TechWave: A Gartner Podcast for IT Leaders

Impact of the U.S. Executive Orders

Episode Summary

The scope, scale and velocity of the numerous executive orders signed by the new U.S. president thus far call for organizations to assess their impact and proactively plan. In this podcast, we introduce Gartner’s research coverage for a topic that will be critical to nearly every industry.

Episode Notes

U.S. executive orders (EOs) are directives of the executive branch of government and signed by the president that carry the force of law and cannot be ignored. According to the Federal Register, U.S. President Trump has signed approximately 65 EOs since Inauguration Day on 20 January 2025, and there will likely be more to come.1,2 The scope, scale and velocity of the EOs signed thus far require organizations, including global organizations doing business in the U.S., to prepare by assessing their impact and proactively planning.

In this episode of the TechWave Podcast, host Frances Karamouzis is joined by Gartner Senior Director Analyst, Lydia Clougherty Jones, to discuss the impact of the U.S. EOs, with a specific focus on how they affect businesses and global enterprises. Frances and Lydia’s conversation not only explores the broad range of topics the EOs cover, but also how organizations can ensure they are:

• Identifying their action plan and choosing their time wisely to execute.
• Enabling a fast cycle time to respond at a manageable cost.
• Implementing effective communications.
• Facilitating the ability and agility to take opportunities to accelerate value creation.
• Staying ahead of the curve with trend spotting.

The EOs from the new U.S. administration need to be well understood by several layers in your organization. This necessitates that your analysis is aligned with your company’s business strategy and operating model, which will require:

• A “barometer” — A way to take in all available data and information, parse it quickly and provide human-driven teams ways to view and assess it. This entails machine-driven tools and technologies specific to C-suite demands, which the Gartner team has coined as “code in the C-suite.”
• A “thermostat” — A metadata approach that is continually analyzing and making certain operational adjustments that are driven by both humans and machines.
• An “execution engine” — An underlying approach to develop action plans using signals and data-driven evidence, including the use of bots within boards of directors (i.e., agentic AI in the form of devices or agents given authority to act on a user’s behalf).

Disclaimer: Gartner does not provide legal advice or services, and its research should not be construed or used as such. While this podcast involves a discussion on a topic that has many legal issues, Gartner does not provide or apply any legal rules or terms to its clients’ or prospects’ specific business.

Host Frances Karamouzis is joined by expert analyst Lydia Clougherty Jones. Lydia is a senior research director in Gartner’s Data and Analytics (D&A) group. She is part of the Analytics & AI team, where she covers D&A and AI strategy, AI value to risk analysis and  among many other topics. Importantly, Jones practiced law for two decades — with a focus on emerging technologies and business transformation — before joining Gartner.

1 2025 Donald J. Trump Executive Orders, FederalRegister.gov.

2 

Presidential Actions

, WhiteHouse.gov.