The DEX Pulse: CIO Voices, Q1 2025 - Redefining IT’s Role in the Digital Workplace
Some Q1s can slip by in a whirlwind of shifting intentions. Others—rarer, these—are driven by something genuinely purposeful. For Nexthink, Q1 2025 was one of those rare ones. In partnership with Gartner, we sponsored five C-Level Virtual Town Halls in five distinct regions—Dallas, New York, UK & Ireland, META, and France—where 245 CIOs took time out of their busy days to tackle a question at the heart of modern enterprise life: How do we drive real business outcomes through the digital workplace?
As you can read below for yourself: each session really had its own flavor. Dallas was crisp and results-driven—where DEX was challenged to prove its value in dollars. New York, candid and restless, delved into visibility, privacy, and IT’s evolving role. UK & Ireland, balanced ambition with complexity, while META came in hungry for scale and mobile-first innovation. Meanwhile France took a thoughtful, systems-oriented approach.
But across every room, a clear signal emerged: Digital Employee Experience (DEX) is no longer a fringe concern. The CIO, once seen as the steward of systems, is now an architect of employee enablement. Perhaps as a consequence of all this change, these Town Halls were anything but passive.
Together, this global community of technology leaders came together to explore how to truly operationalize DEX…
France: Complexity with Purpose
Paris brought a deliberate intensity to the conversation—less about speed, more about structure. French CIOs approached DEX as a strategic pillar, not just a technical upgrade. As one exec put it, “Digital employee experience enables companies to be competitive in the market.”
The group challenged the outdated model of reactive IT, pushing instead for a DevOps-style approach to continuous improvement. They acknowledged the fragmentation of the modern IT environment—hybrid work, SaaS sprawl, partial control—and emphasized the urgent need for visibility and automation. Without both, transformation stalls.
There was deep curiosity around AI tools like Copilot, but skepticism about ROI remained. Soft skills, change management, and simplification—not just tools—were flagged as decisive success factors.
Key sentiment: DEX is only meaningful when it moves beyond dashboards to smart, user-centric execution.
Dallas: ROI or Bust
Dallas was all business. The conversation tilted toward outcomes: fewer steps, faster tasks, measurable impact. CIOs spoke in terms of efficiency, revenue, and employee enablement. The "retail mindset" was front and center—treat your employees like customers, streamline their digital experience, and remove the swivel-chair work that plagues legacy industries.
Data was framed not as an abstract asset but as an operational lever. Transformation initiatives must be split into trackable units, designed with the user in mind, and justified with hard metrics. AI was welcomed, but only if it could prove itself as a force-multiplier.
Key sentiment: If it doesn’t reduce friction or boost the bottom line, it doesn’t belong.
META: Frontline First, Friction Last
The Middle East Town Hall brought a sharp focus on scale, retention, and frontline realities. With high attrition in the first 90 days and growing pressure to digitize legacy operations, CIOs here weren’t just talking DEX—they were living it. Paper-based workflows and disconnected systems are rapidly being replaced by mobile-first, self-service tools built for a dispersed, demanding workforce.
The stakes are high here. Employees now expect the same digital ease at work as they do with fintech apps. Anything less risks disengagement.
AI and automation emerged as twin enablers—automating low-level tickets, proactively resolving issues, and laying the groundwork for true autonomous support. Experience measurement was non-negotiable. Without data, attendees largely concurred, there’s no credibility—or continuity.
Key sentiment: To retain talent and drive scale, you must make digital effortless, especially at the edge.
UK & Ireland: Pragmatism Meets Progress
In London, the tone was reflective yet forward-looking. Leaders here were unified on one point: DEX isn’t optional, but its business case requires constant translation. Measuring productivity gains in hybrid environments remains a work in progress. Yet, amid complexity, clear tactics emerged.
Contextual surveys were flagged as high-impact. AI copilots, when deployed strategically, were already delivering impressive returns—though turning that into boardroom-ready metrics was a challenge. Meanwhile, the evolving IT support role loomed large: from break/fix to concierge, from service desk to AI co-pilot manager.
There was also a strong undercurrent of workforce empowerment: reverse mentoring, user-led innovation, and AI governance were seen as long-term enablers of scalable digital success.
Key sentiment: DEX isn’t just IT’s job—it’s how organizations build capability in the age of hybrid and AI.
New York: From Firefighting to Forward Motion
In a room spanning industries NYC’s CIOs brought sharp perspectives on redefining IT’s role in the enterprise. The consensus? It's time for IT to evolve from reactive fixer to strategic enabler.
Endpoint visibility was a key tension point. Across sectors, there was appetite for more nuanced, “lighter-touch” DEX tools—and the need to offer insight without surveillance.
Support models, too, are under strain. Many admitted reliance on ticket queues and helpdesk escalation, but acknowledged this only scratches the surface of digital friction. The next phase? Proactive monitoring that uncovers invisible issues and anticipates them before they hurt productivity.
Key sentiment: IT can’t just put out fires—it has to prove it’s building the future, not fixing the past.
As the conversation around Digital Employee Experience (DEX) evolves, Nexthink stays committed to driving real change in the digital workplace. We’lll continue these crucial discussions at the upcoming Gartner C-Level Communities Executive Summits: UK & Ireland on June 11, and New York on June 24. We’d love to see and hear from you there.