Future Focus 2026: Key Findings & Analysis

Hi and welcome to this webinar to discuss the key findings of our most recent Future Focus report designed to look at the challenges and opportunities facing both IT decision makers and marketers. I'm Maggie Hodges, I'm the Global Content Director for B2B IT at Future which includes IT Pro and Channel Pro but also work really closely with some of our sibling brands in the B2B IT space, namely Actual Tech Media and Smart Brief. We have got a packed agenda for you today so I'm gonna get started and show you the order of business. So we will first welcome our speakers and our panelists who are going to be joining us today. We'll talk about the Future Focus research rationale in terms of the methodology and you know why we set out to ask the questions and seek the answers we did. We'll look at the Future Focus findings then we'll have a deeper dive into AI, the topic of the day, of the year, of the hour. We'll look at the IT decision making process and then we'll have summary and key takeaways. I've already introduced myself so it's a good time to introduce my speakers who are going to be joining this panel discussion with me today. We have Scott Becker who is Director of Webinars and an Industry Analyst and we have Susan Rush who is Director of Content Technology and Media at Smart Brief. Now if I could ask you both to give a little introduction to who you are and what you focus on. Scott if I could start with you please. Yeah thanks Maggie. So yeah I'm Scott Becker. I'm in the Actual Tech Media unit of Future B2B and I set the editorial calendar for our webinars and then in addition to that I moderate a lot of webcasts and also conduct regular industry research and analysis. So that's me. Been in the IT media industry for probably gosh 25 years now. So over to you Susan. Thanks Scott. Yeah I'm Susan Rush. I am the Director of Content for Technology and Media here at Smart Brief and I have also been in the tech industry for a couple of decades and here at Smart Brief I oversee all of our newsletters in this suite including ISACA, Smart Brief and Comtia Smart Brief and I work on custom content and webinars. Great thank you for those introductions and thank you both so much for joining me. Really excited to get going with this discussion. I know there's a lot to say and I'm really interested in your different viewpoints and one of the things that keeps this industry interesting and probably why we've stuck around so so long is always changing. There's always something to talk about. There's always something to analyse and you know AI is definitely under the spotlight at the moment so really excited to hear your thoughts and also the findings of the research. So in terms of the research methodology we worked with our colleagues at The Lens which is part of the future research team. We asked 40 questions and so we wanted to get the balance right of demanding too much time of the audience who are absolutely information rich and time poor but also asking enough questions to get the relevant level of depth. Some of the questions were you know fixed format in terms of certain options that we wanted them to rank or rate or select and then we had some free-form questions as well to really get real-world insight on some of the challenges and opportunities facing our audience. The demographics in terms of geography were the UK and US and the data collection took part between November and December 2025. We had more than 700 respondents who were all recruited independently and of the respondents 17% were C-suite in terms of IT decision makers, 19% were directors and above within IT, 36% were other IT decision makers so a range of job titles but largely manager and above and then 28% were a line of business job titles so non-IT but definitely decision makers involved somewhere in the mix and I know we'll definitely go on to discuss a bit more about the decision making journey and who's involved later on. In terms of the key findings obviously I've mentioned AI it'd be no surprise I think there's no conversation these days without AI being mentioned. Top five investment areas for the year ahead for our respondents were in order AI, cyber security, software, general security and automation and I think you know there are interlinking elements between all of them you know in terms of AI for example definitely need to be thinking about you know data and security as well as automation and the right software and so although they're kind of distinct areas for investment and focus in their own right I think there's definitely a lot of common areas and common ground, common concerns as well as opportunities and they're definitely a reflection of a maturing understanding of how AI can actually impact organisations in the real world so rather than just theoretically. The skills gap and kind of concerns around that was definitely raised by respondents across the board in all of those areas we've mentioned that are top focus areas and other considerations perhaps not unexpected are disaster recovery, data centre infrastructure, storage which is a big deal for you know an AI era and ed competing and we produced two versions of the reports and one aimed at the traditional IT professional, IT decision maker so the traditional readers or viewers of the brands that we have mentioned up front in terms of webinars, newsletters and on-site editorial content and then one aimed at those working in marketing or commercial roles so it's a central core for both so you know the answers to the questions we've utilised in the same way because the insight is relevant you know whether you are an end user organisation or in a marketing role but we've also made sure that we have really highlighted what the calls to actions are and what the key takeaways are for those different audiences so that's why there's two versions of the report and we did a first look launch at the end of January a meet the media event in London for these reports but