Digital operations management company PagerDuty has published the 2025 State of Digital Operations Report, which highlights the business impact that AI and automation have delivered.
Based on survey responses from more than 1,100 operations leaders across North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia-Pacific, the data highlights how efficiency, security and innovation are among the top priorities shaping IT operations in 2025.
The fourth edition of the report showcases the maturation of digital operations over the past year, with respondents citing significant improvements in operational resilience, more effective use of automation and faster time to market. While IT budgets are slated to increase in 2025, organisations are taking a more strategic and pragmatic approach to AI investments, balancing the need to address current challenges and planning.
Key State of Digital Operations Survey results include:
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64% of respondents expect IT operations budgets to increase in 2025 to support continued investments in operational efficiency, resilience and excellence;
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Enthusiasm for agentic AI is highest among CIOs and CTOs, with a majority (53%) viewing it as core to future IT operations; and
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Although automation has become more sophisticated and pervasive across all industries and regions, data security remains the key concern, as 35% of leaders identify it as the top challenge. Developing the right skills and capabilities to drive automation is the second most pressing challenge (31%).
In 2024, AI has evolved from a novelty technology to the cornerstone of modern IT operations. Survey respondents reported that they were experiencing GenAI’s benefits across many key performance indicators, including operational efficiency gains (37%), improved customer experiences (36%), and better insights from data (38%) at the top of the list.
Agentic AI is particularly poised to play a critical role within the next one to two years, with 88% of respondents viewing it as either core or peripheral to future IT operations.
Looking ahead, cyber security is expected to be a high priority in 2025. Seventy-one per cent of respondents expect to see an expansion of security and operations budgets in the next year, compared to only 14% who expect to see a consolidation. Security concerns are especially notable in industries that handle valuable intellectual property and emerging technologies. Media (95%) and tech (94%) companies report the highest priority for security.
You can read the full report here.
