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A Quick Guide for Busy Tech Leaders: 6 Top Trends from the State of the CIO Report

Written by

ODG Team Contributor

Published on

24 Jul 2024

This year’s CIO report explores how tech leaders’ responsibilities may shift in the coming years. Just a few years ago, CIO roles were more functional. In the report, 49 percent of the participants anticipated a more strategic role moving forward.¹

While the general consensus of CIO functions remains the same, the trend is gradually transforming tech, especially CIOs. Let’s look at the recent State of the CIO study this year. This strategic guide for tech leaders will help you navigate your role and the industry.

Table of contents show

State of the CIO Overview

The report consisted of 875 IT and tech leaders. It also included 251 division heads not directly related to IT. This ensured that the participants were a mix of tech leaders and strategic division heads to fully evaluate the state of the industry.

As we have mentioned, the CIO’s role didn’t appear to have changed much. Most of the respondents still focused on transformation, with strategy and function coming second and last, respectively. However, almost half of them anticipated a transition to strategy as the focus.

Not only that, but the demand for the role is steadily expanding according to Statista.² In just 3 years, it increased by 20 percent in 2023. The demand for the role is expected to increase in the coming years. As technology continues to develop, we can only expect more individuals to take up the role.

The Challenge of Balancing Business Innovation and Operational Excellence

This further solidified the shift when 75 percent of them revealed that it’s challenging to balance business innovation and operational excellence. This requires an emphasis on strategic initiatives and how the CIO’s role will shift in the following years.

CIOs are tasked with driving innovation within their organization. This is mainly powered by technological advancements like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and automation. However, CIOs also need to uphold operational excellence, maintaining reliability, efficiency, and security within their systems.

Other Challenges Experienced by CIOs

Another key hurdle most CIOs experience is the lack of talent within the industry. Project management is already a tough endeavor. Without the right people, it becomes even more difficult.

The talent shortage is attributed to the growing workforce and lack of new experts. Because of this, CIOs find it more challenging to drive innovation within their organization. Other challenges include the rapidly changing business conditions and mitigating security threats due to digitalization.

How Do IT and Non-IT Division Heads View the Role of a CIO?

Depending on their area of control, different business leaders today will have different views on business objectives. Here’s how this differs from IT and non-IT leaders:

1. IT Leaders vs. Line of Business Heads

Tech industry leaders expect CIOs to spend more time on transformational tasks. This includes restructuring business processes, driving business innovation, updating infrastructure and applications, and developing business strategies.

This is slightly different from how non-IT leaders view CIOs. Instead, they want to focus on improving customer service and experience, enhancing security measures, and strengthening collaboration between IT and business.

2. Priorities of CIOs

So, what do CIOs actually do in their time?

Security management, improving IT operations and systems performance, and aligning IT with organizational goals remain the top three priorities. These are followed by infrastructure and application modernization and cost management.

However, the most notable changes are these two functions:

Building strong IT business partnerships moved from the 5th to the 8th spot.

Advancing business innovation went up to the 6th from the 11th spot. This further highlights the shift of the CIO’s role to more strategic tasks.

Strategic Guide for Tech Leaders

As tech leaders, you need to be aware of the changes in the roles of CIOs and how this will impact your roles as well. Here are the key trends found in the recent CIO report by Foundry.

1. CIOs As Critical Change Makers

Eighty-five percent of the respondents see CIOs as critical change leaders in business and technology initiatives. This makes the role crucial in guiding the organization, identifying important business opportunities, and recommending technological improvements.

Given the rise of AI and machine learning technologies, CIOs will have to be at the forefront of business transformation. Eighty percent of the CIOs anticipate more involvement in AI. The same goes for cybersecurity and data privacy compliance.

2. CIOs at the Forefront of AI Planning and Execution

Eighty percent of CIOs are involved in the research and evaluation of adding AI tools to their tech stack. What’s more interesting is that more than half of the respondents expect a tech budget increase. One of the main reasons is to invest in emerging tech and innovative AI solutions.

Most companies are already utilizing modern AI strategies and initiatives. The world is becoming more and more digitalized. Aside from AI, there will be more focus on cybersecurity, data privacy and compliance, and data analysis. CIOs will be at the forefront of evaluating various AI opportunities and how these solutions will improve business operations.

3. Increased Business-Centric Focus

In line with shifting to a more strategic mindset, CIOs are now more business-focused.

With the use of technology, businesses have automated 43 percent of their business and IT processes. According to the same respondents, the IT sector has also created new applications that streamline workflow. This has made data more available and accessible to all stakeholders, especially those in tech who need it.

Tech leadership is not only about choosing the right technology and infrastructure. It’s also about finding more ways to improve the use of data and creating solutions that maximize the use of technology in simplifying tasks.

4. CIOs Leading Digital Transformation

CIOs are more involved in leading digital innovation. This has been recognized by 87 percent of the respondents. It’s also worth noting that this observation has increased since last year. Eighty-eight percent of CIOs perceive that their role has become more focused on digital innovation—and most of the respondents agree.

5. Change in Involvement and Priorities

Depending on the industry and location, most CIOs expect a change in their priorities. One of the things most CIOs agree on is the reduction of duties involving:

Physical security

Cloud migration

Supply chain

Most of these functions were necessary a few years ago to help companies transition to remote work options. As the economy shifted back to its original state, the need for these functions was significantly reduced.

6. Stronger Alignment with the C-Suite

Because of the growing need for technological expertise and the development of the digital age, the CIO’s role has shifted significantly. Today, CIOs are now more involved in strategic decision-making, and their knowledge has become more crucial.

In fact, 79 percent of the CIOs share their strong educational partnership with their CEO and board of directors. Even 79 percent of tech industry leaders agree with this.

Balancing Technology and Business Goals

The need to balance innovation with operational excellence is more than a technical consideration. It includes strategic decision-making by aligning technological advancements with business goals. It also includes managing risks by preventing disruptive technologies and addressing regulatory compliance and ethical standards.

CIOs must be able to adopt new approaches to find this balance. This involves creating a culture of innovation while ensuring strong governance protocols within the organization. This will help protect the business from potential challenges.

Additionally, CIOs must establish healthy relationships within their organization to align their efforts with different business priorities and meet stakeholder expectations.

While the role of CIOs continues to change, it’s now more evident that they’re more strategically positioned in the industry. As organizations continue to transform and adopt new digital solutions, CIOs will remain pivotal leaders in driving sustainable growth.

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