Digital Lifescapes

Employee sentiment toward workplace AI is shifting fast. Gartner's HR survey makes one thing clear: enthusiasm is no longer the constraint.  The real bottleneck is leadership’s ability to translate that energy into disciplined governance, thoughtful deployment, and measurable business outcome value. Executives have blamed employee resistance for underwhelming AI outcomes in HR and broader business workflows. The latest market research tells a different story. Sixty‑five percent of employees now say they are excited to use AI at work. That is not a grudging tolerance of automation; it is a clear signal that the workforce is ready to experiment, learn, adapt, and integrate AI into daily work. Enterprise Applied-AI Market Development Yet, according to the research, 37 percent of employees do not use Generative AI tools even when they have access, simply because their coworkers are not using them. This 'peer inertia' effect highlights a social adoption challenge rather than a ...

In hindsight, the outcome of short-sighted CEO Return to Office (RTO) mandates was somewhat predictable. Less than one-third of employees now report they are engaged, enthusiastic, and energized by their work, according to the latest market study by Gartner. This research was showcased during their recent "ReimagineHR Conference" event. Gartner defines engagement in three ways: Employees feeling energized. Employees find purpose in their work. Employees feel empowered to do valuable work. The problem: many are not engaged. Employee Engagement Crisis Explained "Despite organizations making investments in engaging their employees, our research shows that almost 70 percent don’t feel as engaged as they should be and aren't feeling a meaningful connection to their job," said Keyia Burton, senior principal analyst at Gartner . Figuring out how to actually impact employee engagement is a huge priority because it has a significant impact on several key business outcome...

Forward-thinking CEOs create a digital business transformation agenda. They're eager to develop and deploy new digital business models. However, their IT team often lacks the skills and experience to reach key business outcome objectives. There's growing demand for skilled digital talent in 2023, and beyond. As a result, 81 percent of large enterprise (LE) CIOs plan to increase their IT headcount in 2023, according to the latest worldwide market study by Gartner. Meanwhile, only 14 percent expect their IT staff to decrease and 5 percent expect their headcount to remain the same. Enterprise IT Talent Market Development "Attracting and retaining technology talent remain critical areas of concern for CIOs," said Jose Ramirez, senior principal analyst at  Gartner . Even with advances in artificial intelligence (AI), Gartner predicts that the global job impact will be neutral in the next several years due to enterprise adoption lags, implementation times and learning curve...

Even the savviest CEO's desire for a digital transformation advantage has to face the global market reality -- there simply isn't enough skilled and experienced talent available to meet demand. According to the latest market study by IDC, around 60-80 percent of Asia-Pacific (AP) organizations find it "difficult" or "extremely difficult" to fill many IT roles -- including cybersecurity, software development, and data insight professionals. Major consequences of the skills shortage are increased workload on remaining digital business and IT employees, increased security risks, and loss of "hard-to-replace" critical transformation knowledge. Digital Business Talent Market Development Although big tech companies' layoffs are making headlines, they are not representative of the overall global marketplace. Ongoing difficulty to fill key practitioner vacancies is still among the top issues faced by leaders across industries. "Skills are difficul...

As we look to the year ahead, there will be significant challenges and opportunities facing the Chief Human Resource Officer (CHRO) role. In order to be successful, savvy HR leaders must be prepared to take proactive steps that adapt and evolve. "HR leaders have faced an increasingly unpredictable environment amid many organizations mandating a return to office, permanently higher turnover and burnt out employees," said Emily Rose McRae, senior director at Gartner . HR Innovation Market Development One of Gartner's key predictions for 2023 is that the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation will continue to increase within the enlightened digital workplace. This transition will require HR leaders to develop new skills and competencies in order to effectively manage and lead teams that are increasingly relying on these enabling technologies. Additionally, HR leaders will need to ensure that their organizations are investing in the necessary infrastructure and re...

CEOs are requiring their Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) to reimagine the HR charter to focus more on enabling the organization to achieve strategic business outcomes through superior talent development practices. As a result, 49 percent of HR leaders named "Innovating for Success" as one of their top three priorities for 2022, according to the latest survey findings from Gartner. Despite HR leaders prioritizing innovations, a Gartner survey of more than 3,500 employees found that only 46 percent of employees agree that their organization encourages creative thinking. HR Innovation Market Development "The survey results show that an organization’s actions directly impact the ability of employees to be creative by 25 percent," said Emily Rose McRae, senior director at Gartner . "In fact, an organization’s actions have more than double the impact of an individual's personality when it comes to driving employee creativity." According to the Gartner a...

The forward-looking CEO's commitment to ongoing investment in Information Technology (IT) is persistent. Worldwide IT spending is forecast to total $4.4 trillion in 2022 -- that's an increase of 4 percent from 2021, according to the latest worldwide market study by Gartner, Inc.   "This year is proving to be one of the noisiest years on record for CIOs," said John-David Lovelock, vice president at Gartner . Regardless, digital transformation remains a high priority across the globe. Geopolitical disruption, inflation, currency fluctuations, and supply chain challenges are among the many market volatility factors vying for attention, yet contrary to what Gartner saw at the start of 2020, enterprise CIOs are accelerating IT investments in 2022. Digital Transformation Market Development As a result, purchasing and investing preferences will be focused on areas including data analytics, cloud computing, seamless customer experiences, and IT security. Inflation impacts on ...

