Recently, Lenovo Group released the 2024 Global Chief Information Officer (CIO) Report with the theme of “Insight into the Storm of Innovation: Seeing How Artificial Intelligence Can Reshape Enterprise IT”. This is also the third year in a row that Lenovo has released a CIO report. The report shows that artificial intelligence is the top priority of enterprise chief information officers (CIOs) today. Although they are eager to further expand the application of artificial intelligence, they are constrained by factors such as speed and security, and other functional departments within the enterprise are not ready.

Artificial intelligence is triggering a storm of change. How can enterprises strengthen AI empowerment and establish new competitive advantages? CIOs stand at the forefront of driving the digital intelligence transformation and business transformation of enterprises, and are facing unprecedented opportunities and challenges. In order to thoroughly understand the confusion and needs of global CIOs in transformation and further study the role and potential of AI in reshaping and empowering enterprises, Lenovo Group conducted a survey of 750 CIOs around the world. The survey samples were from ten important global markets, including Brazil, China, Germany, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The number of respondents in each market was almost equal, and the respondents all came from companies and organizations with more than 250 employees.

In stark contrast to previous research, CIOs are more focused on core IT functions. More than half (51%) of the global CIOs surveyed believe that artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) are currently the most pressing priorities, and cybersecurity is just as important; Chinese CIOs are more aware of this urgency (59%). This urgency is related to the business pressure faced by CIOs, and they need support to drive business growth rather than just ensure operation and maintenance. 84% of CIOs surveyed globally revealed that corporate business growth is directly linked to their personal assessment metrics and accounts for an unprecedented share.

“Today's CIO's job is in the midst of a storm of innovation. Over the years, IT functions have expanded into many non-traditional fields, and artificial intelligence is forcing CIOs to return to their core tasks.” Huang Jianheng, president of Lenovo Group Solution Services Business Group (SSG), said, “They need to ensure the real implementation of artificial intelligence while proving the value of these technology investments and delivering measurable business results.”

CIOs are generally optimistic about the potential and impact of artificial intelligence. 80% of CIOs surveyed believe that AI breakthroughs and developments will have a significant impact on their business. At the same time, CIOs see the speed and security of AI applications as the biggest obstacle to scaling up their applications, and most functions in the enterprise are unprepared for AI applications, including: new product lines (78%), corporate policies/usage specifications (76%), supply chain (74%), and IT technical skills (51%).

At the same time, questions about human capital and financial resources also remain, and continued investment in artificial intelligence may create additional human and financial resource gaps. While 96% of CIOs are confident that their investments will grow over the next year, only 20% expect overall IT budgets to grow by more than 10%. They believe that the exploration and application of artificial intelligence is accelerating the shift of businesses' attention and resource investment in other key IT areas, including cloud computing applications and digital transformation (48%), sustainability (38%), and employee compensation (38%). However, under the premise that budgets continue to be tight, increasing the number of employees to meet the application of artificial intelligence may also be challenging. 89% of CIOs warned that as artificial intelligence technology continues to expand, human capital management will become more critical.

Furthermore, they are faced with the ongoing challenge of quantitative assessments. 61% of CIOs surveyed said that proving the return on investment (ROI) of technology investments is “very” or “extremely challenging,” and 42% confess that they are not expected to generate a positive return on investment from AI investments for at least two years.

Notably, sustainability is still one of the CIO's main responsibilities, but 38% of CIOs surveyed acknowledge that the priority of sustainability is gradually being reduced as resources are being used more to develop and apply artificial intelligence. CIOs see artificial intelligence as a “booster” for sustainable development: 78% of respondents said that the use of artificial intelligence technology will help achieve corporate IT sustainability goals.

Huang Jianheng added, “We clearly see that helping companies better understand artificial intelligence, accelerate its large-scale application, and provide suggestions on how to effectively measure return on investment is a potential opportunity and important mission for the Lenovo Group. Many of our customers are already using artificial intelligence technology to promote sustainable development, data security, and digital transformation, and as their IT solution partner, Lenovo Group will provide customized strategies and comprehensive support for the difficulties and challenges of enterprises and CIOs to help enterprises plan and build intelligence, accelerate the implementation of hybrid artificial intelligence deployments, and maximize the efficiency of operational decision-making and increase productivity while ensuring information security.”

For the full 2024 Lenovo Group Global CIO Report, please visit