Generative AI Becomes Top IT Priority in 2025—and Is Getting a Seat in the C-Suite: AWS

Generative AI is everywhere, but that doesn’t mean workers are ready for it. While tech providers promise their solutions lead to task automation, better creativity, and faster decisions, a new Amazon Web Services (AWS) study identifies a major obstacle: Companies still lack the skilled talent needed to put these tools to work. Workers without the proper skill set will stall gen AI initiatives.

Despite this, it appears business leaders have decided to move ahead at full speed, making significant investments in gen AI to produce real value. However, the research suggests that no one is being left behind—companies are planning ways to bridge the gen AI talent gap this year.

AWS surveyed over 3,700 C-suite executives across nine countries, including the U.S., Brazil, and Germany. The study, conducted between January and February, marks the company’s first focused report on generative AI. Respondents worked across many sectors, including government, professional services, wholesale and retail trade, manufacturing, information and communication technologies, and financial services. These were all senior IT decision makers responsible for selecting and implementing IT projects for their companies.

This report seems to follow the trend that organizations now recognize the significance of artificial intelligence in their digital transformation journey. By paying attention to multiple studies over the past couple of years, it’s fascinating to see the evolution of leadership thinking to get to this point. AWS claims that “the technology’s affordability and accessibility through mobile devices has democratized access, enabling widespread adoption across organizations of all sizes.”

Executives seem impressed by how companies like AWS, Microsoft, Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Google have packaged AI, making it easy to use and removing the stress they may have felt when debating how to use the technology.

Here’s a closer look at AWS’ survey findings:

Gen AI Trumps Security in IT Spending

Gen AI is a top priority for companies in 2025. Executives are so committed to the technology that they’re allocating more budget to it than to other key IT areas like security, compute, storage, and hardware. Nearly half of the poll’s respondents (45 percent) say gen AI will be their primary investment focus.

For those in tightly regulated industries, such as finance services or education, they’re more stringent in buying gen AI tools. They want solutions that fit into the existing systems and provide strong security and advanced features. According to AWS’s research, over 60 percent of respondents ranked seamless integration as their organization’s top requirement, with similar importance placed across low-to moderate (65 percent) and high-oversight (63 percent) environments.

Privacy and security are ranked differently depending on how regulated a company is. Among those with lower levels of oversight, 48 percent viewed privacy and security as their third-highest concern, just behind advanced capabilities. But, in highly regulated fields, 34 percent prioritized privacy and security as fourth, placing greater importance on responsible AI guardrails instead. The contrast could be because organizations with high levels of oversight already have strong privacy and security policies and feel other factors are more worthwhile to focus on.

All Hail the Chief AI Officer

For at least the past few years, companies have debated whether to appoint a Chief AI Officer or assign AI deployment oversight to someone else in the C-Suite, such as the CIO or CTO. At one point, the U.S. government even embraced the idea, as the Biden administration instructed all agencies to hire a Chief AI Officer.

Some experts questioned whether the CAIO role should be permanent or temporary. David Berkowitz, founder of the AI Marketing Group, once pointed out that CAIOs may become the equivalent of the Chief Digital Officer, transitioning from a formal post to having it fused into different disciplines. “It’s just going to be part of everyone’s job,” he states.

Analyst Charlene Li agrees but clarifies that every organization is different. “You may need a Chief AI Officer to coordinate [and] everybody will make sure everything’s happening. But in the end, it’s the responsibility of every single department.” She emphasizes that ultimately, it’s the CEO’s responsibility to oversee something this big to transform the company successfully.

Nevertheless, AWS’s data shows CAIO hiring is on an upward trajectory. Sixty percent of those surveyed revealed their organizations already have a CAIO. And by 2026, an additional 26 percent plan to do the same. The named executive will oversee integration, risk management, and value creation. Leadership likely wants a dedicated owner for the AI strategy, someone who can ensure it delivers measurable results and doesn’t turn into empty hype.

