The survey – conducted among 3,500 respondents in nine countries with 350 based in the United Kingdom – highlights key trends and challenges that businesses face with technology adoption and how they will tackle them in the year ahead:

• IT and AI take centre stage: with the growing sophistication of AI-driven cyberattacks in the UK, the majority (36%) of businesses will prioritise investments in IT security tools and artificial intelligence (31%) to help safeguard their systems and boost automation efficiency
• Tech FOMO drives software adoption: not wanting to get left behind by the competition, the emergence of new technologies is pushing companies to increase their software spending. This is shown by the fact that 67% of UK software buyers identify technological advancements as a major external factor influencing their business goals for 2025
• Despite tech investments, implementation poses difficulties: while there is a desire for new technology, implementing it into their existing framework may not be so straightforward. In fact, over a third (38%) of UK software buyers anticipate that tech implementation will be a key challenge for their business in 2025, along with training and upskilling employees (36%), and possible global and economic uncertainties (35%)

Planning a software search ahead of time can help prevent compatibility issues and equip teams with the necessary digital skills. For example, 57% of companies that adopted a software solution in the last 12 months implemented a learning management system (LMS), potentially alleviating some implementation issues.

What steps can companies take to select the right software?

Due diligence and dedicating time to carefully assessing software options can help businesses avoid other potential roadblocks or regretful purchases. David Jani, Analyst at Capterra, comments: “Timing is key to successful tech adoption. Businesses need to find the right balance between moving fast to keep up with the technological curve and allowing time to assess software options properly.”

As a helpful indicator, most (60%) of surveyed UK software buyers settle on a software purchase within four months, and 86% of UK software buyers were highly confident in their final decision once the choice was made.

During these crucial months of decision-making, most software buyers rely on the vendors’ reputation and their previous experience with them to kick-start their search. However, when creating a final shortlist of software options, suggestions by industry experts (43%), customer testimonials (40%), and customer reviews (39%) prove to be the key differentiators.

Notably, 61% in the UK are more likely to use comparison and review sites to assess customer satisfaction from actual users rather than trusting reviews featured on a vendor’s site. This can help separate marketing hype from actual experience in using a tool.

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