Security, privacy and AI code reliability are the biggest development challenges
The latest Reveal survey from Infragistics into development concerns shows security (51 percent), AI code reliability (45 percent), and data privacy (41 percent) among their biggest software development challenges for 2025.
AI continues to be a major focus, with 73 percent of tech leaders citing expanding the use of AI within organizations as their top priority for 2025.
"As software evolves and we enter an era of agentic AI, user confidence in the security, reliability, and integrity of digital interactions and technologies has become increasingly vital," says Jason Beres, SVP developer tools at Infragistics. "We are facing a complex threat landscape where even advanced software struggles to keep up with modern cyber-attacks, sophisticated threats, and privacy and security challenges. The tech sector has a responsibility to address these risks by integrating protections into their solutions."
The rush to incorporate AI in 2024 led to a strong demand for skilled AI engineers (28 percent) in 2025, which is nearly double the next most in-demand technical titles -- IT security engineer (16 percent) and cybersecurity engineer (13 percent). These talent shortages align with 2025’s top software development challenges – security, data privacy, and AI code reliability. The hardest to fill technical jobs of 2024 -- software developer (25.4 percent), data analyst (14.6 percent) and web designer (11.7 percent) -- did not even make it into the top three in 2025.
Despite low expectations at the start of the year, most tech leaders report robust growth in 2024, with 8 in 10 increasing revenue (80 percent), 67 percent expanding their staff, 82 percent taking on new projects, and 72 percent seeing more requests for proposals, illustrating strong performance in the tech industry.
Business intelligence is seen as a key area poised for growth because data-driven decision-making has become a competitive necessity for unlocking trends and driving strategic initiatives. In fact, a striking 78 percent tech leaders expect to increase their focus on BI in 2025.
"Data-driven decision-making is no longer merely a strategic advantage -- it's the cornerstone of success," adds Beres. "As more tech leaders harness the power of business intelligence and embedded analytics, one thing is certain: those who unlock the full potential of their data will reap the rewards of increased productivity, growth and innovation."
The full report is available from the Reveal site.
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