Despite the hype, AI/automation and the Internet of Things (IoT) are the least important technology topics for IT leaders right now, according to research.

Senior leaders at 300-plus global companies were independently polled on behalf of Meet the Boss, the virtual round-table platform and subsidiary brand of GDS Group.

The survey questioned vice presidents and directors among other senior leaders, including 150 IT leaders. The IT respondents were asked to rate how relevant/important “hot topics” were to their role, giving them a score out of ten.

Cyber security remains their top priority - but the area where leaders feel their knowledge is most lacking.

Cyber security achieved the highest score of 9, closely followed by cloud strategy (8.5) and digital transformation (8.4). But Internet of Things and AI/automation received the lowest scores of 5 and 7.5, respectively.

In order to reveal any knowledge gaps that might exist, respondents were then asked, “Rate your knowledge level on the following topics”.

The biggest gap between the relevance/importance of a topic and the level of knowledge felt by respondents was revealed in cyber security, with the importance score of 9 matched by the knowledge level of just 7.2.

Spencer Green, founder and chairman of GDS, said: “Despite all the media buzz, we were surprised to see that AI/automation is not currently a top priority for technology leaders. However, as a relatively new trend, we expect it will climb the ranks as we see more evidence of its ability to transform businesses.”

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