CEO Outlook 2025: The ‘Massive’ AI Opportunity

CRN goes on a quest to see what the industry’s top technology CEOs have to say about a range of challenges and opportunities for their business in 2025 and how they will be working with their partners to tackle them.

Far and away the biggest opportunity the tech world’s top CEOs see in 2025 lies in harnessing artificial intelligence.

Take it from IBM Chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna, who said that capturing the “massive” AI and hybrid cloud opportunity will continue to be IBM’s singular focus in 2025.

“There is major work to be done to infuse AI into core systems, data and workflows,” Krishna said in written responses provided for CRN’s annual CEO Outlook project, which surveys a slew of the industry’s top vendor and solution provider executives.

Chipmaker AMD is watching closely as its customers’ AI adoption journeys progress from pilot programs to full-scale enterprise deployments, said Lisa Su, AMD’s chair and CEO. But while AI is taking center stage in the hype cycle, it’s still early days for the technology, and vendors and partners must work together to deliver on its transformational value, she said.

“AI is poised to positively impact practically every aspect of how businesses operate at scale. … Working together with our partners, these learnings help us optimize hardware and software, uncover market trends and rethink how we address customer needs,” Su said.

The past 12 months have been profound in terms of AI acceleration and innovation, said Cisco Systems Chair and CEO Chuck Robbins, who, like Su, believes AI is still in the early stages of adoption.

“Customers are asking questions like, ‘Is my infrastructure ready to support these new models, how do I make sense of all my data, and what kind of talent do I need to support my AI strategy?’” he said.

That’s opening the door for vendors to work hand-in-hand with partners to create personalized, managed services, Robbins said.

To see where more than 170 CEOs will be placing their bets this year and how they will lean on partners to tackle a host of emerging technology opportunities, be sure to check out the 2025 CRN Outlook database.