Byte-Sized Resolutions: 5 Trends for Tech and IT Leaders to Focus on in 2025

Competitive advantage

C-Suite

The Future of Work

Thought Leadership

Small Business

Management tips

Technology

Management and Leadership

Article

By Ryan M. Sutton, Executive Director, Technology, Robert Half

2024 came and went like a flash, leaving many tech and IT leaders wondering where the time went — and wishing they’d had more of it to wrap up critical initiatives. Of course, your department probably faced other impediments to project progress as well, from tech skills gaps to budget constraints.

To help you prepare your team for the challenges and opportunities 2025 may bring, here’s a quick look at five trends likely to be high on the list of tech priorities for many organizations. This roundup is based on recent hiring trends our staffing specialists have observed, what employers are telling us about their talent needs, and findings from our workplace research for publications such as the 2025 Salary Guide From Robert Half and Building Future-Forward Tech Teams e-book.

Nothing outlined here will come as a surprise to tech and IT leaders. But it’s important to keep these trends in focus to help your organization stay competitive, innovate, and avoid or reduce risk this year.

5 Top Technology Trends for Tech and IT Leaders to Focus on in 2025 1. Tackling tech debt to enable transformation 2. Increasing data and AI readiness 3. Modernizing ERP systems 4. Strengthening cybersecurity to prevent breaches 5. Addressing emerging skills gaps in tech and IT

Technical debt — like legacy systems, outdated dependencies and poorly written code — is one of the greatest hurdles to digital transformation. Even if your organization is not on a transformation journey, legacy IT that’s inflexible and difficult (or impossible) to update undermines operational efficiency and productivity.

Tech debt is also costly, and not just because of maintenance burdens. For example, rushing to implement AI and automation tools without first addressing the inefficiencies of legacy systems can lead to budget-busting integration issues and the inability to get expected value from advanced technologies.

With digital transformation essential for competitive advantage, and AI and automation becoming integral to workflows in functions from finance to marketing, you can expect tackling tech debt to be a high priority for many businesses and their tech teams in 2025.

How Tech Leaders Can Create an AI Readiness Plan: A Checklist for Success

The value of data for businesses has never been higher. Organizations are harnessing AI, including generative AI, machine learning and advanced analytics to derive actionable insights from their data and using them to increase efficiency, drive innovation, personalize customer experiences and much more. However, they can’t get far with their AI and analytics objectives without reliable access to high-quality, well-organized data — and massive volumes of it.

A business that is data and AI-ready has clean, well-structured data, robust data governance and the infrastructure to support advanced technologies. For organizations seeking to increase their competitive edge by becoming more data-driven and AI-enabled, achieving this state will be an obvious focus in the year ahead — and they need their tech and IT teams to help them get there.

Why Future-Focused Talent Management Hinges on Aligning People, Process, Technology, Data — and AI

Implementing and optimizing modern enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems is central to many companies’ efforts to transform digitally and make the most of enhanced analytics and business intelligence tools. Investing in a new or upgraded ERP system can deliver many advantages to a business; however, these projects are also complex, challenging and resource-intensive undertakings.

Tech and IT leaders have a crucial role to play in ERP initiatives, from overseeing data integration efforts to ensuring security is a priority at every turn. Their involvement can help minimize risks before, during and after implementation. And given how important it is for companies to invest in ERP technology that will scale with growth and deliver expected ROI, you can be sure many tech and IT leaders will be deeply engaged in helping to drive ERP project success in 2025.

From Complexity to Clarity: Best Practices for ERP Transformation Projects

Financial losses are only one potential outcome of a data breach — reputational damage, business loss and regulatory fines are also key risks for organizations. With cyberattacks becoming more sophisticated and the average cost of a data breach exceeding $9 million, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a business that isn’t already focused on improving its cyber defenses to some degree.

Tech and IT leaders are on the front line of helping their organizations safeguard networks and systems, data, and operations to help prevent breaches. They also develop actionable plans for business continuity and fast recovery following cyber incidents. With attack surfaces growing exponentially due to remote and hybrid work, cloud adoption and the ever-expanding Internet of Things, it’s almost guaranteed that cybersecurity will become an even higher priority for every technology leader this year.

Navigating the Cybersecurity Skills Gap

The tech skills gap is a significant issue for companies across industries because it can sideline tech-driven priorities designed to help them innovate, speed time to market and grow their business. Research for Robert Half’s Salary Guide found that more than half (56%) of technology managers are willing to relax candidate experience requirements so they can accelerate hiring this year. We also learned many managers are prepared to increase salaries for candidates with in-demand skills, like AI and machine learning, cybersecurity, and cloud computing.

While these can be effective strategies to help keep technology projects staffed and moving forward in the near term, they don’t fundamentally solve the tech skills gap. That’s why, according to Robert Half’s research, many tech and IT leaders also plan to use strategies like the following in 2025 to address skills deficiencies in their departments and build future-forward tech teams:

Upskilling employees

Reskilling employees for new roles

Engaging skilled contract talent (as part of a scalable talent model)

The Skills Gap in Tech Is Poised to Expand. Employers, What’s Your Action Plan?

The new year offers immense potential for tech-driven growth, especially for organizations whose technology leaders are focused on the five trends outlined above.

Robert Half can help support your tech priorities in the year ahead by helping you secure the highly skilled contract talent and permanent talent, as well as flexible and scalable project resources you need to succeed.