Like many C-suite roles, the position of chief technology officer has undergone significant changes in the last five years. In addition to being responsible for the development and management of the tech behind their startups, many CTOs are now expected to shape strategic business decisions and feed into board-level discussions about revenue, growth, compliance and exit strategy.
“You’re just as much of a business executive as anybody else, you just happen to be the person that knows about technology,” says Meri Williams, CTO of Pleo.
Many engineering leaders are also under significant pressure from the top to embed AI into their products and ways of working in a bid to increase productivity. Though some research suggests these benefits are overstated. For example, a recent study by nonprofit research institute, METR, showed that developers who thought they’d be faster using AI tools were actually slower.
In 2025, CTOs are tasked with translating technology’s potential into realistic business goals, while remaining focused on the fundamentals: building the right thing and getting it in the hands of the right people.
Sifted checked in with five CTOs and VPs of engineering in Europe and asked them: what’s the biggest challenge you’re facing right now? Below, you'll find their responses.
Fighting cyber attacks — Meri Williams, CTO at Pleo
The increasing risks around cybersecurity remain a huge challenge for CTOs. We’re seeing packs being sold on the dark net that allow people to do phishing and spear phishing more cheaply and efficiently.
The return on investment for people attacking you has gone up and up, while security budgets have not. CTOs have the challenge of trying to stop attackers with the same level of investment they’ve always had, while attacks get increasingly sophisticated, especially with advances in AI. As the CTO, I’ve become responsible for fraud across the whole of Pleo and have a tiger team of people from all areas of the business to attack it cross-functionally.
Adapting to AI — Anthony Mayer, VP engineering at Charles
Moving Charles from static, interactive flows to agentic experiences is the big product shift we've been going through. Before, our flows were deterministic and rule-based. As we shift to AI agents, we need to ensure enterprises that they’ll still have predictability, auditability and escalation (being able to be handed over to a human) while we unlock the lift AI agents provide.
Using AI within our work has raised our expectations from everyone on the team. Success now looks like impact per person and the ability to work productively with AI; if people can’t meet those expectations, their fit for a fast startup in 2025 becomes questionable. That said, I would love to hire and grow juniors, but justifying that depends on how quickly we can free up senior bandwidth to mentor them while still delivering.
AI developer tooling matters and we need to use it well. Tools that assist with coding, code review, evaluation and observability are increasingly reliable and boost productivity, but they require discipline to adopt correctly. The team’s experimentation is healthy, but we need to not jump on every new tool and shift our workflows on a weekly basis, as the landscape evolves.
Doing a juggling act
Suzanne Button, field CTO at Elastic
CTOs today juggle a broad mix of pressures, from rising cybersecurity threats to the realities of AI adoption.
Hiring remains difficult as demand for cloud, data and machine learning skills outpaces supply, pushing companies to grow talent internally through apprenticeships and mentorship. On top of that, cloud costs can quickly spiral and regulations like GDPR require compliance to be baked into everyday processes.
With networks spanning clouds, devices and third parties, leaders are embedding security earlier in development and training staff at all levels to spot risks. AI offers efficiency but raises issues of bias, data protection and scalability, so pragmatic CTOs run small, measurable pilots with compliance built in rather than chasing hype.
The CTO role now extends beyond technology into communication, resilience and culture. CTOs are expected to translate complex technical choices into clear business value, using metrics to tell the story in plain English. They must also fight technical debt through consistent “housekeeping” while balancing the mental load of late-night alerts, board pressures and team expectations.
Mustafa Budak, CTO at Bitpace
CTOs in scaleups have to balance the drive to move quickly and the responsibility to make decisions that won’t create bigger problems down the line. The challenges I’m facing right now really reflect that.
The first is infrastructure scalability versus cost management. Growth doesn’t happen in neat, predictable steps. One month is stable, the next we’re doubling usage. Building systems that can handle those surges without running up unsustainable costs is one of the toughest parts of the role.
Second is data strategy and privacy complexity. Customers expect more personalised, data-driven products, but trust is hard won and easily lost. For a younger company, one misstep on data use or security could be hugely damaging.
The third is resilience under pressure. Regulation is raising the bar, with frameworks like the EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) meaning CTOs now have to prove systems can withstand disruption and recover quickly. That’s essential for regulators and auditors, but it’s just as important for customers who expect services to be available whenever they need them.
Layered across all of this is the challenge of AI integration. The opportunities are huge, but they bring fresh risks too. Ensuring AI systems are explainable, ethical and aligned with regulation adds an entirely new dimension of responsibility.
Thinking beyond the short-term hype — Sebastian Enderlein, CTO at DeepL
In the AI race, one of the biggest challenges for CTOs is avoiding the pull of hype cycles and instead focus on technology that supports building a long-term, generational business.
Short-lived projects may capture attention, but they do little to strengthen a company unless they address problems customers genuinely care about. Technology that endures tends to be the kind that fits into real workflows, proves its value over time and can withstand the demands of scale and security.
CTOs must balance the pressure for immediate reaction with the responsibility of laying foundations for the future. It is not enough to ask whether something can be built; the question is whether it helps create a business that will still be relevant in the years ahead. The organisations that succeed will be those that resist chasing every trend and instead focus on technology that customers trust and that compounds value over time.
