As CIOs face pressure to deliver successful digital transformation projects despite budget constraints and growing demands from leader, a new role is emerging according to a new report from Gartner.
Digital Vanguards, Gartner reports, are defined as a select group of CIOs and CxOs (Chief Experience Officer) who achieve significantly higher rates of success when it comes to delivering digital transformation initiatives.
“According to the 2025 Gartner CIO and Technology Executive Survey, only 48% of digital initiatives meet or exceed their business outcome targets. This statistic highlights a significant challenge for organizations aiming to achieve their digital transformation goals,” Gartner states. But these groups of digital vanguards have a success rate of 71 percent.
Gartner says digital vanguards distinguish themselves from other CIOs and CxOs because they co-own these initiatives end-to-end, “These CIOs and CxOs are equally responsible, accountable and involved in delivering the digital solutions their enterprises need. This is a radical departure from the traditional paradigm of IT delivery and business ‘project sponsorship’ that predominates in most enterprises.”
The 2025 Gartner CIO and Technology Executive Survey pulled data from 3,186 CIOs and technology executives in 88 countries and all major industries, representing approximately $17.6 trillion in revenue/public-sector budgets and $351 billion in IT spending, a press release on the report states, and the survey was supplemented with insights from 1,126 executive leaders outside of IT, referred to as CxOs.
“Behind every digital vanguard CxO, a digital vanguard CIO is guiding and enabling CxOs and their teams to co-lead and co-build digital delivery with IT,” said Jaime Capella, Distinguished VP, Research at Gartner, in the press release. “Digital vanguard CIOs nurture their peers to become digital vanguard CxOs. Those CIOs make it easier for their CxOs to lead digital with them and for business area staff to build digital solutions together with IT.
“CIOs’ success now depends on their CxOs’ success,” continued Capella. “To succeed at the next phase of digital initiatives, CIOs need their CxOs to work together and co-lead with them. So their fortunes are intertwined: one cannot succeed without the other.”
According to Gartner, digital vanguard CIOs focus on a few key areas to enable other CxOs to lead digital initiatives with them and for business area staff to build digital solutions in collaboration with IT. Those areas are:
- Providing compelling, easy-to-use platforms: These platforms should be accessible to and usable not only by IT staff but also for potential or actual technologists outside of IT.
- Instilling architectural awareness: By educating employees on enterprise architecture, vendor management, total cost of ownership, and cybersecurity, CIOs can ensure that digital solutions are built securely and sustainably.
- Co-creating innovation with business areas: CIOs should support business areas in identifying and developing innovative solutions.
- Developing business and IT technologists: Expanding tech skill development efforts to include business leaders and technologists across the enterprise is crucial.
Finding Compelling, Easy-to-Use Platforms for All
The Gartner survey results revealed more than 80 percent of the CIOs and CxOs surveyed planned to invest in strong foundational technologies in 2025. Those technologies include AI, cloud platforms, low-code/no-code platforms and more.
“Digital vanguard CIOs do not invest in these technologies to be used by their IT staff only. They also make them easy to use for potential or actual technologists outside of IT,” Raf Gelders, VP, Research at Gartner, said in the press release. “On average, there is 26% of business/corporate area staff outside of IT dedicated to building, implementing or managing technology. Many of these technologies naturally lend themselves to easing the burden of work enterprise-wide, accelerating time-to-market and time-to-value, and fostering the accountability of CxOs.”
Additionally, 43 percent of CIOs expect to decrease their investments in legacy infrastructure and data center technologies.
It comes as no surprise then that many organizations are exploring Enterprise Service Management (ESM) and no-code IT Service Management (ITSM) platforms that can support expansion outside for IT for ESM.
A recent study from InformationWeek and TeamDynamix found that while many enterprise companies have the foundations for ESM – usage across departments is limited, reducing the effectiveness of digital transformation in these areas. Additionally, despite having the foundations there, many departments within these organizations are still dependent on IT to facilitate the building and management of ESM.
Within the study, the most cited challenges to gaining buy-in for ESM revolve around departmental customization and IT administrative overload. More than one-third (38%) of organizations say that their biggest challenge for buy-in is that it puts too much drain on the IT team to support these departments. Another 37 percent said the lack of administrative support stands in the way. And 35 percent said the ITSM platform they have in place now can’t accommodate specific departmental needs.
This is why investment in low-code/no-code platforms is expected to grow. As digital vanguards grow their influence, they will be focusing on developing digital and technology leadership skills beyond IT – something that is crucial for the success of digital initiatives, Gelders from Gartner states.
Looking ahead to 2025, Gartner recommends CIOs should make it a goal to grow digital vanguards within their organization – making it easier for others to lead and build digital solutions together with IT.
“This involves defining the right ratio of IT to business technologists and fostering a culture of collaboration and innovation across the enterprise,” Gelders said. “By following the four key imperatives — providing compelling platforms, instilling architectural awareness, co-creating innovation with business areas, and developing technology talent enterprise-wide — CIOs can elevate their roles from technology operators to enterprise orchestrators, ultimately achieving the best possible business outcomes from their enterprises’ digital investments.”
To learn more, you can download the 2025 CIO Agenda eBook from Gartner here.