An increasingly competitive market for skilled and experienced digital transformation talent has many CEOs now worried that they may not have access to the IT resources needed to complete new projects. Growing demand for key roles has raised salary and bonus expectations among the most qualified.  Furthermore, Information Technology (IT) staff members are more inclined to quit their jobs than employees in other functions, with a 10.2 percent lower 'intent to stay' than non-IT employees -- that's the lowest out of all corporate functions, according to the latest market study by Gartner. And, it has become a worldwide challenge. Gartner surveyed 18,000 employees globally during the fourth quarter of 2021 -- including 1,755 employees in the IT function. Responses were collected monthly across 40 different countries in 15 languages. IT Talent Recruitment and Retention Challenges "While talent retention is a common C-level concern, CIOs are at the epicenter, with a huge chu...

This year may very well be another period of unprecedented challenges and opportunities. In 2022, several highly anticipated technology-related advancements will NOT happen, according to the predictions by ABI Research. Their analysts identify many trends that will shape the technology market and some others that, although attracting huge amounts of pundit speculation and commentary, are less likely to advance rapidly over the next twelve months. "The fallout from COVID-19 prevention measures, the process of transitioning from pandemic to endemic disease, and global political tensions weigh heavily on the coming year's fortunes," said Stuart Carlaw, chief research officer at ABI Research . What Won’t Happen in 2022? Despite all the headlines and investments, the metaverse will not arrive in 2022 or, for that matter, within the typical 5-year forecast window. The metaverse is still more of a buzzword and vision than a fully-fledged end goal with a clearly defined arrival d...

The COVID-19 global pandemic fueled the trend of pushing executives outside of their comfort zone, while government-mandated lockdowns required their knowledge worker employees to work from home. Companies that previously avoided 'Flexible Working' models were forced to embrace the pervasive trend in a matter of weeks, as new remote working policies became a CHRO standard practice. As we enter 2022, more employers will empower their key employees to work wherever they desire and engage with customers whenever and however they prefer. Moreover, the ongoing transformation to an 'Anywhere Workspace' will drive strategic IT spending and advance cloud-based SaaS adoption. Business Technology Market Development Global enterprise IT spending is projected to total $4.5 trillion in 2022, an increase of 5.5 percent over 2021, according to the latest worldwide market study by Gartner. "Enterprises will increasingly build new technologies and software, rather than buy and imp...

New research uncovers growing momentum for the "Great Resignation" phenomenon. As employers implement their forward-looking strategies, including decisions around hybrid work and increased flexibility, a gap is emerging between executive and employee perceptions, according to the latest market study by Gartner. "We examined the key areas crucial to planning for the future employee experience and discovered significant dissonance between employee and executive sentiment across all," said Alexia Cambon, director at Gartner . "If left unaddressed, this division may lead to a critical failure to build trust and employee buy-in for future of work plans." Flexible Work Market Development The Gartner survey shows that 75 percent of executive leaders believe they are already operating within a culture of flexibility, yet only 57 percent of employees indicate that their organizational culture embraces flexible work. Furthermore, nearly three-quarters of executives ...

Where CEOs choose to apply cost savings is important. According to the latest market study by Gartner, organizations that balanced workforce cost savings with targeted talent investments outpaced organizations that solely focused on cost reduction. These progressive companies’ revenue rebounded from 3Q20, and they have outpaced industry peers that solely focused on cost reduction. "Successful organizations did more than target reactive cost savings to improve performance metrics in the short term," said Seyda Berger-Böcker, director at Gartner. They also optimized costs and funded new investments. This balance between cost savings and bold talent investment opportunities is vital for protecting an organization’s continued digital growth capabilities. Digital Enterprise Talent Market Development As organizations continue to emerge from the turbulence of 2020, human resource (HR) leaders charged with managing cost and budget measures should focus on three key takeaways: Compani...

CEOs agree, enabling 'remote working' options for their highly skilled talent is now essential to their digital growth goals. For many CHROs, supporting remote work is routine. HR leaders must cater to parts of their workforce that drive key growth initiatives, and deliver new human resource policies that are most beneficial. A survey of HR leaders has revealed that 90 percent of respondents plan to allow employees to work remotely at least part of the time, even after the COVID-19 pandemic vaccine is widely adopted. Furthermore, 65 percent of respondents reported that their organization will continue to offer employees flexibility on when and where they choose to work. That's a 'talent retention' imperative for 2021. Hybrid Work Infrastructure Market Development As the global distribution of various COVID-19 vaccines begin, HR leaders who responded to a recent Gartner survey predict that about 50 percent of their workforce may want to return to the workplace – at l...