{"id":49556,"date":"2025-08-28T17:06:28","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T16:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/2025\/08\/28\/ai-ambitions-outpace-readiness-as-cybersecurity-and-cost-dominate-2025-it-agendas\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T14:56:54","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T13:56:54","slug":"ai-ambitions-outpace-readiness-as-cybersecurity-and-cost-dominate-2025-it-agendas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/2025\/08\/28\/ai-ambitions-outpace-readiness-as-cybersecurity-and-cost-dominate-2025-it-agendas\/","title":{"rendered":"AI ambitions outpace readiness as cybersecurity and cost dominate 2025 IT agendas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>A new report by CTERA reveals that while IT leaders are eager to embrace AI, their immediate focus for 2025 remains on strengthening cybersecurity and controlling costs.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ctera.com\/ctera-2025-state-of-data-and-cloud-strategy-report\/\">survey<\/a> highlights that 80% of leaders are prioritising robust strategies to combat ransomware, while the push for AI integration sees enthusiasm outstripping current readiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>CTERA surveyed 300 senior IT and security leaders across the US, EMEA, and APAC regions for its 2025 State of Data and Cloud Strategy Survey Report. All respondents work in organisations with more than 2,500 employees. Participants were screened for having over 100TB of file storage, a minimum of five sites, and a willingness to use EFSS solutions like OneDrive or Dropbox. The survey was conducted online by Global Surveyz Research, a global research firm, earlier this year.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Respondents were recruited via a global B2B research panel. To minimise order bias, most non-numerical questions were randomised. To download the entire 2025 State of Data and Cloud Strategy Survey Report, please visit<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ctera.com\/ctera-2025-state-of-data-and-cloud-strategy-report\/\">&nbsp;<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>CTERA\u2019s report also underscored how widespread and damaging ransomware has become. Every organisation surveyed reported experiencing a ransomware attack within the past two years. Permanent data loss was widespread, with 17% of organisations reporting at least partial data loss across the organisation, 10% paid the ransom, while 14% of those surveyed did not know how their attack was resolved; a stark reminder that even with growing awareness too many organisations remain unprepared to fully recover and restore their critical data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other key findings include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>AI adoption is in its early stages<\/strong>: While AI ranks third on the 2025 priority list, 70% of IT and security leaders report partial deployment of AI-based assistants, with another 27% in pilot phases, signalling that most organisations are preparing for wider AI integration, even if it is not their immediate focus.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>AI ambitions outpace readiness<\/strong>: Many organisations are being pushed by investors to implement AI to improve customer experience &#8211; 64%, enhance predictive intelligence &#8211; 64%, and boost query accuracy &#8211; 53%. Only 10% are focused on closing skills gaps, highlighting a disconnect that could hinder their ability to achieve these goals.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Compliance and security are a challenge for AI deployment<\/strong>: As organisations deploy AI tools, 67% cite compliance and regulatory concerns as the biggest hurdle, followed by security risks such as data exposure or misuse &#8211; 57%, data silos limiting AI access &#8211; 45%, and cost of implementation and maintenance &#8211; 44%.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Cloud-first strategies for leadership<\/strong>: 61% of IT and security leaders prioritise cloud technologies over private data centres. 26% of C-level executives strongly prioritise cloud, compared to just 11% of VPs and 9% of Directors. This indicates strategic agreement at the top, but more caution across the organisation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEnterprises are navigating an evolving landscape of IT priorities, trying to balance immediate cybersecurity needs with forward-thinking AI strategies,\u201d said Cheryle Cushion, SVP Marketing, CTERA. \u201cWe understand these challenges very well. CTERA\u2019s Intelligent Data Platform offers a path to robust ransomware resilience, streamlined cloud storage deployment, and seamless cloud migration aligning with both strategic leadership priorities and operational execution.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new report by CTERA reveals that while IT leaders are eager to embrace AI, their immediate focus for 2025 remains on strengthening cybersecurity and controlling costs. The survey highlights that 80% of leaders are prioritising robust strategies to combat ransomware, while the push for AI integration sees enthusiasm outstripping current readiness. CTERA surveyed 300 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4017,"featured_media":51164,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7027,1463,3559,4664,4617,15,18,4599,1659,8983,44],"tags":[9386,1108,462,1960,9387,9388,174,2820,192,9389,343],"class_list":["post-49556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-intelligent-technologies-ai","category-apac","category-cybersecurity","category-intelligent-technologies-data","category-deep-dive-newsletter","category-digital-transformation","category-enterprise-security","category-middle-east","category-north-america","category-c-suite-technology","category-top-stories","tag-2025-trends","tag-ai","tag-cloud-computing","tag-cloud-migration","tag-cost-optimisation","tag-ctera","tag-cybersecurity","tag-data-management","tag-digital-transformation","tag-it-strategy","tag-ransomware"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4017"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49556"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51162,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49556\/revisions\/51162"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}