20 Issues Tech Companies Are Facing Now (And How To Address Them)

It often seems the technology industry is in the business of solving everyone else’s problems, but tech companies are facing plenty of issues of their own. As is true in every industry, tech businesses have to keep up with the lightning-fast changes in technology trends. Unlike leaders in other industries, tech businesses also must figure out how to compete with all the new technology tools and services hitting the market.

Tackling tall challenges is all in a day’s work for tech leaders, but to do that, the first step is defining those challenges. Below, 20 members of Forbes Technology Council detail some of the issues tech companies are facing right now and how individuals and the industry as a whole can address them.

1. Dealing With New And Increasing Cyberattacks

The increasing frequency and sophistication of cyberattacks is a continuing issue for tech companies and any organization that uses computers. Technology companies should invest in cybersecurity solutions and their people to better detect, prevent and respond to various types of cyber threats. Every organization should regularly test its defenses to ensure security measures are up to date and effective. – Tim Medin, Red Siege

2. Leveraging New Technology For Tangible Business Outcomes

The top issue facing the technology industry continues to be how contemporary technology can be leveraged to realize tangible, defined business outcomes. Given the explosion of digital technologies and their fast evolution, end-user industries are finding it hard to create business-led technology adoption pathways that help them break out of their legacy technology capabilities. – Sandeep Kumar, ITC infotech

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3. Maximizing The Capacity And Capability Of Teams

Every technology company is under pressure to perform and grow profitably—a shift away from the “grow at all costs” model of the past. This usually means adding fewer people while still expanding the work. Companies must focus on reducing job complexity while investing in training to increase the capability and capacity of the team. Prioritize through a lens of largest impact for the customer. – Lou Senko, Q2

4. Harnessing AI’s Potential

The integration of artificial intelligence has become a major concern in the fast-paced world of technology. While some fear job displacement, opportunities for growth and innovation are real. Creativity will be crucial in navigating this evolving landscape to chart a successful path. Leaders must foster a culture of experimentation and mutual respect to fully harness AI’s potential. – Edwige Robinson, T-Mobile

5. Proving They Have A Unique Selling Proposition

Few sectors have been more impacted by recent economic shifts than the technology sector. Pressures continue to mount as tech companies exhaust the massive influx of funding seen in 2020 through 2022, so it’s incumbent on tech companies to prove their longevity, their innovative niche or, at minimum, their compatibility with a tech stack that makes them desirable for acquisition. – Elizabeth Duffy, Astraea

6. Leveraging Generative AI

Generative AI will change the game forever. How do you control it, and then how do you leverage it? The best way is to eliminate repetition. Generative AI has proven to be highly effective at tasks with boilerplate code, as well as tedious work such as documentation. Organizations willing to rip the Band-Aid off now will race ahead of their competition. – Andrew Lau, Jellyfish

7. Doing More With Less

Industry pros must do more with less, secure the hybrid cloud and embrace AI and automation while achieving compliance, modernizing infrastructure and furthering the zero-trust journey. Leaders should rationalize infrastructure and tools to lower costs while leveraging immutable network intelligence to make new, AI-based security and performance solutions reliable and effective. – Shane Buckley, Gigamon

8. Recognizing Hype Cycles

I think the biggest issue is hype cycles. What we have seen with crypto, the bank crisis and now generative AI are rapidly moving trends that have been called “hype cycles” because of how much content is pushed focusing on one topic. I think it is important for industry leaders to recognize when we’re in the midst of a hype cycle and react thoughtfully. – Caroline McCaffery, ClearOPS

9. Dealing With A Shortage Of Ready Talent

The lack of ready-to-deploy talent with in-demand skills is constraining business transformation. Technology advancements have outpaced talent readiness. A case in point is generative AI, which has made a loud entrance. Leaders need to build an organizational ecosystem that attracts, trains and retains talent. AI-enabled processes, tools and accelerators can help teams achieve higher productivity. – Prashant Bhavaraju, TRIANZ

