Information Week

The accelerating pace of technology innovation and business, coupled with an ever more complex tech stack requires chief information officers to stay current, so they understand what’s best for the business and why at any given moment. The CIO’s schedule also tends to be very tight, leaving little time for learning, yet continuous learning is a given if one wants to best serve their career and company.  “In 2025, successful CIOs won’t just be technology leaders — they will be business enablers, transformation and growth drivers and architects of future-ready enterprises. What it takes to lead today is very different than even a year ago,” says Bill Pappas, EVP head of technology and operations at insurance company MetLife. “The pace of change is unlike anything we’ve seen before, and that’s why the ability to learn, unlearn, and relearn new skills at scale is absolutely critical.”   Savvy employers support CIO development by investing in continuous learning opportunities, encouraging participation in industry forums and cross-functional leadership programs.   “In the digital age, no one person or company has all the answers,” Pappas says. “There’s no single playbook, which means it’s increasingly important for technology leaders to come together to share insights, solve challenges and learn from one another to drive innovation and stay ahead in an ever-evolving landscape.”  Related:Why IT Leaders Must Prioritize Leading Over Contributing to Projects Bill Pappas, MetLife CIOs want to know how to align IT and business strategy, build a culture of trust and communication, and drive value from new technologies.   “You must stay current. It’s very difficult to be a successful CIO and not be current on what is happening, both from a technology and business perspective,” says Steve Agnoli, lead instructor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College CIO Program. “I think a learning culture or learning approach must be part of the CIO job. Otherwise, you fall behind pretty quickly.”  Choosing Educational Resources  CIOs have a lot of options when it comes to upskilling: traditional colleges and universities, online training sites, and communing with other CIOs. The choice depends on their career goals, the amount of time they have for learning, what their companies will fund and personal bias.  “One of the things that we try and focus on is ensuring that you understand the archetype of the organization that you’re in, because that can help you understand how you can be effective,” says CMU’s Agnoli. “I think that also applies to the training side, knowing what would make best sense to make you most effective and then look for programs or content, that aligns with that.”  Related:How to Handle a Runaway IT Development Team He also stresses the importance of learning about both technology and business, since today’s CIO is a business leader.   “It’s really important to focus on both the technical side when you’re looking at training as well as the business skills side,” says Agnoli. “Things are changing quickly on the technology side, so you need to be fluent in in all that stuff — AI, cloud, cyber security, analytics and data, governance and all that kind of stuff. And it’s important that CIOs can lead their businesses and their functions as a business leader. So, the skills that other folks in the C-suite have are the same skills that CIOs need to have. It’s not just knowing the latest and greatest tech; it’s knowing the things that matter from a business perspective and making those happen.”  Irina Mylona, learning designer at Cambridge Advance Online also says in 2025, the CIO role is evolving at an unprecedented pace.  “CIOs are no longer solely responsible for IT infrastructure. They are increasingly expected to drive digital transformation, align technology with business strategy, and foster innovation,” says Mylona. “The question is, are CIOs doing enough to stay ahead, and what training is essential for them to remain effective in the face of accelerating technological and business changes?”  Related:Ask a CIO Recruiter: How AI is Shaping the Modern CIO Role Steve Agnoli, Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College The rapid advancement of many technologies, ranging AI and cloud computing to cybersecurity threats and data-driven decision-making, demands that CIOs continuously update their skill sets. The pressure to balance operational efficiency with innovation is immense, and failing to keep pace can have serious consequences for business competitiveness.   “The reality is that while many CIOs recognize the need for ongoing education, the fast-moving nature of their roles often leaves little time for structured learning. Approximately 27% of students taking Cambridge Advance Online courses are CIOs and senior roles, whether they’re taking technology courses or not,” says Mylona. “In order to design our courses, we are in constant communication with both our learners and the market demands, listening to the needs of CIOs and technology roles. And what we have observed is that these professionals seek education not only to refresh their technical knowledge but also to bridge the gap between IT and executive leadership, ensuring they remain at the forefront of industry advancements.”  Online learning, like in-person learning, can provide access to world-class expertise.   “From what we have observed from the market, our learners and their training needs, the CIO role in 2025 will demand a balance of technical expertise, strategic vision, and leadership skills,” says Mylona. “As technology continues to evolve, ongoing education is not just beneficial — it is essential. Whether it’s refreshing their knowledge, staying close to executive teams, or learning about the latest innovations in AI and data-driven business strategies, CIOs must embrace continuous learning to drive success in the digital era.”  source

