The Hype Cycle for Emerging Tech, the First 90 Days in a New Role, AI in Cybersecurity, and More
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Get Grounded With the 2025 Gartner Hype Cycle™ for Emerging Technologies
The Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies points to disruptive forces.
This year’s Gartner Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies outlines the technological innovations increasingly shaping societies and the enterprises working within them. The core themes are:
- Autonomous business
- “Hypermachinity”
- Augmented humanity
- Techno-societal fragility
The emerging technologies that fall within these themes present both immense opportunities and challenges for businesses and their leaders.
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Beyond the First 90 Days: Sustaining Success in a New C-Suite Role
Drive lasting, enterprisewide impact by aligning with strategic corporate goals.
Nearly 40% of VP-level-and-below managers say they don’t fully understand how their work affects others — and fewer than half believe their efforts align with corporate strategy. To ensure their function can adapt to the corporate strategy and evolving priorities without sacrificing operational stability, new executives must quickly adopt a sustainable approach to functional alignment. This approach expands managers’ understanding, supports decision making, enables execution amid disruption and elevates the right talent.
✅ Excel in your first year — and beyond: Gartner Executive FastStart™
A Marketing Plan Must Line Up With Strategic Business Priorities
A marketing plan must tie to business goals.
CMOs often struggle to position marketing as a strategic partner in business, primarily because their marketing strategies do not consistently tie short-term activities to long-term business outcomes. The solution lies in a well-structured marketing plan that connects marketing efforts to business goals and provides a clear roadmap to success — while being flexible and adaptive to the environment in which they are executed.
💡 Keep reading: A Marketing Plan Must Line Up With Strategic Business Priorities
📣 Meet forward-thinking CMOs and marketing leaders: Gartner Marketing Symposium/Xpo™
How the Best Sales Leaders Handle Disruption
When constant change is inevitable, top sales leaders focus on ensuring growth.
Sales leaders and organizations face relentless pressure to deliver on near-term revenue targets while leading long-term transformation. And the challenge is not just about adapting to one shift — it’s navigating a constant state of transformation. Between 2022 and 2024, sales organizations underwent an average of four major changes.
To drive seller productivity, even as they respond to evolving technologies, tariff uncertainty, changing buyer behavior, and shifting market dynamics, many sales leaders double down on seller-centric efforts: more training, more enablement tools, more hires.
💡 Keep reading: How the Best Sales Leaders Handle Disruption
🏆 Client stories: Accelerating Strategic Sales Growth and Team Productivity
Cybersecurity and AI: Enabling Security While Managing Risk
Cut through the hype to cut down on buyer’s remorse.
Like any highly desirable high-ticket item, AI is not always what it’s built up to be. For example, although there is a proliferation of AI agents, providers tend to proclaim every new automation feature or tool an “AI agent.” Though some agents do use generative AI to plan and take autonomous actions, many simply create more confusion for cybersecurity leaders. The more you know, the better equipped you’ll be to avoid confusion while reaping the benefits of your purchase.
💡 Keep reading: Cybersecurity and AI: Enabling Security While Managing Risk
💻 Watch anytime, anywhere: Preemptive Cybersecurity – A Top 5 Disruptive Trend in Cybersecurity for 2025
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CISO Secrets: AI, Cybersecurity & Business Growth
From cybersecurity assessments to executive partnerships, learn how Gartner for CISOs can help you become a better cybersecurity and business leader. Learn more about Gartner for CISOs.
🙌 Thank you to our experts, Christian Stephan , Vishnu Kumar , Carlos Guerrero , Kelly Fischbein , Nader Henein , Soyeb Barot , Richard Bartley and Matthew Milone, PMP, MBA, CISSP for contributing to this article.
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💬 Join the conversation: Share your key takeaways from this week's C-level insights in the comments below.
Driving Digital Transformation Through SAP, Odoo ERP | RPA | IoT | AI\ML #ERP #SAP #Odoo #RPA
1moThank you, Gartner, for continuously providing such a comprehensive and forward-looking perspective on emerging technologies and strategic leadership. The 2025 Hype Cycle reminds us of the importance of balancing innovation excitement with practical, customer-driven adoption. As we navigate the rapid pace of technological change, aligning emerging trends with real-world business needs and customer signals becomes essential for sustained success. Excited to see how these insights shape our strategies and foster responsible innovation in the years ahead. #EmergingTechnologies #StrategicLeadership #Innovation #GartnerInsights
CEO, Strategic, Servant, and Steward Leader, Global Expert, and AI Talent: Frontline Career Civil Servant, UN Global Climate Champion. Serving, inspiring, and unlocking human potential to make the World Great Again.
1moThe Shifting Landscape in Executive Leadership and Superpower Dynamics: The Race for TOP AI Talent, including highly successful executives, talented experts, and stellar leaders, has never been greater. A global call to strategic action for real-world impacts and bold solutions: Cutting-edge technologies have not only transformed bureaucracy and reshaped hierarchical structure but also redefined Strategic AI Leadership. 1) Are you ready to climb the global executive and leadership ladder of success? 2) Strategic AI Leadership takes more than passion—it requires the right skills to turn ideas into action. Are you eager to make a real impact and a positive difference in the fight against climate change? 3) Bold leadership in Action for bold solutions: Whether you're launching a project, advocating for change, or leading a team, knowing how to manage resources and communicate effectively. What is the Shift in Executive Leadership and Superpower Dynamics? As CEO, Strategic Servant Leader and UN Global Climate Champion, I play my part successfully. I am deeply committed to making the World Great Again free of Extreme Poverty. Nobody is left behind in the golden era of AI and digital age of change.
Interesting how the themes in this year’s Hype Cycle echo the classic diffusion of innovation theory — from early hype to mainstream adoption. It’s a useful reminder that timing and context often matter as much as the technology itself.
Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) | GTM Architect | Sales & Revenue Operations Executive
2moOne way I’ve found to get the most value out of the Gartner Hype Cycle (or any trend report) is to pair it with your own customer signal tracking. It’s easy to get pulled into what’s “hot,” but mapping hype cycle stages against what your customers are actually asking for helps separate shiny objects from true adoption opportunities.