{"id":363470,"date":"2025-11-26T11:25:32","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T05:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/?p=363470"},"modified":"2025-11-26T11:25:32","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T05:55:32","slug":"it-investments-to-rise-despite-overall-budget-pressures-driven-by-demand-for-tangible-mission-outcomes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/it-investments-to-rise-despite-overall-budget-pressures-driven-by-demand-for-tangible-mission-outcomes\/","title":{"rendered":"IT Investments to Rise Despite Overall Budget Pressures, Driven by Demand for Tangible Mission Outcomes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Gartner Survey Reveals 52% of Government CIOs Outside of the U.S. Expect IT Budgets to Increase in 2026<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Fifty-two percent of government CIOs (not including the U.S.) expect their IT budgets to increase for AI and other key technologies in 2026, according to a survey by Gartner, Inc., a business and technology insights company. This is despite overall budget pressures, with governments recognizing their transformational potential for modernizing public services and achieving critical mission objectives.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n
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The 2026\u00a0Gartner CIO and Technology Executive Survey\u00a0gathered data from 2,501 respondents from May 1 to June 30, 2025, including 284 government CIOs (not including the U.S).<\/p>\n

\u201cGeopolitical shifts and economic volatility are forcing government CIOs to rapidly adjust their priorities for next year,\u201d said\u00a0Arthur Mickoleit, Director Analyst at Gartner.<\/strong> \u201cThey are being asked to demonstrate the mission impact of technology investments \u2013 including, but not limited to, cost savings and user experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

The top four\u00a0technologies government\u00a0CIOs (not including the U.S.) plan to increase investments in next year are cybersecurity (85%), AI (80%),\u00a0generative AI\u00a0(80%) and cloud platforms (76%).<\/p>\n

AI Deployments to Accelerate
\n<\/strong>According to the survey, 74% of government CIOs (not including the U.S.) have already deployed or plan to deploy AI within the next 12 months, with GenAI higher at 78%. Interest in\u00a0AI agents\u00a0is also rising, with 49% reporting current or planned deployment in the next 12 months (see Figure 1).<\/p>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n

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Figure 1: State of AI Deployments in Government (not including the U.S.)<\/h5>\n<\/div>\n
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Source: Gartner (November 2025)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cAgentic AI is emerging as an enabler of government transformation, but CIOs must remain mindful of the hype that can distract from more mature technologies like machine learning and business process automation,\u201d said Mickoleit. \u201cThis next wave of innovation will be essential for delivering on public sector priorities, especially as expectations are high following years of investments in digital government.\u201d<\/p>\n

The survey reveals high expectations for both AI and other key technologies as\u00a0government leaders\u00a0focus on building a more productive workforce in 2026. More than half (51%) of government CIOs (not including the U.S.) will increase focus on boosting employee productivity next year, followed by launching new digital products and services (38%) and improving the overall citizen experience (37%).<\/p>\n

\u201cCIOs should prioritize AI initiatives that rapidly improve internal efficiency and productivity,\u201d said Mickoleit. \u201cAt the same time, governance practices must be updated to modernize procurement, manage limited resources and balance risks with opportunities in citizen-facing AI applications.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reassessing Vendor Relationships Amid Global Uncertainty
\n<\/strong>According to the survey, 55% of government CIOs (not including the U.S.) expect changes in how they engage with technology providers due to rising geopolitical tensions and digital sovereignty concerns. Location is now a defining factor in procurement decisions next to cost or scale, with 39% of\u00a0government\u00a0CIOs (not including the U.S.) planning to work closer with technology providers based in their own region.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernment CIOs are increasingly seeking to reduce dependence on global technology vendors to strengthen resilience,\u201d said Mickoleit. \u201cMany are now factoring geopolitical risk into vendor selection and long-term planning. Mapping risks and dependencies across public sector technology stacks will ensure they can mitigate and absorb future disruptions.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gartner Survey Reveals 52% of Government CIOs Outside of the U.S. Expect IT Budgets to Increase in 2026 Fifty-two percent of government CIOs (not including the U.S.) expect their IT budgets to increase for AI and other key technologies in 2026, according to a survey by Gartner, Inc., a business and technology insights company. This […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14083],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-363470","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-technology-industry-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363470"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":363471,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363470\/revisions\/363471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}