Over the past year, US IT leaders have experienced a seismic recalibration of investment priorities.

Insights drawn from roundtable discussions from mid last year and July 2025 reveal a fundamental shift, from broad, often reactive technology spending to more targeted, governance-heavy investments focused on sustainable, secure AI integration and smarter data strategies.

Mid-2024: Experimentation Amidst Urgency

In mid 2024, the tone among IT leaders was one of experimentation driven by urgency. With the widespread adoption of cloud services and AI tools gaining traction, investment priorities leaned heavily toward infrastructure modernisation, cybersecurity reinforcement, and exploring multi-cloud ecosystems.

Key themes included:

• Transitioning from capital to operational expenditure models (e.g., cloud over on-premises).
• Grappling with multicloud complexity and cost containment.
• Strengthening cybersecurity across hybrid environments.
• Balancing resilience and risk in disaster recovery and continuity planning.
• Beginning to consider AI’s role in productivity and data processing, but with caution.

The underlying sentiment was clear: organisations knew they needed to adapt, but investments were often tactical, fragmented, and driven by cost-saving imperatives.

Mid-2025: Governance, Guardrails and Cultural Buy-In Take Centre Stage

Fast-forward to July 2025, and the conversation had matured. The focus shifted from merely “getting on the cloud” or “trying out AI” to implementing structured governance, policy-driven adoption, and cross-functional accountability.

This was not just about which technologies to buy, but how to govern them, how to secure them, and, crucially, how to embed them responsibly across the organisation.

Top investment priorities that emerged included:

1. AI Governance Frameworks Are Now Non-Negotiable

In 2024, AI was largely experimental. By 2025, IT leaders were investing in comprehensive AI governance structures, including oversight boards, risk management frameworks, and ethical use policies. Several organisations discussed multi-disciplinary committees to evaluate AI models before deployment, with strong representation from legal, risk, IT, and business units.

Shift Insight: AI investment is no longer about capability but about responsible capability. Money is being directed at model validation, usage boundaries, internal LLMs, and human oversight mechanisms.

2. Zero Trust Is Being Localised and Layered

Previously treated as an aspirational end-state, Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) is now being adapted pragmatically. Organisations in 2025 spoke about selective implementation focused on critical assets rather than attempting enterprise-wide rollouts. The emphasis has turned to identity-first security, role-based access, and layered controls in healthcare and education.

Shift Insight: There’s a strong pivot from universal ZTA to tailored, risk-based deployment, accompanied by targeted investments in tooling and skills for enforcement.

3. Data Management Now Gets Budgeted as a Strategic Capability

In 2024, data was largely viewed as an enabler of other technologies (AI, cloud, analytics). By mid-2025, a data-first culture was clearly being funded. Investments were going into:

• Curating reliable data sources.
• Enforcing semantic models and governance layers.
• Training teams in data storytelling and validation.
• Reducing “data paralysis” by focusing on business impact over raw volume.

Shift Insight: Data maturity is being seen as foundational, not optional, for everything else. Investment is now moving toward embedding this capability across teams, not just within IT.

4. Cloud Spending Is Being Reined In and Repurposed

A notable evolution occurred in cloud-related investment. In 2024, organisations were ramping up cloud adoption rapidly, but by 2025, cloud spending was being scrutinised. Some teams even discussed partial repatriation of workloads due to rising operational costs and control issues.

The current wave of investment is focused on:

• Tooling to track and govern multicloud usage.
• In-house capability to optimise cloud configurations.
• Cost modelling to assess ROI between cloud and hybrid solutions.

Shift Insight: The cloud-first narrative has become cloud-sceptical. IT leaders are seeking efficiency, not just scale, and building teams who can continuously optimise their footprint.

5. AI as a Tool, Not a Leader

One of the most important cultural and budgetary shifts observed was the reframing of AI. In 2024, some feared AI would replace roles or dominate workflows. By 2025, organisations were allocating funds to position AI as a supportive tool, a fast intern, not a decision-maker.

Investments were being redirected from generic platforms to internal copilots, AI model vetting, and training end users to critically evaluate AI output.

Shift Insight: AI implementation is being budgeted for support, augmentation, and compliance, not autonomy.

6. Upskilling the Workforce Is Now a Technology Investment

A cross-cutting priority that rose sharply in 2025 was the investment in people, not just platforms. Several organisations are funding:

• AI literacy and awareness programmes.
• Responsible usage training for chatbots and generative tools.
• Broader cultural transformation workshops.

Shift Insight: Training is no longer seen as a cost centre but as a critical IT function, with direct budget lines tied to technology deployment.

From Reactive to Reflective: What’s Driving the Shift?

Several underlying drivers explain the dramatic change in how and where IT leaders in the US are directing their budgets:

• Experience and AI maturity:
  Many rushed into AI adoption in 2023–24 and are now paying for early mistakes. Investment in governance and education is a response to those lessons.
• Regulatory pressure:
  As discussions around data privacy and AI responsibility escalate globally, organisations are investing ahead of regulation to build compliant systems and avoid reputational damage.
• CFO involvement:
  With cloud bills growing and business benefits unclear, IT leaders are facing tougher scrutiny from finance partners. This has accelerated a move from volume-based to value-based spending.
• Cyber risk realignment:
  Zero Trust is no longer just a buzzword, it’s a board-level concern. But with full implementation unrealistic, investments are being channeled into the highest-value, lowest-barrier segments.

What’s Next on the Investment Horizon?

Looking ahead to 2026, the roundtable commentary hints at a new set of priorities already forming:

• Privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs):
  From confidential computing to differential privacy, there’s rising interest in tech that protects data at the source.
• AI-native infrastructure:
  Several teams spoke about moving from general cloud to infrastructure optimised for AI workflows, including edge deployments in healthcare.
• AI use case rationalisation:
  Budgets will focus on fewer, deeper implementations, e.g., copilots for field services or legal review, over dozens of small, fragmented pilots.
• Vendor transparency and validation:
  More organisations are demanding visibility into training data, security controls, and model updates from vendors, leading to new due diligence costs and policies.

Summary of Investment Shifts from Mid-2024 to Mid-2025

Category	2024 Focus	2025 Shift	2026 Estimated Direction
AI Adoption	Tactical pilots and exploration	Governance, oversight, co-pilots	Deep integration, vendor validation
Cloud Infrastructure	Multicloud expansion and migration	Cost control, hybrid models	AI-specific architectures, edge computing
Security	Perimeter hardening, firewalls	Risk-based Zero Trust, identity-first	PETs, real-time threat response AI
Data Strategy	Ad hoc warehousing, dashboarding	Semantic modelling, business-aligned data	Data as product, monetisation exploration
Workforce Enablement	Minimal training, assumed digital fluency	Literacy programmes, responsible usage	AI-native skills development, internal upskilling
Cultural Transformation	Secondary to tech stack rollouts	Core to tech strategy	Embedded as a business capability