When it comes to business and technology tasks, many IT leaders believe they can do anything. While this may be generally true, it also opens a potential trapdoor. Actually, no leader can work effectively and efficiently without delegating specific tasks to qualified team members. Over time, failing to offload routine tasks to subordinates will prevent the leader from focusing on other, critical priorities.  Even when an IT leader recognizes the need to delegate tasks, failing to provide sufficient guidance can lead to delays, warns Pavlo Tkhir, CTO at digital transformation company Euristiq, in an email interview. This includes failing to set deadlines, task priorities, and project goals. “It causes confusion, which slows down the process and kills motivation,” he explains.  Failure to Communicate  Clear communication is essential, says John Kreul, CIO at insurance firm Jewelers Mutual. He advises IT leaders to spend time with team members in small group meetings, one-on-ones, and town halls to build trust and confidence. “The goal is to create an environment where the leader can listen to feedback, take and answer questions, and, ultimately, drive clarity and transparency,” Kreul states in an online interview.  If goals aren’t effectively communicated, team members will be prone to making incorrect assumptions. This can lead to trouble when the leader realizes that project outcomes aren’t aligning with broader enterprise objectives. “It obviously causes delays, because the team will need more time to figure out what they need to do,” Tkhir says. “On top of that, it can really undermine your authority as a leader and damage overall team dynamics due to lost trust.”  Related:How to Prioritize Multiple Innovation Projects Customer-Centricity  A major mistake many IT leaders make is failing to develop an Agile customer-centricity plan, whether it’s for internal or external customers. “It’s the starting point and the North Star when there’s a question about direction or next steps,” says executive team coach Keith Ferrazzi, via email.  There’s a difference between what’s urgent, what’s important, and what’s both, Ferrazzi says. “Being able to focus attention on the most pressing and high-value tasks that make up a sprint — a practice of breaking-down complex projects into smaller, simpler sprints of work — is essential.” This is the key attribute in the most successful Agile teams.  Intelligent Delegation  The ultimate goal should be seeing team members self-assign tasks, identify potential roadblocks, and allocate support, Ferrazzi says. He also believes that IT leaders should allow their teams to hold fellow team members accountable. “In this way, the team adopts ‘teamship,’ with a contract of peer-to-peer accountability.”  Related:Should IT Add Automation and Robotics Engineers? Without driving individual and team connectivity, and getting close to what’s happening, it’s impossible to understand how the team really feels, Kreul says. Actively listen, assess how well team members understand current priorities, provide feedback and, finally, self-reflect on your performance as a leader, he advises. “The ultimate harm is low employee engagement, which leads to poor customer experiences, inconsistent execution, and regrettable turnover.”  All Aboard  Logical task delegation is essential. “You should provide context on tasks by outlining the ‘why’ of it and articulating main requirements and goals,” Tkhir says. “You need to set clear deadlines and expectations, including key metrics.” It’s also important to create a check-ins schedule throughout the task completion period, allowing team members to know when they will have an opportunity to have their questions addressed.  A leader should set guardrails yet allow the team to own their tasks and drive execution. “Empowerment will drive ownership and foster a curiosity to learn versus being told what to do,” Kreul says. “Task ownership will allow personal and team growth through learning by doing — critical experiences for growth.”  Related:Why Vendor Relationships Are More Important Than Ever for CIOs An effective way to ensure successful task delegation is to encourage feedback and rapidly act on necessary changes or improvements. A post-task analysis can also help team members feel engaged. “Run a review session, where the team can share their perspectives on how the project went in terms of task delegation and completion,” Tkhir says. “This is also a good way to facilitate open communication within your team or company.”  Ferrazzi says that IT leaders shouldn’t micromanage Agile teams, but ask strategic and reflective questions at review points, such as: What did we achieve in the last two weeks?  Where did we struggle and why? What will we achieve in the next two weeks?  Parting Thoughts  Let go of the perceived need to control — trusting your people is often hard, but it will lead to engaged and empowered teams, Kreul says. “Recognize and put your people first,” he advises. “Recognition reinforces the value of your team’s work and motivates future contributions.”  source

