Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), the global leader in CRM, released its latest State of IT report with key trends from IT leaders across 28 countries, including 200 from South Africa.
The report highlights trends impacting IT organisations, such as shifting approaches to application development, the widening gap between IT services demand and supply, and the transformative impact of automation and artificial intelligence.
Key insights of this year’s State of IT report include:
Generative AI is set to revolutionise IT. 83% of IT leaders in South Africa say the role of AI in their organisations is well-defined, a figure poised to grow as 87% believe generative AI, specifically, will soon have a prominent role in their organisations.
Leaders are proceeding with caution, however, with 74% concerned about generative AI’s ethics.Ongoing digital transformations are sapping IT capacity. 67% of South African IT organisations have trouble keeping up with demands from the business, with the situation anticipated to worsen as 78% project increased demand over the next 18 months. In response, 88% of South African IT leaders say they’re increasingly focusedon driving operational efficiencies.Teams seek to scale app development. Only 35% of South African IT organisations can support all app development requests they receive. To scale their capacity, 69% have adopted low-code or no-code tools, and 57% use composability.Teams take an “all of the above” approach to security as threats loom. 75% of South African IT leaders have trouble balancing business and security objectives, prompting them to adopt an array of defence measures. 59% of South African IT organisations use data encryption, for example, and 50% use multi-factor authentication.
Methodology
Data in this report is from a double-anonymous survey of IT decision-makers with a seniority of director or higher conducted from February 28 through April 5, 2023. The survey generated 4,325 responses across 29 countries and six continents. More details can be found in the report. Cultural bias impacts country-level survey results.