Fifty-four percent of infrastructure and operations (I&O) leaders say cost optimisation is their top goal for adopting AI, according to a new survey by Gartner.
The survey was conducted online from May through July 2025 among 253 respondents from the US, UK, India, and Germany to identify the key goals and challenges that heads of I&O face.
“While AI is the top growth area for future I&O investment, integration difficulties (48% of respondents) and lack of budget (50% of respondents) were cited as top adoption challenges,” says Melanie Freeze, research director at Gartner.
Gartner says I&O leaders need to adopt AI intentionally.
“Rather than chasing big AI projects, they should start with high-value, feasible pilots and flexible upgrades,” says Freeze. “For example, organisations could use GenAI for cloud cost management to automatically analyse cloud billing, resource usage, and infrastructure efficiency.”
Cybersecurity operations and talent/skills development are the second and third most common areas where many I&O leaders (49% and 48% respectively) expect to increase their investments in the future.