It’s never been harder to be a chief information officer. You have the demands of major digital-transformation projects that far too often fail to fully deliver on their promise. You have the give and take between user convenience and IT security in an era when, thanks to ransomware, breaches have never been more costly. You have talent gaps and budget limitations.   And, you have unremitting requests from business units amid the emergence of generative AI, which has had the effect of releasing squirrels at a dog show.  So, it’s no surprise that, while infamously short CIO tenures seem to be marginally longer than they were a few years back, their departures are often someone else’s idea. How can a CIO avoid that fate?  Don’t try to be a technical wizard. The CIO job is mostly about communicating. You don’t make it to the C-suite without proven technical skills. That background remains indispensable. But the CIO’s job is to deeply understand the business’s goals and then guide the selection, implementation, and acceptance of technological solutions that best help the organization achieve those goals.   The business environment is in constant flux. Technologies quickly evolve. Knowing the business requires constant dialogue with C-suite peers as well as business-unit leaders. That means taking the initiative to reach out to and drive strategic conversations with leaders across the organization to deeply understand what their functions do; what they hope to do; how they’re using technology; and how all that contributes (or may one day contribute) to the organization’s overall strategic goals.   Related:How to Prioritize Multiple Innovation Projects However, to grasp the technological state of the art, CIOs must rely on the deep dives of trusted IT architects and other specialists. Only then can CIOs serve as trusted intermediaries between business and technology experts. So, regardless of one’s background, a CIO’s communication skills and political savvy are vastly more prized than their technical knowledge.  Also, a CIO’s technical upbringing can color a worldview in unproductive ways. A CIO who came up through data-center management and infrastructure may be prone to invest in performance past the point of economic return. One who grew up in development may pour more money into custom solutions and user experience than pays off. Staying laser-focused on the company’s strategy and business goals while understanding — and communicating at a conceptual level — how evolving technologies can meet those goals lets CIOs grow beyond their own backgrounds. That’s good for the company, and for the CIO.   Related:Should IT Add Automation and Robotics Engineers? Focus on strategy. That takes ruthless prioritization. Marketing wants a new automation platform. Finance and operations want a new security app. Product wants custom development for an R&D project. Business development wants IT due diligence for a prospective acquisition. Sales wants a new lead-generation system. Operations wants a new messaging app.  Each may be a good idea in isolation. But approving them all would overwhelm the IT group even if one could budget for it all. Yet, so often, the CIO says “yes,” “yes,” and “yes.” That’s overpromising, which is a guaranteed path to underdelivering, disappointing and throwing the CIO’s competence into question.  A focus on strategy is crucial here. What is technology’s role in the business? Unless you’re a Spotify or a Netflix, technology is not what the business does, but rather an enabler of what the business does. For example, with a financial advisory firm, finding new customers to advise is the lifeblood, so it makes sense to invest in and support state-of-the-art analytics and lead-generation capabilities for the sales team and to hold off on that new messaging app for operations.  Say “no,” then explain the strategic business reasons why. Vivid explanation must accompany ruthless prioritization. This takes us back to the importance of communication. Failing to deliver on too many “yeses” can doom a CIO. But saying “no” (or, with good ideas that rank as lower priorities for the time being, “not yet”) will disappoint, too. That can sour a business unit or administrative function’s relationship with IT. At its worst, it can lead to rogue installations that bring security risks and maintenance nightmares.   Related:Task Delegation Mistakes IT Leaders Need to Avoid The way a CIO avoids this is, yet again, by evangelizing the IT organization’s alignment with the company’s overall strategic goals. That means being firm and factual about where a rejected or waitlisted project sits on the long roster of prospective projects — and why the ones above it are more important to the business’s success.   