Elevated, Empowered, Embracing AI: Introducing The Modern CIO

Elevated, empowered, and eager to lead on AI.

The modern CIO is no longer just an IT steward, but an organizational-wide leader with influence over the trajectory of the company, and a mandate to infuse data and AI across the business. According to a survey of CIOs by UserEvidence and CIO News:

• 78% say their role as leader has grown in the last year
• 64% report directly to the CEO
• 58% expect budgets to grow at least by 5% this year, with 30% expecting over 10% growth
• 76% meet with their board of directors on a quarterly basis

A decade ago, these figures would be jaw-dropping. But today, they’re the new normal. And increasingly, CIOs will take on even more responsibilities — both in their own organizations and throughout the broader business community.

As AI adoption accelerates, more leadership teams are adding IT experts to their boards. Some industry leaders even say CEOs of the future will need to deeply understand AI, potentially paving a way for CIOs that combine technical expertise with business saviness to finally ascend to the top role in greater numbers.

“This is the seat at the table CIOs have always asked for. You either champion this, or you get out of the way,” said Flock Safety CIO Stacey Moore.

To meet the moment, CIOs have to get back to their roots, and become fluent in the new AI tools. Otherwise, it can be harder to convince potentially skeptical employees to embrace AI — and successfully outline a path to actually getting value from the technology. It’s why leaders like J.P. Morgan Payments CIO Sri Shivananda and Workato CIO Carter Busse spend their free time building with AI and sharing the results internally.

“This is the moment CIOs have been asking for. We're no longer the team people call when their laptop breaks. We're in the room where strategy gets made, budgets get allocated, and the future of our companies gets decided,” Carter wrote in the report. “What we don't have is time. The window to establish ourselves as strategic leaders won't stay open forever.”

Other notable findings from the report include:

• 68% of CIOs say AI scale is undermined by technical debt from past integrations
• 85% cite data complexity as a key AI barrier
• One in five CIOs now identify as an AI leader
• Only 2% of CIOs have seen their influence as a leader decline
• 52% say strong technical expertise is required to maintain their enterprise integrations

Read the full “2026 CIO Benchmark Report” here.