Generative AI Tops 2025 Tech Budgets, Outpacing Cybersecurity

Generative AI has officially overtaken cybersecurity as the top global IT budget priority heading into 2025, according to a new AWS report surveying nearly 4,000 senior decision makers across nine countries, reports VentureBeat. Forty-five percent of organizations said they plan to prioritize generative AI spending, compared to 30% for security tools. While this shift doesn’t mean cybersecurity is losing relevance, it reflects a broader race among enterprises to scale AI capabilities beyond experimentation and into core operations.

The study found that 90% of organizations are already using generative AI in some capacity, with nearly half moving beyond the pilot phase into production. To manage growing AI complexity, 60% of companies have appointed a Chief AI Officer, signaling a shift in enterprise leadership structures. Yet, despite this momentum, about 25% of respondents still lack a formal AI transformation strategy, raising questions about whether organizational readiness can keep pace with AI ambition.

Even as enterprises conduct dozens of AI experiments—an average of 45 per company in 2024—many still struggle to bring those efforts to production. Only 20 of those initiatives are expected to reach end users in 2025, with talent shortages cited as the biggest barrier. To close the gap, 92% of organizations plan to recruit AI-skilled talent next year, and more than half have launched internal training programs focused on AI upskilling.

Instead of building proprietary AI tools from scratch, most companies are choosing a hybrid model—combining pre-trained foundation models with custom development. Only 25% of respondents are developing fully in-house solutions. Industries like financial services, which traditionally favor bespoke systems, are increasingly adopting out-of-the-box tools. This trend, combined with growing reliance on third-party vendors and integrators, signals a more pragmatic, business-driven approach to enterprise AI adoption.