In a new report from Forrester’s 2025 Budget Planning Guides, business leaders indicate a shift towards increased spending next year, rebounding from a period of cautious budgeting.
Despite facing challenges such as elevated interest rates, competitive labor markets, and the unpredictable landscape of the upcoming U.S. elections, a substantial majority of tech and marketing executives—91% and 87%, respectively—are planning to expand their budgets in 2025.
The ongoing necessity to optimize expenditures and enhance operational efficiencies continues to be a priority for organizations. To maximize the value of their expanded budgets, executives are urged to focus on cross-functional initiatives that can significantly contribute to their company’s growth.
The report identifies two key areas for budget increases: initiatives that foster interconnected experiences and robust frameworks for AI governance and trust.
Fostering Interconnected Experiences: Organizations that exhibit strong collaboration between their marketing, digital, and customer experience teams enjoy revenue growth rates that are 1.6 times faster than those of their competitors, along with 1.4 times better customer retention rates. To achieve this alignment, executives should invest in customer journey initiatives that promote seamless cooperation among various functional teams and business units.
Establishing AI Governance and Trust Frameworks: As the integration of AI technologies becomes widespread, companies need to prioritize the development of policies concerning data access, usage, sharing, storage, and retention to maintain the trust of both customers and employees. This requires substantial investments in security and privacy measures, including advanced encryption, data masking, differential privacy, and the establishment of data clean rooms.
In contrast, the trend of journey-mapping is expected to decline. The report highlights that customer experience leaders often find it challenging to translate mapping initiatives into actionable strategies. Consequently, they are advised to scale back efforts in journey-mapping that lack defined objectives, executive backing, or customer insights.
Organizations are also encouraged to assess and replace custom applications and fragmented infrastructures that serve limited purposes. Tackling this complexity necessitates upfront investments to mitigate technical debt and enhance IT performance.
Areas for Exploration in 2025:
Platform Teams: These cross-functional, product-oriented groups are essential for developing and maintaining the tools, infrastructure, and services that empower IT and business teams to create, deploy, and manage their applications efficiently. Platform teams drive stakeholder value by improving alignment and reducing bottlenecks.
Quantum Security: As cybercriminals increasingly target sensitive data vulnerable to quantum threats, leaders are advised to stay informed about advancements in post-quantum (PQ) cryptography and explore PQ security solutions to protect critical assets and secure their organizations against potential data breaches.
“Optimistic budgeting approaches will benefit leaders as they navigate 2025, but it’s crucial that they invest thoughtfully in areas that bolster overall company growth,” stated Sharyn Leaver, Forrester’s chief research officer.
“While pursuing advanced AI capabilities should remain a priority in 2025, leaders must also focus on broader experiments that yield benefits across their organizations and help build long-term trust with customers and partners. Forrester’s Budget Planning Guides offer comprehensive insights on where to invest, where to reduce spending, and how to experiment strategically in an environment characterized by rapid change.”
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