The five critical IT and business issues covered here are cybersecurity, blockchain, the shift to freelance and contract work, AI and automation, and automatic performance monitoring. Cybersecurity is the most urgent: IBM’s 2026 Cost of a Data Breach Report puts the average breach at $4.99 million globally and $11.5 million in the United States.
Key Takeaways
- Cybercrime keeps growing: the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) recorded $20.877 billion in reported losses in 2025, up 26% on 2024.
- Blockchain matters most where several parties need one shared, tamper-resistant record; it is a tool for specific problems, not a goal in itself.
- Independent work is mainstream: Upwork’s 2025 study found 28% of US skilled knowledge workers work independently.
- The World Economic Forum expects technology and other trends to create 170 million jobs and displace 92 million between 2025 and 2030.
- Automatic monitoring of a short list of key performance indicators (KPIs) helps a company spot problems before they become expensive.
Every industry goes through changes from time to time, but very few of them change as much or as frequently as business. There are always new issues and considerations to think about in business, and if you don’t think about them, you might find yourself (or your business) in some trouble.
Source: Pixabay
This article looks at five IT and business issues that first came to prominence around 2018 and that companies still need to plan for today, with the figures updated as of October 2026.
1] The Increased Importance of Cyber Security
There is no doubting that technology and the internet has made business more efficient and streamlined than ever before. However, the more information a business holds online and the more business it conducts online, the greater its risk of cybercrime. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received more than one million complaints in 2025, with reported losses of $20.877 billion, a 26% increase on 2024.
This means that your cyber security practices and protocols in place are more important than ever. Despite all the increases to security measures, cyber attacks are increasing and a single breach can cost a company millions of dollars. IBM’s 2026 Cost of a Data Breach Report puts the global average cost of a breach at $4.99 million, and $11.5 million in the United States.
Now, you may just think it is big companies that are targeted by cyber criminals, but that is not the case. Every piece of personal or sensitive information, no matter how big or small, can be valuable to hackers.
As a result, be sure to take all the necessary steps to protect your information and the information of your clients, or you risk it being compromised.
2] The Emergence of Blockchain
Most business owners have heard of blockchain by now. Blockchain technology is a decentralized, open and distributed ledger that records transactions in a permanent, secure and verifiable way. It is seen by many as a more secure, safe, fast and efficient way of doing things.
Many know about blockchain technology thanks to its importance in the cryptocurrency industry, which in January 2018 reached a market cap of $800 billion at its peak. That 2018 figure has since been far exceeded: according to Binance Research, total crypto market capitalization passed $4 trillion for the first time in 2025. However, blockchain technology has uses that range far beyond the financial and banking industry.
Blockchain can affect many industries, including payments, supply chains and record-keeping, but adoption outside finance has been uneven. Businesses get the most from it when they apply it to a specific problem, such as a shared record between parties that do not fully trust each other, rather than adopting it for its own sake.
3] Freelancing and Contracting Becoming the Norm
In the past, nearly everyone who worked was an employee. However, recently, this has begun to change. Tens of millions of Americans now do freelance work. Upwork’s April 2025 study found that 28% of US skilled knowledge workers work independently, earning a combined $1.5 trillion in 2024. Working with freelancers allows businesses a lot of flexibility on a project to project basis and keeps them lean.
While certain companies and industries will always have employees in the traditional sense, don’t be shocked to see more go with contractors and freelancers.
In addition to the flexibility benefits, working with freelancers can also save your company money on things like 401k matching, employee health insurance, HR and more.
4] The Always-Growing Role of AI and Robotics
Businesses have been hearing about robots and AI for many years, and the technology now plays a far larger role in day-to-day work than it did when this article was first written in 2018. More tasks are being automated, and the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 expects technology and other trends to create 170 million jobs and displace 92 million worldwide between 2025 and 2030, a net gain of 78 million.
While only a small share of jobs can be completely automated, millions of jobs may become partially automated, and companies and employees need to be prepared for that. The same WEF report expects roughly two-fifths of the skills workers rely on to change by 2030.
Also, the increase in robotics and AI in business will also increase the need for workers who are experienced and knowledgeable in the world of AI. While some jobs and industries are safe from major impact from robotics and AI, others will see a lot of changes.
As a result, it couldn’t hurt for employees to learn new skills or brush up on secondary skills, and companies should be on the lookout for ways that robots or artificial intelligence can help their company.
5] The Significance of Automatic Monitoring
In the past, it wasn’t always easy to see what was or wasn’t working for our business. However, that has all changed in the modern day and will continue to change in the future.
Now, companies can use a predetermined and refined set of performance indicators that give them key insights into how the company is performing in different areas.
Also, it is important for these indicators to be monitored automatically, so any trends and/or issues can be found immediately. In addition to monitoring, there is an increase in the role of data visualization.
People, such as investors and business operators want easy insight into the data surrounding sales and other company metrics, and data visualization can help. Look for more and more tools to provide data visualization going forward.
For background on monitoring, visualization and performance testing, the original version of this article pointed to the resource below; SolarWinds has since retired AppOptics and moved its customers to SolarWinds Observability SaaS: scala monitoring & performance testing by AppOptics.
In conclusion, these five business and IT issues remain important for every business or enterprise to plan for.
Without planning for, thinking about or at least considering these five issues, you may find yourself at a disadvantage in the near future or find yourself not being able to keep up with the innovation and changes.
How Have These Business Issues Changed Over Time?
