Hot topics in tech A survey conducted by Meet The Boss asked business leaders some key questions around hot topics in the tech world . EW breaks down the answers
yber security is the top concern of business leaders , and the area where leaders feel their knowledge is most lacking , according to research conducted by events and technology company GDS Group .
According to senior leaders at the 300 global companies polled on behalf of Meet the Boss , an online roundtable platform and subsidiary brand of GDS Group , cyber security remains their top priority . The research also reveals that AI and automation are the least important topics for IT leaders right now , despite the subject being classified by board-level respondents as a ‘ very high priority ’.
In its inaugural Business Technology Barometer survey , GDS anonymously polled over 300 Meet the Boss event delegates at VP and director level or above from major global organisations , of which 150 were IT leaders specifically . The research was independently conducted and analysed by Boost Evaluation Limited .
10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 0
8.5 7.5
Cloud Strategy
7.5 6.3
AI / Automation
Lack of knowledge around IT security
The survey asked those in technology leadership roles to rate how relevant / important these hot topics are to their roles , and asked respondents to give an importance score out of ten . Cyber security achieved the highest score of 9.0 , closely followed by cloud strategy ( 8.5 ) and digital transformation ( 8.4 ). What was a surprise , however , was that Internet of Things ( IoT ) and AI / Automation received the lowest scores ( 5.0 and 7.5 respectively ).
In order to reveal any knowledge gaps that might exist , respondents were then asked to rate their knowledge level on the topics . The biggest gap between the relevance / importance of a topic and the level of knowledge felt by respondents was in cyber security , with an importance score of 9.0 and knowledge of just 7.2 .
As part of the survey , GDS also asked 37 board level contacts what topics they said were the most important to them . In contrast to
5.2 5.0
Internet of Things
9.0
IT Security
7.2 7.2
Data / Analytics
Below : Reference : Meet the Boss – Business Technology Barometer Survey , January 2021
How relevant / important
Knowledge level
8.2 8.4 7.9
Data Transformation technology leaders , they rated AI / automation as one of the most important topics with an extremely high score of 8.0 / 10.0 , indicating a disconnect in priorities down the chain of command .
Business leaders keen to learn
The research demonstrated that business leaders have a real hunger for knowledge on most topics and are very flexible with how they approach their learning . While there is a small preference for face-to-face learning , they are equally at home learning from digital content , digital training courses and virtual conferences and roundtables .
The survey asked , “ Please rate how useful the following are in helping you learn about hot topics .” There was no mode of learning that stood out as a clear winner .
Face to face training and digital content got the highest average scores ( 7.7 and 7.4 ), despite these being polar opposites in terms of investment ( time and money ) and degree of interactivity . Second equal were digital training courses , which strike a balance between ease of attendance and interactivity , written content , which allows selfpaced learning , and virtual round
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