ITWeb editor-in-chief Adrian Hinchcliffe, presenting the ITWeb Brainstorm CIO Survey 2024 results.

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) adoption has more than doubled among South African chief information officers (CIOs) in the past year.

This emerged at the annual ITWeb Brainstorm CIO Banquet, held in Sandton, last night, when the results of the ITWeb Brainstorm CIO Survey were presented by ITWeb editor-in-chief Adrian Hinchcliffe.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the survey, run in partnership with MTN Business. It is aimed at gauging the trends and challenges being faced by SA’s technology decision-making community.

Journalist, speaker and facilitator Clement Manyathela was the MC for the evening. His colleague Stephen Grootes broadcast the Money Show LIVE, on talk radio station 702, at the event.

This year, the data was gathered from 112 verified CIOs. These top tech executives shared their thoughts in the survey, and the overall responses provide a vital look at how the space is changing.

CIOs were asked if they have integrated any GenAI into their business processes, systems or applications.

Comparing the survey results from 2023 and 2024, resistance in the form of “no plans to adopt GenAI” decreased dramatically, from 24% last year to 3% this year. About 16% said they had adopted GenAI in 2023 compared to this year's 38%.

In the GenAI use case study, 50% of respondents said it is being utilised in cyber security digital transformation, while 43% said it’s being used in employee productivity and 38% said knowledge management.

Hinchcliffe said: “Last year, our top three were employees’ personal productivity at 51%, content generation at 43% and knowledge management at 36%. We didn’t list cyber security last year, so that’s why we don’t have that data.”

The results show that when it comes to GenAI adoption, early adopters are leveraging it more frequently in key areas. These include knowledge management, data augmentation, content generation, and personalised marketing and customer experience (CX).

Notably, CX was earlier identified as the top tech-driven business priority. On the other hand, late adopters are utilising GenAI more extensively in different areas, such as cyber security threat detection and response, automated programming, financial analysis and supply chain optimisation.

The CIOs were also asked what they thought would be the leadership skills and competencies most needed by CIOs in the next 10 years. The most common answer, coming from 80% of respondents, was strategic vision and innovation in technology adoption.

Leadership in digital transformation and change management was at 39%. Proficiency in AI and cyber security expertise were joint third with 32% each, while advanced data analytics and decision-making based on insights was fifth with 30%.

The respondents were also asked if they will still be CIOs in 2034. Some 35% said they expected to be in the same role a decade from now, 20% were unsure, but 45% outright said no. Looking at the age profile of the respondents, 59% are 40-50 and 26.6% are 50-60.

Hinchcliffe noted this might be a case of retirement for some, or perhaps the ambition to move past the CFO and into the CEO role.

They were also asked where they will be living or working in 2034, and 76% said they were looking to stay in South Africa.

“Given the often-dour outlook about the brain drain and emigration of taxpayers from South Africa, it’s really positive to see 76% think they will stay here. Europe is often seen as a hot emigration destination, and it comes second, and then Africa and Oceania (Australia, New Zealand),” Hinchcliffe added.

The survey results also revealed the CIOs are assuming greater cyber security responsibility − 49% in 2023 compared to 55% in 2024.

“One of the key findings of our CISO survey earlier this year was that there’s been slow-down in CISO appointments. CISO appointments are not aligned with the ever-growing severity of cyber security threats/risks, and more CIOs are responsible for cyber security on top of their other duties,” Hinchcliffe noted.

“Here we can see the majority of respondents (55%) say that the CIO oversees cyber security, with 37% having a CISO.”

He added that last year, 49% said security strategy and implementation was a CIO responsibility. “So, that’s grown, which might not sound so positive (adding more pressure on the CIO), but the respondents who said having a CISO responsible for security was 37% last year.

“Another key difference lies in a move away from external partners, and the CEO and CRO driving the strategy have both disappeared − it’s been handed over to the CIO.”

Hinchcliffe also highlighted the fact that 56% of CIOs are increasingly reporting to the CEO, compared to last year, and they have more seats on the exco (65% versus 60% last year). This shows good progression of the CIO’s role as being more strategic and important.

The presentation slides for the ITWeb Brainstorm CIO Survey can be downloaded here.