this is the exclusive online view of the high-level findings of what the reports cover and why that matters both now and in the future and if I can hand over to you now Susan you're going to go into a little bit more detail about some of those findings yeah thanks Maggie yeah so let's talk about some priorities you know it should come as no surprise as Maggie mentioned that AI and cyber security are at the top of AI decision makers minds and budget allocations for this year you know what's fueling this you know on the cyber security side there were several high profile attacks in 2025 the cost of an attack grew to over 4.5 million dollars and that those costs are expected to just keep rising and plus you know AI is actually increasing vulnerabilities and threats from bad actors so of course that would just put anyone on edge right so firms must maintain a good security posture you know as for AI budget increases could be driven by needed workflow improvements automation and you know even just as CEOs pushing to use the use of AI to drive overall efficiency and savings plus companies are eager to see what agentic AI can deliver in terms of orchestrating IT workflows and driving major productivity changes you know before we discuss a little bit more as a group I'd like to look at some of the findings on on these slides here first you know getting into the numbers 52 percent of B2B IT decision makers will be focused on AI this year which is roughly on par with last year and 33 percent said cyber security will be top of mind a couple of categories I find really interesting are disaster recovery and edge computing which each doubled their main focus for decision makers and if you think about it it really should be no surprise given the latency and enhanced privacy that AI requires it makes sense that you'd want your data analysis closer to the source and as I mentioned you know AI does create more vulnerabilities but what I find interesting really here on the next slide is there was an uptick in respondents willing to invest between one-third and two-fifths of their IT budgets into AI projects this year that's actually a 52 percent gain year over year the survey found that IT decision makers intend to allocate at least 10 percent of their budget on average to AI in this 2026. You know I was recently talking about this uptick in AI budget allocation with James Stanger who's the chief technology evangelist over at CompTIA and he made a great point he said I think that this is the year where serious organizations will move from ideation and AI slop to reworking and reworking their workflows. Once you do that he said you're able to move from ideation and wishful AI thinking into practical deployment. I think this is such a great way to sum up the mindset of IT decision makers and the way marketers should be thinking as well. You know as you can see here on the next slide there are several companies moving to implementation and they're looking they're doing this through customer support automation predictive analytics and forecasting operations IT and administrative efficiency security and fraud detection and of course productivity tools. So Maggie and Scott I'd love to get your thoughts a bit on AI. You know as I mentioned the findings around AI focus are pretty much on par with 2025. 51% versus 52% this year see it as a main focus. So Maggie what do you think has changed if anything and where do you think this extra money is coming from? It's an interesting question. I think it'll differ depending on sector and organization and I know later in this conversation we've got slides conversation we've got discussion on budgets generally. But I think it's really interesting you know that the amount of focus and associated investment that's going to be spent on AI. I think this really shows that organizations are wanting to move from theory into action. I love that quote you mentioned a moment ago Susan around moving from ideation and wishful AI thinking. I think that really sums it up. There's a real desire to you know put their money where their mouth is so to speak. So I think you know in some cases where budgets are going up as a whole you know from an IT strategy standpoint there'll just be more money that can be focused on AI or whatever the other priorities are and there'll be some organizations where maybe their budgets aren't going up or their budgets are going up and they've got more areas they need to focus on. So you know it's about potentially finding their their favorite children and AI will be one of those to focus on. But I think in the main it's a it's a natural evolution of understanding the importance and the impact that AI will have and relating that to the investment that you need. You know it's great to have the willingness to want to deploy AI successfully so within your organization but that does need to be backed backed up by the right resource both from a human standpoint but also a financial standpoint. So I think you know it's a kind of natural evolution. It's not surprising to me. I know we're living in uncertain times and budgets generally are going down rather than up in a lot of sectors but I think this really speaks to you know the impact that AI is going to have and organizations really wanting to make sure they're investing in the right ways and at the right level to support it. Yeah I love that you know investing in the right ways and it is exciting that there's so much interest around AI across organization across industries. You know unfortunately some industry experts are predicting that the majority of projects surrounding AI you know will fail. You know maybe because there's lack of consensus around a project's mission, incomplete workflows or bad data. You know Scott I'm wondering you know how can businesses set themselves up for success here? Yeah Susan it's a great question and it is top of mind for a lot of people. You know I think that the first thing is you've got to start with a clear business objective