And with the rise of digital labor (also known as AI agents), having someone in the C-suite who could manage this workforce, similar to the Chief People Officer or the Chief Human Resource Officer, makes sense as a strategic role. These AI agents will increasingly interact with human employees, customers, and partners, so having an executive responsible for their deployment, performance, and compliance will be critical. As AI systems become more advanced and integrated across the enterprise, a dedicated CAIO can ensure that AI is used responsibly, ethically, and in alignment with the company’s values and objectives.

“This trend reflects a fundamental shift in how organizations view AI – not merely as yet another technological tool – but a breakthrough that requires strategic oversight at the highest level,” Amazon notes.

Shifting from Experimenting to Integrating

Play time is over. Companies are ready to build real products with AI. Nearly half of those polled (44 percent) claim their organizations have moved past the proof-of-concept stage. Nine out of ten companies have started to deploy gen AI tools. This study reinforces the trend that it’s no longer employees who want to use AI in the workplace. Business leaders now feel a strong sense of urgency as well.

AWS shares that organizations conducted an average of 45 gen AI experiments in 2024. However, fewer than half—only 20—are expected to be deployed to end users by 2025. One of the top reasons experiments fail to be commercialized is the lack of a skilled workforce. Development costs, bias and hallucinations, an inability to identify a use case, and a lack of data are also listed as constraints.

Companies may have initially assumed their employees’ existing skills would transfer easily to AI. But experimentation and the rapid evolution of the industry have shown otherwise. More education is needed not only to keep workers employed but also to help businesses evolve into AI-first organizations.

Upskill to Raise the Gen AI Talent

AWS’s subsequent finding is in sync with Salesforce, LinkedIn, and Microsoft’s thinking—make training readily available to ensure the human workforce can adapt to the AI era. “Talent is the key to turning generative AI experiments into real-world success, and 1 in 2 organizations have developed training plans,” the company writes.

The good news is that more than half of all organizations (56 percent) have a gen AI training plan in place, and that percentage will increase to three-quarters by the end of 2025.

Its research concludes that 90 percent will likely add headcount with gen AI expertise. A quarter of all organizations forecast that at least half of their new hires must possess these skills. How aggressively companies hire will vary by industry—AWS reveals that in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector, 35 percent of businesses plan to make gen AI skills a requirement for “at least half of their new roles.” On the other hand, 28 percent of those in manufacturing say they are following suit.

Adopt a Hybrid Build-and-Buy Strategy

Now that companies are getting serious about having a production-ready AI strategy, executives are mulling over whether to buy from the market or build their own software. It’s an age-old question that is asked every technological age. AWS’s research suggests that organizations are leaning towards pre-existing models to power their applications, but this is only temporary. Once they hire more gen AI-skilled workers, companies may transition to a do-it-yourself approach.

That being said, 40 percent of companies intend to deploy wholesale out-of-the-box models, while 25 percent elect to use in-house solutions. However, besides lacking skilled talent, AWS doesn’t specify other reasons an organization would choose third-party models versus building their own (e.g. lack of infrastructure, regulatory concerns, etc.).

Education (45 percent), financial services (44 percent), and ICT (43 percent) are considered the top sectors favoring out-of-the-box applications this year. On the other hand, healthcare ranks as the lowest to embrace them (33 percent).

Despite all this, one emerging growth opportunity is third-party vendors. These companies help provide the staffing and infrastructure services organizations need to implement their AI strategies. AWS’s data shows that 65 percent of respondents rely on these vendors in some capacity.

“Generative AI represents a major inflection point for organizations worldwide,” AWS notes. “Those that successfully adopt and integrate the technology stand to gain significant benefits—from accelerating product ideation and go-to-market strategies to optimizing internal operations.”

The research makes it clear: Enterprise adoption of gen AI is no passing trend. Business leaders are indeed treating it as a strategic imperative. Yet, as innovation accelerates and companies race to become AI-first, they must confront a key vulnerability—the readiness of their human workforce. Embracing digital labor means nothing without empowering people to use them effectively.

Featured Image: An AI-generated image of a humanoid robot representing a Chief AI Officer, standing in a corporate boardroom, and surrounded by human executives. Image credit: Adobe Firefly