It may mean describing the need to engage external partners or bring in outside resources. It certainly means explaining that each new system or API represents a long-term commitment of money and attention. And it could even mean reminding people that trying to deliver for everyone runs the real risk of delivering for no one.  Failure to deliver due to impaired strategic vision, compounded by poor communication, is bad for the business and everyone involved. By constantly communicating, ruthlessly prioritizing, and focusing on projects that make the most strategic sense for the business, CIOs can make the right moves for their companies and help ensure that, when they do depart, they do so on their own terms.  source

In the healthcare industry, compliance falls short as an AI strategy. Chief AI officers, CIOs, and CISOs need to prioritize responsible AI usage to minimize potential data breaches that could not only lead to fines and litigation, but also reputational damage.  “It’s really a trust factor,” says Dave Meyer, chief data and AI officer at value-based care platform Reveleer. “[Public healthcare information or] PHI is paramount in healthcare, so we have to treat it responsibly. No one in our organization, including data scientists, has access to anything they don’t need to access. Data access needs to be strictly governed.”  Transparency is also critical because it reduces the risk of relying on what could be a hallucination.   “When we give AI results, or when we go through our data models, we support it with monitoring, evaluation, assessment and treatment (MEAT). So, for example, not only did we find the term, ‘diabetes,’ in a patient’s chart, there’s also an explanation of why we suggested this particular ICD [internal classification of diseases] code,” says Meyer. “That way, when AI provides suggestions, the human still decides whether the suggestion is valid or invalid. We’re not trying to [replace] humans. We’re trying to make their job easier and more accurate.”  Related:How to Prioritize Multiple Innovation Projects AI as a Problem-Solving Tool  While the ability to quickly identify health conditions and find correlations is powerful, it’s considerably less helpful if users must then manually wade through volumes of information, which could be several hundred or more pages, to locate the references. Instead, AI can surface the references quickly, such as by identifying on what pages of a document, or pages within a set of documents, those references can be found.   That sort of use case opens the door to GenAI, however, like in many other industry sectors, GenAI tends to be misunderstood. People who lack a foundational understanding of AI tend to believe that GenAI is the latest and greatest version of single technology called, “AI” versus another AI technique.   “I think people view GenAI as a panacea, and it is not a panacea, especially in the healthcare industry where you cannot just have a black box that says, ‘Here’s the answer, but we’re not going to tell you how we got there,’” says Meyer. “We’re using it for evidence extraction from the chart which we can then double check for hallucinations. We take that evidence and run it through our models.”  However, Reveleer also uses AI for other techniques, such as rules, to pull evidence.  Related:Should IT Add Automation and Robotics Engineers? “A lot of people think they can upload a chart and then ask GenAI for the answer. It will give you an answer that looks okay on the surface, but they are not production level, customer trustworthy answers that are in the percentile of accuracy that [is necessary] in the healthcare industry,” says Meyer. “Healthcare is a high stakes industry where you’re trying to drive patient outcomes, and I don’t think that GenAI can be trusted on its own to provide that answer.”  Some Healthcare’s Challenges and How to Address Them  One of healthcare’s biggest challenges is failing to understand that the accuracy of a prediction can, and often does, vary with use cases. Since healthcare organizations need highly sensitive patient information to provide diagnoses and treatment, the confidence level matters greatly.  “Trust is a big factor, so being given a suggestion that is 70% accurate isn’t good enough. The stakes are too high. You have to balance the sensitivity and security of the data with who has access to it,” says Meyer.   Of course, trust must be earned by a vendor, particularly when patient records are involved. In Reveleer’s case, customer trust in its AI capabilities has been earned in a stair-step fashion over time. Specifically, the company began by automatically routing patient charts, then later NLP techniques were added so patient information could be surfaced faster and validated. Now its AI provides automatic pointers to where critical information can be located.  Related:Task Delegation Mistakes IT Leaders Need to Avoid “One of the biggest challenges is getting the data in an organized format that is usable,” says Meyer. “In order to build any AI model, you need to have a large quantity of data, and you need to govern that data appropriately. Managing your data is really the foundation of everything before you start building models. You also need to make sure that you know how to handle the data well.”  