and you know I'm not going to tell anybody whether that should be on you know cost cutting or you know some huge growth opportunity that depends on the business. You know but you know once you make your decision then you know pilot, pilot, pilot and just iterate, iterate, iterate you know and just you know move fast. Don't be too married to you know the initial way that you thought it would work. And the other thing I would say is you know don't base your strategy on subscriptions to just a public model. You've got to focus on grounding AI in trustworthy current and private data. It's a it's a tricky area but there there does seem to be a lot of opportunity in it. Again though you've got to start with that clear business objective where you're just sort of playing. Just you know echo and concur with with what Scott has has said there and and segue nicely you mentioned data there as did you Susan and I think there was MIT research last year that showed you know 95% so a big scary number of AI projects fail but you know the silver lining the good news is that you can change that with better data. And I think that's the thing you know in some respects AI is treated as this you know this this separate entity to anything else we've ever seen before and we need to treat it accordingly in a really different and special way. But actually you know if we look at cloud computing for example when when that first you know emerged on the scene and people were talking about you know what is cloud what is this cloud computing everyone's talking about and then that evolved very much into okay I understand what cloud is what are the different types of cloud you know what how does platform service differ from software as a service for example and we've moved further still you know to how can cloud help me you know as an individual do my job more effectively how can it help me as a team leader you know if I'm in an accounts department how can it help me be more effective as an accountant's team how can it you know deliver value through cloud associated technologies to the business as a whole. And I think you know that's that's where we're headed with AI as well and I think you know with with the rate of failure it's it's often you know a lack of alignment in terms of of purpose and you know goal. You know there's no point in starting out on any project whether it's an AI project or or anything else without understanding what it is you're trying to achieve. And I think we got there we got there with cloud you know people don't necessarily talk about cloud strategy anymore it's just part of their IT strategy and I think in time we'll see that with AI we're not there yet but I think we will get there and you know it all starts with you know a shared understanding of what you're trying to achieve business buy-in the right investment so budgets definitely but also you know that data to factor. And also you know you don't always have to think big I think you know a lot of people make the mistake of thinking if we're going to invest in AI it has to be you know really game changing in terms of what it's going to do for you know me as an individual my department my organization and yes there definitely will be opportunity for that but actually you can start really small and I think again you know in the cloud world that definitely happened and in some cases through shadow IT you know people working out what might work and not suggesting people go off and start doing shadow IT with AI because that's not a great idea but I think the principles in terms of starting small and showing what's possible are really important so you know I'm an optimist and I think you know the idea that things are failing I think as long as you fail fast and can learn from them and it's not a terrible disaster will naturally be seen as a you know force for good every day's a school day every day's an opportunity for learning so as long as the business is taking that failure if we want to call it a failure and turning it into an opportunity for either pivoting in a different direction or taking those learnings into the next project I think we'll be in good shape going forward. Yeah I love that every day is a school day I think that's really important you know definitely businesses should define measurable ROI you know ensure the quality of their data and be sure to integrate it into existing workflows rather than just bolt it on I think that's a few ways to also set yourself up for success you know so some organizations still view AI as a foe you know they got the AI scaries so Maggie I'm wondering kind of building on what you just said you know where should businesses be careful and maybe where should they lean in a little bit more? I mean I think I sort of touched upon this in my in my earlier points well I'll build on that but I think I think I mean there's no one-size-fits-all you know every organization is going to be different and there will be sectors particularly highly regulated regulated sectors where they need to be more careful and more mindful about what they do and particularly you know where where data is involved and we've talked about data and you know there is no AI strategy without you know solid data strategy and you know the failure rate can be changed by by data so I would say you know organizations certainly with their employees first and foremost you know really need to bring them along on the journey you know understanding the role that AI plays within their department within their role within their organization and you know what the opportunities are for them to see AI as a helpful colleague you know just just not a human colleague versus something that's going to come along and displace them take away their jobs or you know make them look bad and you know and there will be you know displacement as we've seen with you know lots of emerging and developing technologies but you know in the main the organizations that I've spoken to and that's borne out by some of