• by Ray Schultz , April 9, 2020

Tech pros face challenges as they try to accommodate staff working from home.

While 84% of all companies are set up for remote work, including 94% of smaller firms, 53% of CIOs face communications challenges and 20% shortfalls in technology tools, according to a study by Adobe and Fortune.

Security is their biggest concern, and 70% of CIOS expect to invest more in this area, with 40% foreseeing an additional headcount. Many also expect to spend on public cloud, infrastructure and AI/machine learning.

“Like most business leaders, CIOs now have to rethink priorities, or at least reorder them, and we must reinvent ourselves now as virtual leaders,” said Adobe CIO Cynthia Stoddard.

Stoddard adds: “We’re thinking even more about security due to the rapid shift to so many people working from home, while still working to drive business continuity through these unprecedented times.”

The study also found that: 

• 50% of firms use AI in one or more projects, and 25% of SMBs. And 90% of those that have implemented AI did so in the past year. The biggest challenges: Data and funding/talent.
• 90% use a public cloud service for some of their data, but most data is stilled stored in-house.. Only 33% store half or more of their data in a public cloud.
• Meanwhile, 50% of firms are actively hiring, although 47% anticipate the crisis will affect their hiring cycle.
• Women remain underrepresented, comprising a little over one in four CIO direct reports.

Adobe and Fortune surveyed 200 CIOs in the U.S. in mid-March.