From AI agents to governance chaos to a cybersecurity renaissance—CIOs are no longer just reacting to change, they’re being redefined by it. The first four months of 2025 have been a masterclass in disruption. And if you think you’ve caught up, think again. Here’s what’s shifting, what’s emerging, and why a mid-year Playbook update might be in the cards.
We just closed out the first four months of 2025 and…wow! So much change is afoot that is so overwhelming for enterprises. The enterprise landscape is dramatically changing in how we lead, organize, architect and conduct our business around technology.
Within AI alone, there are several different dimensions that are driving new conversations from agentic to governance to reasoning. Each of these has its own discussion and thinking.
In January, I posted the annual CIO Playbook for 2025 which outlined the big three focal points for executive teams. I also detailed the other areas facing CIOs. Since posting, CIOs are largely digging into the issues discussed. It is possible that a mid-year update may be needed due to the amount of disruption taking place.
What’s News?
CIOs shifting gears
2025 presents a bit of shifting gears for the CIO when it comes to how they lead the IT organization and how it functions within the broader company. We have largely entered the era where the transformational CIOshines. That is the CIO that is a business leader first, that happens to have responsibility for technology. It is a very different role from that of the traditional CIO who is very technology focused.
Vendor platform play
It seems that vendors are rethinking how they approach the platform play. For enterprises, this is a good move as it supports consolidation and simplicity which lead to easier use and greater value.
CIO Water Cooler Talk
Since the start of the year, several topics are coming up among CIOs: Data Strategy, AI Agents, Governance and Cybersecurity. The depth and complexity of each topic is both fascinating and exposes the sheer complexity facing today’s CIO.
With the advent of AI, data strategy is seeing a resurgence. AI agents are furthering the conversation among CIOs to help get their organization’s collective hands around their data. This is not a trivial task. Data resides in all corners of the enterprise and in many different formats. Finding it, correlating it, providing governance is complicated.
The second topic of AI agents is being widely discussed. For CIOs it means looking at both the opportunity and governance needed to ensure that balance is maintained between opportunity and risk. AI agents is not a technology that can be avoided nor kicked down the road. It must be addressed.
Governance is getting more complicated too. Between regulatory, compliance, privacy and sovereignty requirements, CIOs are facing a complicated space with plenty of conflict on the horizon. Over 400 regulations exist in different stages of legislation within the US alone. 30-40 in California. That’s a LOT to get your hands around and doesn’t consider the international frameworks along with industry-specific requirements. Vendors are starting to look at how they can help provide guidance in this space too.
Apply different governance models within an organization to agentic AI and it creates an interesting situation. Many organizations are starting off small with agentic AI for this very reason. It keeps the data requirements and governance models relatively simple.
This last topic of cybersecurity needs a little color as it is not a re-hash of past cybersecurity conversions, but a total rethink about how we approach cybersecurity. As leading companies like Cisco and Palo Alto Networks rethink their approach to solutions for enterprises, new entrants are stepping in to rethink the entire approach. It’s a fascinating space that is about to go through a renaissance.
Latest Content
Since the last newsletter, several new posts are up. Here’s a recap if you missed one…
- CIO Playbook for 2025
- AI Agent Sprawl: Managing Opportunity and Risk in the Enterprise
- ServiceNow’s Latest AI Power Move: What CIOs Need to Know About the Logik.ai Acquisition
- Five things I am looking for this week at RSAC
- Ephemeral Agents: The next horizon coming for agentic AI
- Under Pressure: The Hidden Infrastructure Crisis No One Is Talking About
Upcoming Events
While I’m coming off RSAC last week, I still have more to write about it and several prior events that I took part in. Look for those in the coming weeks.
Over the next few weeks, I am at IBM Think, Informatica World and SAP Sapphire. In addition, I’m keeping a close eye on Servicenow Knowledge and Microsoft Build. Will you be at any of these? If so, hit me up! Would love to compare notes.
What’s Your Take?
The first four months of 2025 is a wrap, but the rest of 2025 is shaping up to be very interesting. Stay tuned!
Now it’s your turn. I’d love to hear from you and your perspective!
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