the respondent thoughts and feelings around the potential for AI is it's an opportunity for individuals to you know focus less on the mundane and the stuff that's complicated but important and be able to really innovate and really shine and I think it's really important that organizations frame it in that way obviously if there's going to be areas where AI is going to you know completely wholesale takeover tasks I think it's important that organizations are up front about that but framing it within you know it's an opportunity to to add value as an individual to the organization elsewhere within that role and also be willing and open to listening to maybe some of the fears that employees have and just being really transparent and honest in the answers and taking people on the journey so you know I mentioned that you know you don't have to think massively big straight away you can start small and some of the the best use cases that will inevitably come out for organizations will be those that those in the driving seat you know whatever their job title haven't necessarily thought of but someone in a department somewhere actually might be having a problem that they can think of how you know AI could play a really key role in the solution and that could then be extrapolated to other use cases you know if it's a workflow situation you know solution for example so I think I don't think it's about suddenly going all in on AI and going right we are now going to use AI for absolutely everything I think that could potentially be quite quite dangerous and messy but I think it's about being mindful so mindful AI and just making sure that you know you are being transparent and open to listening to the fears and thoughts that your employees have as well as those of your customers you know if an organization is going to be using AI your customers will probably have questions as well so just being you know being willing to to not just um listen but also respond would be my advice yeah Maggie I really like that idea of you know being mindful about it and being careful about about going all in um you know as I think about that that framing of AI is a foe uh you know not a friend or otherwise I think another way to frame it is is that AI is is a frenemy you know like like any other technology advancement it's neutral and it's sort of laying out there on the ground for anybody to pick up you your competitors and so those who adapt to it quickest may do well those who don't are probably going to lose market share to the other people who are who are running with it you know so you you ignore it at your peril and I think that vendors who acknowledge the downsides and address them will be seen as more credible so they you know go head on about the you know the head count concerns that they go head on about you know how to avoid hallucinations or you know data security issues um you know not try to paper over those concerns but but really go at them they'll be seen as more credible yeah absolutely uh transparency I think is so important here um and you know hopefully people are feeling a little less uneasy about AI because you definitely can't avoid it I you know I would say you know we need to start simple you know lean into where you know AI excels you know routine task automation idea brainstorming and analysis and you know like Maggie said start small you know I think that's a great way you know you can't just redo everything at once um anyway I really appreciate both of you and for sharing those insights you know and I think it's really important to remember that IT CTOs face many challenges and what I like here with that we're showing on the next slide is is some real world examples of how our survey respondents are using AI to solve problems you know they're using proactive AI driven security to strengthen their cyber security using intelligent automation and AI productivity tools to improve operational efficiency and reduce manual workloads they're returning to intelligent customer engagement to enhance customer experience with AI personalization and CTOs are are leaning into AI powered analytics and forecasting to drive strategic decision making I mean this is a great list of kind of where do I start um what are the challenges I mean this is um it really sums it up nicely so Scott I'd really like to hand it over to you now to talk more about the decision making journey yeah thanks thanks Susan so let's move on to what the survey found out that you know about IT decision making and that whole buying process from start to finish so this slide here addresses key question number one who is involved in buying decisions and you know this is a complex layer cake slide the bottom axis is budget size from small expenditures on the left to larger ones on the right and then the color bars show how many people are involved uh with blue at the bottom being one to two people and orange at the top being 20 people or more so the lighter blue at the very top is is responded to didn't know or preferred not to say so netting this out decision making complexity increases with budget size as you'd probably expect and for for smaller budgets and this could be relatively small purchases of IT tools at large companies to major platform decisions at small companies uh generally few fewer people are involved with those smaller budget decisions and then for larger budgets you can see a shift toward the the 6 to 20 or more people being involved with with those decisions so our next slide speaks to another key consideration who has the final say and this is a straightforward response it's the CTO the plurality of the time 46 percent followed by CEOs and CFOs at 26 percent but what this kind of doesn't get into is is what that final decision means I suspect in a lot of cases the c-suite is setting the budget and deciding what goes in it like broadly disaster recovery tools and and maybe they're signing the purchase order but in effective organizations they're pushing power down to