4 ways to be a great digital leader during 2025's tech revolution

If 2024 was a busy 12 months for IT professionals, 2025 will present similar challenges — and then some. 

The IT department just wrapped its collective head around generative AI use cases, and now agentic AI is threatening another digital revolution. Add in continuing demands for other emerging technologies — such as automation, machine learning, and augmented reality — and senior IT executives can expect 2025 to be a formidable year.

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So, how can digital leaders deal with these pressures and deliver great results during the next 12 months? Four business leaders share their best-practice tips.

1. Provide lateral thinking

Wendy Redshaw, chief digital information officer at NatWest Retail Bank, says successful digital leaders act less like technologists and more like business leaders.

The democratization of IT knowledge will continue in 2025 as professionals use more digital services in their everyday roles.

“Everyone is becoming technology literate — the business won’t be just the business, and the technologists won’t be just technologists.”

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Redshaw told ZDNET that effective digital leaders play an important role in allowing the rest of the organization to embrace innovation with a sense of perspective.

“From a business perspective, it’s not being overly excited or overly scared of the technology that’s coming, but stopping and thinking, ‘Where is the customer benefit here, and how do we make sure it’s bringing benefits?'”

Digital leaders will use their IT knowledge to work with the business and deliver improved customer experiences safely and effectively, especially in an age of AI.

“For people with a traditional technology background, the engineering blocks are still important for keeping customers safe, especially with changes in cybersecurity and quantum computing coming down the road,” she said.

“Generative AI is not human. It’s important to understand that, even though it looks like a superhuman and behaves like one, you can’t assume it’s correct. So, we need real discernment and lateral thinking on what we’re doing.”

2. Design your future

Gabriela Vogel, senior director analyst in the Executive Leadership of Digital Business practice at research firm Gartner, said the heightened interest in technology is good news for digital leaders but comes with a side order of challenges.

“CIOs have a lot of pressure to deliver the value of technology,” she said, especially given that non-IT executives are boosting their digital credentials.

Gartner’s research suggests as many as 80% of CXOs and business leaders believe digital leadership is part of their jobs.

If CIOs don’t deliver value quickly, other executives will start stomping on their territory — and for some digital leaders, that might be a suitable solution to an intractable challenge.

Also: 5 ways to be a great leader at work

“You can pretty much design the work and responsibility you want because as tech and business move together, you can start focusing on the parts of the role you want,” said Vogel. “You might say, ‘You know what? I don’t want any of this. I want to do the old IT,’ and that’s all fine and fair.'”

Gartner’s research suggests just 12% of CIOs who lead a digital transformation operate in a franchise model, integrating themselves with the rest of the business to create a democratized approach to technology.

Vogel said it’s these digital leaders who will deliver the most value. “We do see a trend of them connecting and being part of the executive committee more and more,” she said.

“And the relationship that we see is the higher the digital maturity of the business, the more likely it is that the digital leader will report to the CEO, and, hence, have more opportunities to deliver value.”

3. Don’t hog the glory

Nick Woods, CIO at airport group MAG, said digital leadership titles — such as CIO, CTO, or CDO — are far less important than how you partner with the business.

“Do you understand the business problems you’re trying to solve?” he said. “Technology for technology’s sake solves nothing. Digital leaders must address tangible business outcomes and deliver value.”

Woods said digital leaders reach that goal using their IT engineering expertise to help their business colleagues implement technology.

“We’re used to taking complex pictures and plotting logical courses and routes,” he said. “I think the tentacles are extending as tech becomes more pervasive and integrated into more parts of the organization.”

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Woods told ZDNET that successful digital leaders grab the opportunity to build bonds with the rest of the business and identify strong use cases.

“It’s not the reality that you’re going to the ops guys and saying, ‘Hey, I’ve got this great new technology solution that I’m going to put on top of everything and deliver you 30% more capacity. I’ll see you next week when I’ve finished it,'” he said

“You must partner because digital success is people, process, and tech coming together. So, just implementing tech in isolation doesn’t do it. There has to be mutual gains and benefits.”

Woods said the best position for digital leaders is to view success as supporting others. Get that area right, and you’ll be recognized for your efforts.

“The reality is the costs often sit with me, and the benefits sit with someone else. I pay for the cloud and compute we’re using to run an AI algorithm, but the efficiency, the gains, and the upside sit somewhere else,” he said. “So, digital leadership has to be built on a partnership model. And everyone wins as a result of that. If you try and take all the glory yourself, then you’re [certain to fail].”

4. Provide smart answers quickly

Claire Thompson, group chief data and analytics officer at insurance giant L&G, said she’s in a fortunate position where she sits on a board subcommittee.

“I have a seat at the top table and can talk about what’s going on,” she said. “But I know that’s not true for other peers.”

If you’re a digital leader who doesn’t attend board-level meetings, Thompson told ZDNET you must find another way to hammer home the importance of technology and data.

“That’s tough if you don’t sit at the top table and can’t ask senior stakeholders, ‘Have you thought about how that’s possible?'”

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Thompson said the good news for digital leaders who feel left out in the cold is that the broad interest in generative AI and other emerging technology means the focus on technology and data will keep increasing.

“Boards and executive committees must think about what’s happening in that space and how they might leverage those advances,” she said. “And that’s exactly what you’d expect from a board — to look at the organization and ensure they’re keeping up with innovation happening elsewhere.”

Of course, if you are seen as someone who can help the board achieve its digital objectives, then there’ll be new pressure to deliver quickly and effectively.  

“Success is all about how these aims tie back into the digital and data piece, and ensuring you have the right individuals in your organization that help you answer questions the board asks.”