All five issues first named in this article in 2018 are still on the agenda for most companies, but their scale has changed. The table below compares how each one looked then with the newest available figures.
| Issue | Then (2018) | Newest figure (as of October 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Cybersecurity | Attacks increasing, costs in the millions | $20.877 billion in losses reported to the FBI IC3 in 2025; average breach $4.99 million globally (IBM, 2026) |
| Blockchain and crypto | Crypto market cap peaked at about $830 billion in January 2018 | Total crypto market cap passed $4 trillion for the first time in 2025 (Binance Research) |
| Freelancing | Tens of millions of US freelancers | 28% of US skilled knowledge workers work independently, $1.5 trillion earned in 2024 (Upwork, 2025) |
| AI and robotics | Automation expected to grow | 170 million jobs created and 92 million displaced, 2025 to 2030 (WEF, 2025) |
| Automatic monitoring | KPI dashboards and data visualization emerging | Standard practice; some older monitoring tools, such as AppOptics, have been retired and replaced by larger observability platforms |
How Can a Small Business Improve Its Cybersecurity?
A small business can cut much of its cyber risk with a handful of basic controls, because many attacks rely on stolen passwords, phishing emails and unpatched software. According to the FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report, phishing was the most reported complaint type, with 191,561 complaints.
- Turn on multi-factor authentication for email, banking, cloud storage and admin accounts.
- Keep software updated, including operating systems, browsers, plugins and network devices.
- Back up important data regularly and keep at least one copy offline or separate from the main network.
- Train staff to spot phishing and to verify payment or bank-detail changes by phone, not by replying to an email.
- Limit access so each employee can reach only the systems and data they need.
- Write an incident plan that says who to call and what to shut down if a breach happens.
Remote and hybrid teams need extra care; see this cybersecurity guide for remote employers and these steps to protect employees from spear phishing scams.
When Does Blockchain Make Sense for a Business?
Blockchain makes sense for a business when several parties need to share one record that none of them controls alone and that must be hard to alter after the fact. A blockchain is a distributed ledger whose blocks are linked by cryptographic hashes, so changing an old record would mean changing every later block and winning network consensus.
- Good fit: tracking goods across a multi-company supply chain, cross-border payments, and shared audit trails.
- Poor fit: data that one company owns and controls alone, where an ordinary database is cheaper and faster.
For a plain-English introduction, read what blockchain technology is and how it works.
How Should Companies Work With Freelancers?
Companies get the best results from freelancers when they treat the arrangement as a clear business contract: a defined scope, agreed deliverables, deadlines and payment terms in writing. Freelancers give a business flexibility, but they are not employees, and the rules on who counts as a contractor differ by country and often depend on how the work is actually controlled, not just on the job title.
- Put the scope, fees, ownership of the work and confidentiality terms in a written agreement.
- Give freelancers only the system access they need, and remove it when the project ends.
- Check local rules on worker classification before replacing employee roles with contractors.
Businesses looking for talent can start with these freelancing websites.
How Can Businesses Prepare for AI and Automation?
Businesses prepare best for AI and automation by starting with specific, repetitive tasks and training staff alongside the rollout. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025, based on a survey of more than 1,000 employers, found that 63% of employers see skills gaps as a barrier to transformation.
- List the repetitive tasks in each team, such as data entry, scheduling and first-line customer questions, and test automation on one at a time.
- Keep a person responsible for checking AI output before it reaches customers.
- Budget for reskilling, not just for software.
- Set clear rules on what company or customer data may be entered into AI tools.
More on this in how AI is changing career paths and job skills and these ways artificial intelligence can help small businesses.
What Should a Business Monitor Automatically?
A business should automatically monitor the small set of indicators that show early whether customers, money or systems are in trouble. Automatic monitoring means software checks those indicators continuously and raises an alert when a value crosses a set threshold, instead of someone noticing weeks later in a report.
- Customers: sales, conversion rate, churn and support tickets.
- Finance: cash flow, overdue invoices and margin.
- Systems: website uptime, page speed, error rates and failed logins.
Keep each dashboard short and visual, assign an owner to every alert, and review thresholds every few months so alerts stay meaningful.
Which Issue Should a Company Tackle First?
Most companies should tackle cybersecurity first, because a single breach can be very expensive and the basic controls are inexpensive. After that, the order depends on the business: monitoring helps almost everyone, AI and freelancing matter most to knowledge-work businesses, and blockchain is worth exploring only where a shared, tamper-resistant record solves a real problem.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the biggest IT issues facing businesses?
The biggest IT issues facing businesses include cybersecurity, adopting AI and automation responsibly, managing data and monitoring, and keeping skills up to date. Cybersecurity usually ranks first because of its direct cost: IBM put the average data breach at $4.99 million globally in its 2026 report.
How much does cybercrime cost businesses?
Cybercrime costs businesses and individuals billions of dollars a year. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center recorded $20.877 billion in reported losses in 2025, and investment fraud alone accounted for $8.6 billion.
Is blockchain still relevant for business?
Blockchain is still relevant for business where several organizations need a shared, tamper-resistant record, such as supply chains and payments. For data that a single company controls, a conventional database is usually simpler and cheaper.
How many people freelance in the United States?
Tens of millions of Americans freelance. Upwork’s April 2025 study, based on a survey of 3,000 US skilled knowledge workers, found that 28% of them work independently and that they earned a combined $1.5 trillion in 2024.
Will AI replace jobs?
AI and related technologies will replace some jobs and create others. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 expects 170 million jobs to be created and 92 million displaced between 2025 and 2030, a net increase of 78 million.