departmental managers to make the real decision on what specific tool or product to use so there's kind of a nuanced story behind it a relatively simple uh data plot here now this this next slide is going to get into something interesting and that's time frames so the average time between starting a project and signing a contract to go live is nine months so probably for smaller purchases or urgent needs that time frame can really be compressed you see some you know zero three uh months here I think was 11.6 percent while major decisions or or less pressing needs might go you know even beyond 24 months so that was like four and a half percent but when you get you want to get from the 18 months to you know even more than 24 months it's roughly the same the same uh size of a group you know around 11 percent as the zero to three months so you know most of the decisions are happening in in between there with that with that average at nine nine months so it's just a a great view on on how long purchases are taking okay on the next slide let's take a look at uh decision criteria and and our winner here is pricing so survey respondents put the cost of the product in first position which reminds me of the famous quote attributed to various mercury 7 astronauts about sitting on a rocket entirely assembled from parts supplied by the lowest bidder but be that as it may it's it's the key criteria reasons number two and three are also critically important you know those are product and service features vendor reputation as a vendor you don't get into the price discussion if you don't have the product or service features that are required or if you don't have the reputation to deliver on your promises so real real clear signal in in this data here okay one more slide what do it decision makers value for inspiration on projects basically the key takeaway from this slide is that i think vendors need to do it all we live in a world of multiple channels of information and it leaders draw value from a lot of them there's basically no statistical difference in any of these they kind of all matter in-person events analyst reports vendor-led content analyst-led content demo focused content videos i think the takeaway is is you know as an it buyer you know you can take in information from from all over the place as as a it vendor you need to be providing everything um so i do want to bring maggie and suzy uh back in for for a little bit of discussion about some of these these slides we've just been talking about so this research found that the budgets are going up by about 19 percent in the uk and 106 percent in the u.s uh from this fiscal year uh from last fiscal year to to this one does that mean more money to play with on key focus areas or is it a bigger to-do list um i'll take that one first um you know i've found that more minute more money no matter how much it is typically means you have more to do um so i think there is definitely an emphasis as we've shown through the research that we're going to be putting dollars behind ai and cyber security um which means that other areas are going to be squeezed including more traditional expenditures like service management and and hardware infrastructure maggie would you agree yeah absolutely i think yeah there'll be there'll be some tough choices to be made by organizations large and and small um you know that more more money is always great but as you've mentioned there susan you know more more money often comes with more demands um and and more more things to to balance and prioritize and you know oftentimes organizations are in a situation these days where everything's a priority you know and when a bit like you know when everything's urgent nothing is urgent so it's you know it's it's real it's real tough at the moment my hope would be that you know as as we move further into the ai era and our understanding and application of ai evolves in a good way in a positive way that has real value for organizations that some of that time that will be freed up you know by ai will free up you know time and budget for other things so i think it will will it will level out i don't think we'll ever live in a perfect state where every area that a business needs focus on has the right budget or the budget that the individual you know budget holder would like but i think you know we're moving to to a place where some of those decisions will be will be made easier by other technologies like ai but yeah you're right you know more more budget uh more focus more scrutiny very much come hand in hand with you know a growing to-do list and and having to make some tough choices but i think that goes back to you know a point i made earlier about you know bringing your um key stakeholders your employees along for the ride because they can you know they might find areas where actually we've always invested x in this topic over here but actually the world's changed and maybe we could you know streamline what we're focusing on there and put that elsewhere um so i think yeah bringing bringing your employees along they might have ideas and inspiration where it's not necessarily possible to to cut budgets or or save costs but actually redeploy some of those costs elsewhere to areas that might have grown in importance or priority over the time yeah great point and you you mentioned a word there stakeholders that you know i want to get into as well so there was there was the the the survey result about how many people were involved in it decisions you know maggie why are so many people involved in making it decisions and and just explain why some projects are taking so long to get going or progress i think in in some cases um it might be a case of too many cooks um but i don't think that's that's the norm i think that's very much the exception i think the reason you know the honest reason why so many people are involved these days is because things are that much more complex than they used to be you know when i started out in the industry