10. Managing Technical Debt And Tool Sprawl

All technology leaders today face continuously expanding technical debt and tool sprawl. These challenges are exacerbated by the ever-accelerating pace of new technology introduction, which continues to outpace IT resources. To overcome this, leaders should shift to a continuous refactoring mindset and deliver automation and empowerment with high-productivity tools to accelerate business value. – Jeremiah Stone, SnapLogic

11. Preparing For Emerging Financial Pressure

Tech companies are up against financial pressure as the stock market is moving sideways and investments have dried up. The biotech industry is facing additional hurdles, as many major pharmaceutical product patents will expire in the next seven years. As these products total $200 billion in revenue, companies must use AI to rapidly innovate and replace this potentially huge loss. – Carl T. Foster, Standigm

12. Ensuring Real-Time Execution And Availability Via The Cloud

One major challenge is leveraging cloud tech for real-time execution while remaining available during connectivity gaps. Balancing edge capabilities and cloud hosting raises questions about duplication and security. Frank discussions on solution availability, security and costs, along with improving connectivity options, can guide decisions. Simplified technologies for on-premises deployment offer potential solutions. – Bill Rokos, Parsec Automation

13. Addressing Poor User Experiences

Businesses must recognize the true costs of a poor user experience and invest in tools to address it. With the rise of AI, the traditional IT challenge of device visibility and curation has expanded to ensuring that the right systems are in place to incorporate these technologies. IT teams need end-to-end visibility into the user experience and the means to remediate any issues in real time, at scale. – Ian van Reenen, 1E

14. Adapting To Changing Customer Behaviors

One of the top issues in tech is changing customer behaviors in the AI age, especially concerning privacy. Leaders must balance hyper-personalization with data protection. Also, the rise of ethical consumerism demands businesses align AI applications with evolving customer expectations on privacy, social justice and environmental responsibilities. – Jean-Baptiste Hironde, MWM

15. Optimizing Data Center Operations

Artificial intelligence applications require servers with unprecedented power density. That degree of high-performance compute puts pressure on data center operators to enable more scalability and network density, as well as to evolve cooling systems to keep GPU and TPU chips operating at peak capacity. Unless that happens, realizing the full potential of AI will be difficult. – Juan Font, CoreSite

16. Balancing Service Quality With Ethical AI Use

The top issue in the tech industry involves ensuring ethical AI use, data privacy and economic sustainability without compromising service quality. Leaders must align AI with societal values, enhance data security and balance investments and returns without compromising quality, service and integrity. Addressing these challenges requires comprehensive strategies and collaboration across sectors. – Jo Debecker, Wipro

17. Delivering High-Quality Employee Experiences

To provide a high-quality customer experience, organizations must deliver consistent, high-quality employee experiences. Through economic uncertainty, many tech companies have lost their commitment to the important initiatives that help employees thrive. Taking the “safe option” of cutting back during tough times will yield short-term gains at a long-term cost—proving dangerous to a company’s success. – David Levin, Poppulo (Formerly FWI | Poppulo)

18. Rethinking The Collection And Use Of Personal Data

There’s a growing perception that personal data is a toxic asset. With personal data accumulated and sold with little in terms of genuine informed consent, there are increasing concerns that technology is being used to manipulate rather than to elevate. Industry leaders need to revisit their attitudes about third-party cookies and embrace safety by design principles, rather than retrofitting ethics. – Ajay Khari, Meltwater

19. Finding New Talent In An Industry Dominated By Big Tech

The tech industry is wrestling with the dominance of Meta, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet and the talent war among them. New companies can’t compete in recruiting the best talent, which hampers innovation and disruption of the market. Three U.S. companies operate and control most of the online world, and consulting firms compound the issue by educating their workforce on these platforms. Industry leaders should be more open to new and fresh ideas. – Lasse Andresen, IndyKite

20. Filtering Out ‘Data Noise’

The digital age has ushered in transformative possibilities, but it has also presented a challenge: the overwhelming deluge of data. This is an overall business concern. When you have multiple devices speaking to each other, the volume of data generated can blur critical information, leading to decision paralysis or oversight of events. To navigate this complexity, we must filter out the “data noise.” – Alan Stoddard, Intellicene