI

By Erik Linask, Group Editorial Director | August 29, 2025

For the past two years, companies have done a lot of experimenting to AI. Some of it has been highly successful, while some, well, not so much. This year, though, while AI is still a top priority at most organizations – rightfully so – it may not be the absolute highest priority.

Today, IT leaders are still being asked to scale AI, but added to the mix is simultaneously hardening their posture against a relentless ransomware economy and keeping a tight rein on spending. The latest CTERA State of Data and Cloud Strategy Survey underscores the tension between these competing priorities. Cybersecurity is the top priority for 80% of leaders, cost optimization follows at 61%, and AI sits close behind at 57%.

While, at first glance, that may seem contradictory, it’s a rational sequencing that recognizes a desire for AI’s upside ...