Dive Brief:
- Enterprise technology leaders are stressed by the weight of their company’s biggest challenges: talent constraints, security and keeping up with technology advancements, according to a report by The Work Innovation Lab, an Asana think tank, in partnership with Firstbase and Sierra Ventures.
- Three in 10 senior IT executives say keeping up with advances in technology, such as AI, is a major challenge. More than one-quarter of IT leaders are stressed daily about ensuring their data and systems are secure, according to the survey of 500 IT professionals.
- IT leaders are also concerned about tech spend. Nearly half said they wrestled at least weekly in the last six months with prioritizing technology investments and streamlining their tech stack, according to the report published Monday. Two in 5 IT pros said they felt stressed at least weekly about reducing IT spend.
Dive Insight:
It’s a chaotic time for the technology industry. In a year marked by layoffs, generative AI hype and market uncertainty, technology leaders are searching for stability in an uncertain environment.
“It’s like there’s a check engine light on,” Cal Henderson, CTO at Slack, said in the report. “We can tell something’s off, but we’re not sure what it is.”
Stuck in a vicious cycle, technology leaders are being asked to do more with less, creating burnout and worry on top of everything else.
The persistent generative AI hype has brought pressure to invest or fall behind. But many organizations still struggle with the basics. If an organization doesn’t follow best practices when it comes to data hygiene, generative AI shouldn’t be the priority. IT leaders have to balance the allure of productivity boosts with the risks AI presents.
Even organizations with a strong foundation need to consider the evolving legal and regulatory environment before rushing to adopt and implement.
Despite the stress, tech leaders aren’t idling. They actually want to experiment more. Nearly 7 in 10 senior IT executives regret not introducing more experimentation into their strategies.
