Global CIO Study Reveals ROI Remains Greatest AI Adoption Barrier, Despite Three-Fold Spend Increase

February 05, 2025 at 09:00 AM EST

Lenovo-commissioned research reveals forty-two percent of global organizations plan to institutionalize Generative AI use cases
Thirty-seven percent of management remains skeptical toward AI

Business leaders and IT decision-makers confirm AI use will reach mainstream levels of adoption as organizations devote a greater slice of their IT budgets to AI implementations, according to new IDC research commissioned by Lenovo. The new global 2025 CIO Playbook entitled It’s Time for AI-nomics, highlights AI spending expectations by IT decision-makers globally to nearly triple in 2025 compared with last year. But critical challenges include uncertain financial returns on these investments and gaps in organizational readiness.

Proving ROI: The Greatest Barrier

While most AI use cases have met business expectations, proving the return of these investments remains challenging—financial risk and uncertain ROI rank as the greatest barriers to AI adoption. This tension is magnified by a disconnect between growing AI investments and pervasive doubts among decision-makers about its value. Despite the forecasted surge in AI spending, business decision-makers are not unanimous in their optimism of its impact. The CIO Playbook revealed that 37% of management remain skeptical or have reservations toward AI, while approximately 9 out of 10 AI-adopting respondents, mostly made up of IT professionals, said that AI has met their expectations. This highlights a significant divide between the unbound potential of AI and business confidence.

Generative AI Adoption Accelerates

IT leaders expect AI to account for nearly 20% of tech budgets in 2025, driven by accelerated adoption of Generative AI use cases. While only 11% of enterprises are currently using GenAI-powered applications, this number is expected to increase almost fourfold to 42% in the coming year. IT operations, software development and marketing departments are expected to see the highest level of GenAI applications.

“AI is a marathon and a sprint – requiring parallel efforts to move quickly to modernize systems, while ensuring the future-proofing of tech stacks,” said Ken Wong, President, Solutions & Services Group, Lenovo. “Our research shows organizations need to simplify the design, deployment, and integration of AI solutions to demonstrate the impact of these investments. This will instill greater confidence and fuel future investments.”

Overcoming Organizational Readiness Challenges

The research also reveals several organizational readiness challenges. While ethical issues and biases in AI and machine learning were cited as the most complex or risky aspect of AI, more than half of global businesses do not have an AI Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) policy in place. To realize compelling productivity gains promised with AI agents and assistants, organizations also must train and upskill staff, modernize IT systems to effectively integrate these tools, and establish organizational processes that help navigate the ethical and responsible use of these tools.

Data Quality: A Critical Success Factor

The AI-nomics Report also underscores the fundamental importance of data quality in delivering successful AI implementation. Ensuring data sovereignty and compliance, and availability of quality data were cited as the most important factors in successful implementations, whereas AI failures are caused most often by data quality issues, IT costs and integrating AI with existing systems and processes. To this end, 33% of respondents said that their organizations will be developing data management capabilities in the next 12 months.

The Need for Skilled Partnerships

Despite the urgency to move AI agendas forward, enterprises recognize they can’t go it alone. Lack of skilled expertise is the most common reason for not investing in AI, while the research found that access to partners with strong AI capabilities remains one of the most important factors in successful AI implementation.

“To harness AI’s transformative power, organizations need a data-driven strategy that ensures scalability, interoperability, and tangible business outcomes," said Ashley Gorakhpurwalla, President, Infrastructure Solutions Group, Lenovo. "At Lenovo, we believe a hybrid approach to AI—seamlessly integrating and enabling private and public models—is essential for delivering scalable solutions, driving measurable impact, and accelerating AI-powered business transformation.”

Explore the full 2025 CIO Playbook

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About Lenovo

Lenovo is a US$57 billion revenue global technology powerhouse, ranked #248 in the Fortune Global 500, and serving millions of customers every day in 180 markets. Focused on a bold vision to deliver Smarter Technology for All, Lenovo has built on its success as the world’s largest PC company with a full-stack portfolio of AI-enabled, AI-ready, and AI-optimized devices (PCs, workstations, smartphones, tablets), infrastructure (server, storage, edge, high performance computing and software defined infrastructure), software, solutions, and services. Lenovo’s continued investment in world-changing innovation is building a more equitable, trustworthy, and smarter future for everyone, everywhere. Lenovo is listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange under Lenovo Group Limited (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY). To find out more visit https://www.lenovo.com, and read about the latest news via our StoryHub.