A new study from Netskope reveals that only a minority (38 percent) of infrastructure and operations (I&O) leaders interviewed believe their existing infrastructure can handle the new demands of AI.
Even fewer (18 percent) are completely confident they have the team and budget to meet the performance, resilience, and security expectations of their organization in the AI era.
The report shows 80 percent of respondents believe their organization’s IT infrastructure to be central to delivering core business goals, and the same number (80 percent) have seen expectations from senior leaders rise in the last 12 months. 83 percent of I&O leaders feel that expectations on them have personally intensified.
However, 63 percent of I&O respondents say they feel far removed from the strategic conversations that shape IT decisions, and 20 percent admit they lack a clear understanding of their CEO’s or CIO’s objectives. 37 percent describe their role and function as ‘reactive’. 60 percent believe that their organization has a defensive ‘if it ain’t broke’ mindset when it comes to investing in IT infrastructure and operations.
In addition 61 percent reported their CEO’s feelings of frustration when IT infrastructure isn’t as transparent or easy to understand as he or she would like.
I&O leaders believe senior leadership to be most interested in security, visibility, and cost, and less inclined to discuss resilience or performance. C-suite expectations around performance (55 percent), resilience (58 percent), and security (59 percent) are seen as unrealistic given their current systems, and they feel least able to affect control over security and performance.
Mike Anderson, chief digital and information officer at Netskope says, “AI has increased demand on enterprise infrastructure at a pace that legacy systems were never built to support. Our research shows that this strain has been amplified by a widening communication gap inside organizations. Senior leaders want clearer insight into the resilience and readiness of their IT environments, while I&O teams are under growing pressure to deliver performance, security, and reliability with limited resources. The way forward begins with translating infrastructure decisions into business terms so leadership can see how modernization reduces risk, improves agility, and prepares the organization for safe and effective AI adoption. When IT and the C-suite share this understanding, infrastructure becomes a strategic advantage rather than a constraint.”
The full report is available from the Netskope site.
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