In addition to getting the foundational elements right, it’s important to choose the right tool for the right job.  “Data science still is a good method for solving a lot of these problems. Everybody’s trying to jump to GenAI as the solution. Don’t force that if you’re getting good results from data science,” says Meyer. “The same is true for rules-based systems. For example, if you see the word, ‘blood pressure’ and the reading next to it says 120 over 80, you don’t need a GenAI model to pull that out for you. Or, if the data is in a structured format, and you can pull it out without any AI.”  However, don’t overlook the need for a human in the loop when it comes to AI.   “In the healthcare industry, machines need to be partnered with humans, because healthcare is too high stakes for a lack of human oversight. One suggestion may have a better than 90% confidence score while another only has a 50% conference score,” says Meyer. “AI can help you cut through the noise and surface the good stuff quickly, but it’s always going to need the human element. We’re not trying to replace humans; we’re just trying to make them more efficient.” source

Innovations arrive at a rapid pace. To stay on top of the latest promising breakthroughs — and weed out the flops — IT leaders must create and staff innovation projects. Yet when working with limited resources (and which IT leader isn’t?), it’s important to find a way to prioritize initiatives.  Start by mapping each project to a specific business goal or customer need — this ensures real impact, advises Rohan Sharma, a former innovation team leader at scientific instrumentation firm Thermo Fisher Scientific and now an independent author and lecturer. “Next, weigh key factors such as ROI, resource availability, and risk tolerance,” he recommends in an email interview. “Finally, create a transparent scoring or ranking system so everyone understands why certain projects come first.”  Sharma says this approach forces discipline. “Instead of running with the coolest idea, you’re aligning with strategy and measurable outcomes,” he explains. “It also demystifies decision-making for your team, reinforcing trust and focus.”  Risks and Rewards  A reliable way to prioritize innovation projects is to weigh each initiative’s risks and rewards, suggests Nick Esposito, founder of NYCServers, which specializes in hosting services for fintech and trading platforms. “It’s about looking at the potential impact, how doable the project is, and whether it fits with the company’s long-term goals,” he says in an online interview.  Related:Should IT Add Automation and Robotics Engineers? Esposito notes that projects with a potentially high financial or competitive reward are generally worth prioritizing — just as long as the risks remain manageable. Don’t forget to consider the project’s time-sensitivity and whether it can be completed on schedule, he adds. “By focusing on projects that offer the biggest benefits with reasonable risks, organizations can get the most out of their innovation efforts.”  Innovative Approaches  Prateek Shrivastava, advanced analytics manager at engine and power-generation manufacturer Cummins, says his team relies on what he calls “The WIZGIF Method,” an abbreviation of “What Is the Goal in Focus?” “This approach ensures that every project is evaluated based on its alignment with the overarching business goal,” he explains in an online interview. “By breaking down priorities into clear, actionable criteria — such as business impact, strategic alignment, feasibility, and required resources — it creates a structured framework for decision-making.”  Shrivastava believes that his WIZGIF method is effective, since it forces clarity and alignment from the outset. “By keeping the business goal in sharp focus, it minimizes distractions and ensures that all efforts are contributing to the organization’s strategic objectives,” he states. “This approach fosters collaboration and transparency while keeping teams agile in responding to evolving needs.”  Related:Task Delegation Mistakes IT Leaders Need to Avoid Benjamin Atkinson, innovation director at CNA Insurance, takes an alternate position. He feels that project prioritization should be generally avoided. “When we talk of innovation, we’re usually talking about problem-solving in a complex adaptive system,” he says via email. “We simply can’t know in advance which ideas will succeed — picking winning ideas is a loser’s game.”  If leaders want successful ideas, they must provide their teams with a clear direction, a clearly defined problem space, and known constraints, Atkinson says. “If leaders take the time to do this, they will have created a magnet for good ideas.”  Seeking Support  Sharma says cross-functional peers in areas such as finance, operations, and product teams, are the best innovation allies. “They offer diverse viewpoints on feasibility, budget, and timing,” he explains. “Tapping into an executive sponsor can also help keep priorities aligned with the bigger organizational picture.”  