As innovation accelerates, companies are choosing to plough millions into their tech infrastructure, even as their strategies struggle to keep pace, according to new figures from Grant Thornton.

According to the professional services firm’s latest Digital Transformation Survey, 93% of firms are increasing their investments in technology, despite only a quarter (27%) of organisations reporting that these tech investments are fully aligned with business goals.

Grant Thornton’s report, drawing on the insights from more than 550 cross-functional senior executives across industries, found that over the next year, most businesses (62%) plan to increase their tech investments by up to 10%, however almost one in ten plan to ramp up their tech spending by more than 20%.

That kind of spending does not mean that firms are focused on large-scale new investments, with firms instead chasing higher revenues at an affordable price by maximising their existing tools. 

The survey found more than three-quarters (77%) of respondents are planning add-ons or upgrades to existing systems rather than complete system overhauls, while 63% are also opting for upgrades that will make their current systems more compatible with one another.

As expected, AI, cloud computing and cybersecurity are among the highest priorities, but the survey also found firms are planning to focus on building enterprise platforms, such as ERPs, and customer management systems.

Grant Thornton’s report said that these tools allow businesses to build interconnected tech ecosystems, helping to extract maximum value from their investments. 

For instance, by integrating systems such as CRMs, marketing automation, e-commerce platforms, and customer service tools, companies can create a unified, ‘360-degree view’ of their customers.

AI-driven insights further enhance this ecosystem, informing everything from product development to inventory management and demand forecasting, ensuring operations are aligned with customer needs. These insights can then be embedded into ERP systems or other business platforms to drive smarter, faster decision-making across the organisation.

However, businesses are struggling to align their processes, behaviours and mindsets to make the most of these investments, with most (94%) still expecting poor system integration to be holding them back over the next year.

Almost all (95%) of executives cited high costs as one of the main obstacles, followed by poor data management (85%), extended timelines (79%), interface complexity (78%), and unclear objectives (48%).

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Added to that, the survey showed that 32% of respondents think their data needs work to support ongoing technology initiatives, with only 16% rating their data quality as “excellent.”

“Business leaders recognise the need to invest in technology to enhance the customer experience, improve operations and drive profitability,” said Nick Vellani, national managing principal of technology modernisation for Grant Thornton. 

“But they are competing with their internal technology function’s priorities. These may include infrastructure and application cloud migration, cybersecurity and data management — all of which are critical to ongoing operations but do not directly align to business priorities.”