6. Mobile

Thirty-six percent of CIOs surveyed by Piper Jaffray said they would increase their investment in mobile technologies this year. But that's a drop from the No. 2 spot it held in 2015, when 62 percent of CIOs surveyed reported they would increase spend in that category. For 2016, mobile ranked No. 4, with 46 percent of CIOs saying they planned to grow their mobile IT spending.

Nevertheless, 62 percent of respondents plan to continue investing in mobile at the same rate they did in 2016, and only three percent said they would spend less.