CIO Playbook for 2026

This year’s CIO playbook is a little different from past years…and for good reason. The items in the CIO Playbook for 2025 still hold true. What has changed is something that has been evolving for some time.

The way we conduct business and the way we leverage technology is changing. The old ways to lead technology must evolve to accommodate the innovation and speed at which it is coming toward us.

The CIO themselves must change how they lead. For a long time, I’ve said that today’s transformationalCIO is a business leader first…who happens to have responsibility for technology. That is truer today than ever before.

The CIO’s Key Relationships 

In the past few years, the CIO’s role, and that of technology, has risen to the point where one of the strongest relationships a CIO can have is with their CEO. This relationship becomes the basis for other c-suite relationships as well as a gateway to the board of directors. Beyond the CEO, the next key relationships are those with the CMO and CHRO. Stay tuned for more on the CIO-CMO and CIO-CHRO relationships coming soon.

Beyond the relationships, the CIO’s relationship with the CEO provides a framework for business-centric thinking which is so foundational for today’s transformational CIO.

So, let’s get to the playbook to move this from ideation to execution.

CIO Playbook for 2026

Many of this year’s items are squarely centered on topics that align with the CEO, board and rest of the executive leadership team. From there, the technology that will lead the conversations in 2026 can engage.

CIO Leadership Focus Areas

First up are overarching areas that will inform and influence decisions about technology strategy.

• Moving from ideation to execution: We’ve long-since talked about ‘failing fast’ and ‘experimentation’. Today, those still hold true, but the added component is speed. Teams need to quickly understand three things: a) viability and value of idea in real business terms b) time to success and c) prioritization alongside other ideas and efforts. The key is for teams to increase the velocity of their work moving from ideation to execution.

• Growth, acceleration and efficiency: Many IT organizations already think about efficiency. We have all hear the phrase ‘How to do more with less’. Today, efficiency is more complex and encompasses organizational capacity, strategic direction and value. It’s less about doing more with less and more about focusing on what’s critical. At the same time, CIOs are focusing on how they play a role in the growth and acceleration of the company. To do this, CIOs will need to accelerate their own organizations. One way is by using The Velocity Chain approach.

• Organization: Hybrid and the impact from AI: How we lead as CIOs is changing. So is our organization and how they operate. Long before AI, we were already starting a transformation on how we think about the employee experience (EX) and the whole self. Now, AI is both accelerating that process and transforming it at the same time. This is less about AI replacing people and more about how teams leverage AI to increase their value. How we use AI is evolving too. It’s not just another technology we drop in and expect people to use. It changes how people work and we need to help them along this journey.

• Governance and trust: IT has long-since been a core player in managing governance around data and systems. IT’s ‘systemic’ way of thinking helps provide governance models and ways of thinking to address the ever-changing governance landscape. Governance is especially critical as we think about trust and ensuring that we maintain trust with customers, employees and stakeholders. Trust and governance are rising quickly to the top of the priority list, because without it, AI and other innovations quickly fall apart.

• Geopolitics, regulation, compliance and privacy: The past few years have provided a masterclass in the impact of geopolitics to the technology ecosystem. 2026 is shaping up to further this impact. CIOs need to stay on top of shifting geopolitical risks even if they have limited global operations. Technology is a global, interconnected ecosystem more than people realize. Regulation, compliance and privacy legislation and requirements are expected to grow in 2026. This is especially true with AI. To date, there are many laws on the books at a state, federal and international level. We can expect this process to continue. At the same time, enterprise vendors could leverage this complexity as an opportunity to help.