the people that controlled the it budget people that made the it decisions were people in the it department you know they they if you were you know an employee in department x and you wanted something that involved technology um it was either a yes or no decision by the it department and often they were they you know were terms as the department of no but very much they may you know they made the decisions in isolation they didn't really have to consult anyone else in the business times have most definitely changed you know if we look at digital transformation for example so many different job titles are involved you know the buck might end up you know stopping the final decision being with the cto but there's so many other job titles involved before we get to that point you know from from someone in accounts who might be tasked with you know doing a bit of competitor analysis on what the best um software packages are out there right the way through to other people who may have non you know it job titles so you know in the case of organizations moving to hybrid working for example and office space you know that will be a technical decision so there'll be it stakeholders involved but also the hr department will be involved and you know and the finance department will be involved because ultimately they're the ones that have to you know sign the checks and and release the budget in some cases so i think it's it's it's a it's a natural sign that you know complexity has grown but also it decisions can't be made in isolation or if they are made in isolation you know that that could be very bad because you're not looking at the whole picture of where the business value can be derived and i think you know way back when the it department and the business were even though they should be aligned they were very separate now more than ever we're seeing collaboration conversation and and discussion between those with it decision making job titles and those with no line of business job titles you know working together to achieve a common goal which is how can i in my business derive more value through technology and really show the impact of that to you know the stakeholders whether they're internal or external yeah yeah maggie i think you really got at there that it's a sign of maturity of the the it buying process and how integrated it is into the business now and in a way that that you and i remember it was not back way back when i you know i also think it's the reason that you need to focus on all job titles in the influencer stack versus just the the cto or the cio because you never know where the passionate advocate you know for for a product or a service is going to come from it could be any level you know of the organization that could really turn into the for a purchase but interesting stuff there so one other question that i had what do you think makes some of the value sources of information stand out from the crowd uh and susan maybe i'll kick that question to you first okay thanks scott yeah you know at first you know just back up a little bit i think it's really imperative for vendors as we said to be transparent and work to build that trust through the buying process and beyond with their customers you know accountability flexibility and building mutual value are are real keys to standing out from the crowd you know and and looking at this this slide here the value sources of inspiration really i think the key to it all is just being trustworthy and you know offering real sources of research and um reports for for these decision makers to rely on and also you know marketers as well um in person events are are really becoming more important as as our analysts reports um and videos i think you know decision makers are really relying on these things maggie yeah absolutely absolutely agree with what you've said there susan and i think you know the the type of content will have a you know varying degrees of of relevance depending on what stage in the the decision making journey or buying cycle someone is um you know news which isn't focused on here for example um you know is a really good way for you know people to keep their finger on the pulse of what's happening but you know when they then want to go deeper they are very much looking at you know the the the deeper dive content you know so the analysts reports you know technical demo focused content videos um and you know analysts led content whether that is traditional reports or newsletters or um even webinars but i think one of the common themes between um all of these sources of inspiration and and then you know there are there are others that we go into detail in in the full report you know one common theme is is is trust and the other would be credibility so you know it's really important to to us and i know it's something that we do day in day out it pro um atm and smart brief is you know our audience are really relying on us they're very busy and they have to make big decisions often very big money decisions and they really need to know that the sources they're looking at to help make those decisions or create an impact report that goes up the chain to the person that will make the final decision has to be accurate um insightful you know and informative in the in the right levels and and you know i think that's something that you know we've seen and when we're out in market you know when i'm at in-person events absolutely you know as a as a media um content creator meeting my audience is really important so you know and being able to talk to it decision makers to ask about what their challenges are you know that's why research like this is so important and i think you're right there you know whether you're a vendor um uh looking to reach it decision makers um to talk about your products and solutions or whether you're a you know a media provider of um video newsletter or online content is is you know the common theme is just making sure you you know your stuff and also you