Related:Why Vendor Relationships Are More Important Than Ever for CIOs Working closely with cross-functional teams, including business analysts, finance departments, and product managers, can provide a clear understanding of a project’s feasibility and potential value, Esposito says. External consultants and other industry experts can also offer valuable insights, especially when exploring new or unfamiliar technologies. “Collaborating with these resources ensures a comprehensive view of market trends, technological advancements, and business needs to inform decisions.”  Sharma says the biggest mistake project leaders make is spreading resources too thinly or chasing “shiny objects” without any clear business alignment. Meanwhile, trying to focus on everything at once guarantees mediocre results across the board, he adds.  Parting Thoughts  Don’t consider any new project without first establishing a solid prioritization framework. “A strong prioritization framework is a living process, not a one-off exercise,” Sharma says. “Keep refining it based on feedback and results,” he advises. “Additionally, by embracing ongoing learning, you’ll cultivate a culture that values both innovative thinking and practical execution.”  Prioritization is not a one-time activity — it’s a continuous process that requires alignment, evaluation, and adaptability, Shrivastava says. “Methods like WIZGIF are valuable because they provide a consistent framework to revisit priorities, make dynamic adjustments, and ensure that resources are always directed toward maximum value creation.”  source

Vendor relationships have been changing over the years, with more vendor organizations becoming consultative in nature. For decades companies have been adding a service arm to expand their share of wallet, a KPI that doesn’t necessarily benefit customers. The ultimate test of a vendor’s value is the business value realized as the result of the partnership.  “Vendor relationships are more important than ever before,” says AJ Thompson, chief commercial officer at IT consultancy any Northdoor. With technology solutions now so complex and constantly changing, he says you can’t underestimate how important solid relationships between organizations and vendors have become. “This is true in several ways. Tech is getting more complicated by the day, so vendors who really know their stuff are worth their weight in gold. They share knowledge and provide the support you just can’t get elsewhere.”  One of the big benefits of a strong vendor relationship is that enterprises get early access to new technologies and features, which helps chief information officers stay current. It’s also important to have trustworthy vendors that maintain decent security and compliance amid increasingly complex regulatory landscapes.  “When you’ve found good relationships, you end up with solutions that actually fit your needs and more wiggle room during implementation,” says Thompson. “Plus, when things go wrong — and they always do — problems get sorted much faster when you’re on good terms.”  Related:How to Prioritize Multiple Innovation Projects Trust is the necessary foundation, which is built through open communication, solid performance, relevant experience, and proper security credentials and practices.  “[P]eople buy from people they trust, no matter how digital everything becomes,” says Thompson. “That human connection remains crucial, especially in tech where you’re often making huge investments in mission-critical systems.”   For example, when Northdoor was implementing a complex solution for a client with an extremely tight deadline and hit a snag, its primary vendor’s account manager brought in the senior engineering team within hours to resolve the issue.  “[That account manager] knew our business well enough to understand the stakes and trusted us when we emphasized the urgency,” says Thompson. “That kind of responsiveness simply doesn’t happen with transactional vendor relationships. In fact, the client later mentioned that watching how our vendor partner responded during that crisis gave them more confidence in our overall solution than any sales presentation could have.”  Related:Should IT Add Automation and Robotics Engineers? AJ Thompson, Northdoor That’s why Thompson invests significant time in regular face-to-face meetings with Northdoor’s key vendors discussing products and roadmaps and the people behind them.  “Vendors who don’t hide their limitations and are upfront about their capabilities tend to earn trust quickly. Meeting SLAs consistently matters enormously,” says Thompson.   “Those who [understand] the specific challenges of your industry are gold dust, particularly in IT and cybersecurity where proper security practices and the right certifications make all the difference to confidence levels.”   Ashish Malhotra, president at management advisory firm Ampalyst Advisors, says selecting a vendor and executing a professional services agreement is relatively straightforward, but getting it wrong is prohibitively expensive.   “In today’s dynamic technology landscape, vendor selection is more critical than ever,” says Malhotra. “As companies increasingly favor a ‘buy’ over ‘build’ approach, choosing the right vendors becomes paramount.”  