• AI: Agentic and investment focused on value: AI is quickly evolving to be both a force multiplier and differentiator in business. In 2025, the amount of FOMO around AI was incredible. Everyone was trying to figure out how to leverage AI which resulted in spending that was off the hook. In 2026, there is still a strong interest in AI…and especially agentic AI…but the change is that investment is focused on value. Rogue AI experiments with loose ties to value will wane in favor of efforts that quickly prove strong business value. In 2025, agentic AI was largely a thought experiment, but in 2026 will start to develop strong interest. Look for advancements in agentic AI memory, learning, reasoning, discovery and ephemeral agents. One of the current issues with AI is that the AI value chain is not telling the full story and the true costs are not being passed fully to the consumer. This means that current ROI calculations are based on numbers that will change. Hopefully we will see more transparency in 2026.

The Big Three Focal Points Still Ring True

The ‘big three’ focal points of customer experience (CX), employee experience (EX) and business operations/ supply chain are still focal areas for the CIO and the broader c-suite.

In 2026, each of these will become more nuanced where the focus is on aspects of CX, EX and business operations. Those are just the starting point as enterprises rethink their overall strategies in each of these areas.

As CIOs rethink their strategy to align better with the business outcomes, CX, EX and business operations naturally come to the surface. These changes also cause a rethinking of the solutions, platforms and approaches they take.

Looking Beyond Existing CX, EX and Business Operations

At the same time, each of these spaces is going through their own transformations with new entrants and acquisitions happening all the time. CIOs will need to think ahead as to how the respective chess games of CX, EX and business operations might play out. This expands further into areas like cybersecurity, CRM, HCM, ERP, service management, agentic platforms and data management. No longer can CIOs think about these areas isolated from one-another. As we delve further into agentic AI workflows, the boundaries between CX, EX and business operations will blur, and the value of cross-functional integration will rise.

CIOs also need to rethink their strategies around a few key technology areas:

1. Infrastructure: In many ways infrastructure is back in vogue again. In addition to cloud-based services, enterprises are rethinking how infrastructure fits into their new and evolving strategy. New business requirements and innovation from infrastructure players are opening the door to new conversations about infrastructure. CIOs need to clearly consider the purpose, how buy vs build plays into their broader strategy and how consolidation may play a role.

• Collaboration: People are overwhelmed by the number of ways that organizations communicate. Agentic AI may help with some of the consolidation; however, CIOs need to rethink how their organization operates internally and externally. How do employees collaborate and what tools do they need to be more effective? The collaboration space has evolved quite a bit just in the past few years.

• Operational management: Two aspects come to the surface around operational management for CIOs. The first is observability. Understanding…and ideally predicting…outcomes and impact is key. This holds true for core operations as much as how it impacts customers and employees. Observability tools are providing greater visibility into awareness. Second, understanding the value that technology plays is key. Frameworks from both FinOps and TBM provide visibility to operations from a wholly different perspective. Moving the conversation from one of ‘cost’ to ‘value’ is key to understanding the impact to business outcomes.

• Network: It’s been a minute since we’ve talked about the network at a CIO level. However, the network is quickly finding its renaissance period. The network has always been the connective tissue that makes business possible. From connecting customers to running operations, the network sits at the core (pun intended). With the advent of AI, networking companies can capitalize on these interconnection insights.

In Summary

CIOs have a remit that is both shifting and growing. Moving from technology-centric thinking to business-centric thinking sits as the foundational shift for CIOs. Upleveling the conversation to think more like the CEO and rest of the ELT is key.

Many of the core areas of focus are like those for the rest of the ELT. Bringing this business-centric thinking provides greater context for the CIO to make decisions and lead in a way that aligns with the organizational objectives.

AI will still play a key role in the 2026 playbook. More specifically, agentic AI will truly shine in the coming year with new use cases emerging. How we ultimately use and think about AI will evolve to be more focused on value. Trust and governance must sit at the core of this conversation.

Customer engagement, employee engagement and business operations still hold as key focus areas. In 2026, there is greater focus on specific areas of each versus a broader view of each. At the same time, be prepared for new entrants and consolidation by key players.

The past few years have shown a marked shift in how we think about and lead IT. 2026 will further this discussion in new and innovate ways. 

Here’s to a healthy, successful and productive new year!

Happy New Year!