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In 2021, CIOs were balancing urgent pandemic-era needs—supporting remote work and keeping customers connected—with longer-term efforts to transform business processes. In CIO’s State of the CIO coverage, the most frequently cited planned spending increases were for data and business analytics (39%) and security and risk management (37%). These are historical survey intentions, not current forecasts.
What the 2021 State of the CIO coverage examined
CIO’s Spring 2021 digital issue, dated April 14, 2021, focused on how the pandemic period was changing CIO responsibilities, business initiatives behind IT investment, and challenges ahead. Its listed topics included customer-focused IT, strengthening IT’s role in the business, sustaining CIO success, survey findings, and changing IT culture. The issue description is available on CIO’s issue landing page; the linked digital issue itself is not accessible here, so the landing-page summary and related coverage define what can be established.
Where IT leaders expected to increase spending
CIO reported that 812 IT leaders participated in the State of the CIO findings discussed in its 2021 spending-priorities article. The shares below refer to respondents expecting to spend more in each area; they are not measures of actual spending growth.
| Planned spending area | Share expecting to spend more |
|---|---|
| Data and business analytics | 39% |
| Security and risk management | 37% |
| Cloud-based enterprise applications | 32% |
| Customer-experience technology, including chatbots and mobile apps | 30% |
These findings, as reported by CIO’s 2021 spending-priorities coverage, point to a mix of capability-building and immediate resilience: analytics and cloud applications could support changing operations, while security addressed risk and customer tools aimed to improve access and service.
What business goals were driving IT budgets
The leading business drivers were related to, but distinct from, the technology categories above. CIO reported that respondents most often identified transforming existing business processes (36%), increasing cybersecurity protections (34%), and improving customer experience (33%) as drivers of IT budgets. These percentages describe business objectives, not spending categories, and should not be added to the technology figures.
Related CIO coverage reported that 47% of the 812 respondents were adapting products and services to meet changing demands, while 45% were delivering products and services in new ways. That helps explain the emphasis on process change and customer access: organizations were not simply maintaining systems, but adjusting what they offered and how they delivered it. The figures appear in CIO’s coverage of changing IT priorities.
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How the pandemic was changing the CIO’s role
The issue’s framing and related articles describe CIOs facing two connected pressures. First, they had to stabilize and standardize remote-work infrastructure during an emergency. At the same time, business leaders were looking to IT for strategic partnership and innovation rather than treating technology as a back-office function. The spending priorities reflect that tension: security and cloud services support operational continuity, while analytics, process transformation, and customer-experience work can change how the business operates.
The quotes in CIO’s related coverage reinforce the urgency and customer focus. Gartner distinguished research vice president John-David Lovelock warned that digital business had become a survival issue, while JPMorgan Chase banking CIO Rohan Amin described an environment of continuous change. Power Home Remodeling application-development leader Jenny Gray emphasized customers’ desire for immediate access to their data. These comments are perspectives from the cited articles, not survey results or proof that every organization faced the same conditions.
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How to read the survey figures
- They are historical intentions. “Expected to spend more” describes what respondents planned in 2021, not what they ultimately spent or what CIOs should prioritize today.
- The available methodology is limited. CIO’s specific spending article cites 812 IT leaders. Its accessible materials do not establish the full questionnaire, geographic composition, role mix, or weighting.
- A secondary source reports a different sample count. A Pink Elephant post says the Spring 2021 research included 1,062 respondents. Without the digital issue’s methodology, it is unclear whether this is a broader sample or a different count; it should not be combined with the 812 cited for the specific survey findings.
- No vendor endorsement is established. The available issue summary and related coverage identify categories and priorities, not products or providers endorsed by the survey.
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