Vendors can provide significant value in several ways, such as providing access to global talent and ecosystems, having the flexibility to scale resources up or down as needed, and shifting human capital from fixed to variable costs.   Related:Task Delegation Mistakes IT Leaders Need to Avoid Vendors can also help their customers address in-house skills gaps and reduce managerial overhead costs. Importantly, customers can benefit from the industry expertise gained from multiple client engagements and innovative problem-solving approaches while ensuring adherence to proven methodologies and upskilling internal staff in emerging technologies. However, most important of all is trust.  “Trust is fundamental in partnerships, but in customer-vendor relationships, it must be paired with verification. Third-party governance is a critical function that should remain independent of the outsourcing arrangement,” says Malhotra. “Yet, many organizations make the mistake of allowing vendors to self-govern through dashboards, report cards, and operational meetings leading to weakened oversight.”  An executive-level technology governance framework helps ensure effective vendor oversight. According to Malhotra, it should consist of five key components, including business relationship management, enterprise technology investment, transformation governance, value capture and having the right culture and change management in place.  Beneath the technology governance framework is active vendor governance, which institutionalizes oversight across ten critical areas including performance management, financial management, relationship management, risk management, and issues and escalations. Other considerations include work order management, resource management, contract and compliance, having a balanced scorecard across vendors and principled spend and innovation.  “Vendors that excel in these areas build greater trust,” says Malhotra. “Trust is not an abstract concept — it is measurable through quantifiable performance indicators.”  Igor Epshteyn, president and CEO at digital product engineering company Coherent Solutions, believes as AI, cybersecurity, and compliance requirements are growing more complex, cooperating with a trusted vendor means having a partner who can provide up-to-date solutions.   “For businesses cooperating with IT vendors, it is crucial to choose digital engineering partners who have a proven track record and recommendations and, importantly, can guarantee strong cybersecurity measures,” says Epshteyn.  The Biggest Mistakes Vendors Make  One of the biggest mistake vendors make is failing to drive tangible value for customers. Instead, the relationship is more transactional in nature, with the goal of upselling and cross selling products or solutions regardless of how the implementation will likely playout in the long term.  “Over-promising and under-delivering, poor communication, being stuck in their ways or vanishing after the sale absolutely kill trust and damage relationships beyond repair,” says Northdoor’s Thompson. “Vendors who refuse to adapt to changing needs are a write-off, and those who focus too much on closing deals rather than providing ongoing support won’t keep clients for long.”  Ampalyst’s Mahotra says one of the biggest mistakes vendors make is bundling their services into rigid, all-inclusive packages that customers cannot easily modify.

[This article was updated on March 26, 2025, with more recent content]  Those wondering about the role of the CIO in the digital age need only look at the keyword in the middle of the title: Chief “information” officer. The corporate world actually isn’t just about being “digital” or “data driven”. That digital data represents what the organization actually knows: Information about itself, its customers, and its employees, and how that organization does business moving forward.  So, the CIO that some organizations virtually locked in the data center for years is today involved in everything from payroll to cybersecurity, e-commerce to environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives. Their domain extends from coders to clouds.  Oh, and the CIO is also now the point person for AI initiatives and defending against AI abuse.  This Quick Study takes a look at the role of the CIO these days as recorded by the writers who contribute to InformationWeek. The roles and responsibilities have changed dramatically and surely will continue to shift as the job itself morphs in the years ahead.  CIOs, Their Jobs, and the Expanding C-Suite  CISOs in 2025: Evolution of a High-Profile Role  Over the past decade, the chief information security role has evolved from being a supporting position under the CIO or chief risk officer to a core member of the executive team.  Emotional Intelligence: An Often-Overlooked IT Leadership Skill  Strengthening your emotional intelligence can help you become a more effective and respected leader. Getting started is as easy as mastering a few key attributes.  Changing Role of the CIO  Chief information officers need to lean into the leadership aspects of their role to deal with ongoing changes. Here are five strategic areas to focus on in your job.  