know your audience you know and responding to their their needs you know if they ask a question being able to understand what it is they're trying to find out and being able to deliver that information to them in a way that makes most sense in the format that makes most sense to them no no those those are great points and you know maggie i think you hit on um you know credibility susan you've been talking about transparency today i you know i also the one thing that i would add on that you know for ai related projects especially having examples of real success and roi is also going to be critical just because of that the high awareness of the project failure rate out there and those those case studies are i think as important as ever um well with that uh i'm gonna kick it back to you maggie uh if you want to wrap this up great stuff thank you so much so on this slide i mean we've talked about a lot um and we probably could talk a lot more about a lot more um it's such such interesting topic in terms of ai and and the wider landscape in terms of focus areas for for organizations in in this year and and beyond so i'll sort of set the the high level summary um before handing over to susan and scott for their key takeaways but you know perhaps unsurprisingly you know ai absolutely is not going talk and implementation of ai is not going away anytime soon you know remains of a spotlight um but focus on security is ever more important and and as we've talked about you know people wanting to move away from ai talk to to ai reality um and also really trying to prove that roi as quickly as possible and being able to either then you know move into production and and round out that project into something that's that that's delivering business value or being able to quickly find out actually maybe this isn't the right direction let's let's pivot and course correct overall it budgets and we know the portion of it budgets that are going to be dedicated to ai are increasing um overall it budgets you know have increased and will rise further into 2027 but as we've talked about you know there's going to be a a lot of demands placed upon that budget so organizations really have to be mindful about where they they focus and what the priorities are there's an increased complexity in decision making we talked about the different job titles involved the amount of people involved you know and and sometimes that's impacting you know time from from idea to to contract um price still matters as we said you know it's the number number one but features and reputation are also really key and i think scott you mentioned their case studies you know examples of what others have done is really really important to either take inspiration from um or take warning from and you know benefit from from their experiences so that you don't have to to make those mistakes potentially and and impact your business adversely and then yeah in-person events and analyst reports frank as as top sources of of inspiration and and trusted information so we've covered a lot of ground um and you know scott and susan have done a great job of providing their their views and some added context to some of the research findings so if i could hand back to um each of you in turn susan if we could start with you to provide your sort of summary and key takeaways yeah those were a great list of key takeaways uh maggie i think you've covered quite a bit of it um just looking at ai and cyber security you know i think it's important to remember that these two features and key areas will be driving a lot of decisions and especially as we're moving beyond ai ideation into implementation you know it decision makers are gonna look to use their budgets very wisely as we mentioned price is important they want effective communication with their vendors their marketers and their other team members and they're going to really want to work to optimize those workflows and overarching doing all of this while making sure their data is strong and secure you know they're going to be looking for flexibility and transparency i know i've said transparency a few times but i i think it's a really key a term to keep in mind you know as as it decision makers are searching for solutions that best meet their needs you know the most successful vendors are going to be because they've become trusted partners throughout the process and then they can really show how they can deliver that mutual value yeah those are great takeaways uh susan and you know for me i'll take it in two buckets you know for for it managers i think the best practice uncovered in this survey is to use diversity of sources of information that search for you know inspiration and in that process of evaluation and for vendors i think it's diversity too in terms of you know both job titles that you need to reach out to uh to you know the channels that you need to reach out on so uh key takeaways diversity that's awesome thank you so much and yeah you really piqued my interest there when you you know you talked about transparency again susan and i think that's you know important to to to really bring home that message of transparency and um i'll i'll steal a quote from a a previous line of business decision maker that that i've worked with in in hr and and you know when they were involved in a digital transformation project they talked about the three t's they talked about the importance of you know these three t's being combined to be the the ingredient to to setting yourself up for success both now and in the future and those three t's are technology you know perhaps no surprise transparency and and trust and i think when you've got those three elements combined you're you're in a you're in a good place so so with that i would like to thank my um speakers susan and scott for joining me today for a fantastic discussion really appreciate your time and also thank you for watching um and we really hope you enjoy the report thanks maggie thanks everybody yeah thank you