The CIO Playbook, and the Seldom Run Plays with Big Payoffs  If you want to move beyond just being a CIO in an organization, you have to stretch your boundaries.  Bridging the Divide: How to Foster the CIO-CFO Partnership  Building a future-proof enterprise through strategic leadership collaboration between the chief information officer and chief financial officer, says the CIO of Workiva.  First Days on the Job as a CIO  Becoming chief information officer is a goal for many IT professionals. But what do you do when you finally get there?  Why Some Newer C-Suite Titles Fail  Corporate C-suites continue to expand, but the success rate of the newer positions depends on many things.  The Value of the Fractional Chief Technology Officer  A fractional CTO can be a great solution to help limit risk, manage teams, and develop cost-effective strategies to help meet the technology demands of an evolving business.  Achieving CIO Balance: IT Meets the Business World  CIOs are being pushed to deliver value to the business and stay on top of technical issues. How can they do both?  Today’s Blueprint for CIO success: A Shift in Mindset  Chief information officers can help lead organizations through today’s complex macro environment, if they broaden their purview to areas that deliver business outcomes faster.  Lessons from Banking on the Role of the Chief Risk Officer  By using cutting-edge data, analytics, and AI technology, chief risk officers can help their organization drive more effective risk-management strategies.  Hey, CIO, We Need AI  The CEO/CIO Dynamic: Navigating GenAI Implementation  By working together, CEOs and CIOs can fully leverage the benefits of generative AI to drive innovation, improve efficiency, and stay competitive in the market, says KPMG.  Leading as a Future-Ready CIO in an AI-Driven World  Companies are rethinking their partnership structures, with ecosystems leading as transformative new business models across various industries.  How CIOs Can Navigate Their Jobs in the AI Era  The sudden and explosive popularity of AI among the public surprised many, including CIOs. With changing tech priorities, where should CIOs be prioritizing their efforts to be successful? The CIO of Experio offers a look.  Reshaping the CIO’s Playbook for the AI Age  In this landscape of rapid change, the impact of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) on the role of the chief information officer is profound and far-reaching, according to EY.  Fake News, Deepfakes: What Every CIO Should Know  AI advances are making fake news and deepfakes easier than ever. Most organizations aren’t prepared enough, yet.  How Will AI Change the CISO Role?  Artificial intelligence arms both defenders and threat actors, rapidly reshaping the cybersecurity landscape. Inevitably, the chief information security officer role must adapt to keep up.  How CDAOs and CIOs Can Divide Data and Analytics Responsibilities  The division of responsibilities between CDAOs and CIOs is often disputed, which can create tension and hinder operations, Gartner says. A better approach is to split the work and collaborate as peers.  How, When, and Why to Hire a Chief AI Officer  To develop an effective AI strategy, organizations should consider hiring a permanent CAIO who can align AI initiatives with long-term goals.  CIOs and the Great Talent Crunch  Taking a Deep Dive into People Skills  The fundamental people skills — or chops — are communicating, collaborating, being a team player, and listening, with the ultimate goal as connecting.  Do Women IT Leaders Face a Glass Cliff?  Are organizations more likely to promote women to top IT management posts during hopeless crisis situations? Apparently, yes.  4 Ways to Create a Workplace that Fosters Diverse Leaders  Research finds that there aren’t enough women in leadership positions. Here are four ways leaders can create a workplace that fosters more diverse leaders.  Soft Skills: The Ultimate Force Multiplier for IT  As the job market shifts and new doors open, it’s critical for IT leaders to hire talented tech pros who are empathetic, forthcoming, and invested in helping the end user through their work.  CIOs, Innovation, Their Budgets and ROI  The Case for a Fractional CIO  What is a fractional CIO and when does hiring one make sense versus taking on a full-time executive?  IT Leaders as Advocates for Continual Change  While IT leaders have their finger on the pulse of tech advances, it’s crucial to work closely with

Today’s professionals are under constant pressure to improve their efficiency as the pace of business accelerates. Burnout is a common thing as workers try to multitask across several platforms and communication channels, often simultaneously, amid personal challenges such as caregiving and in-office politics. Notably, burnout symptoms differ, depending on whether employees work from home (WFH) or have been subject to return to office (RTO) mandates.   “Burnout differs between settings and how an employee is working,” says Nicole Issa, founder and licensed psychologist at The Center for Dynamic and Behavioral Therapy. “Remote workers can experience burnout due to a lack of work-life boundaries, social isolation and the pressure to be constantly available via tech. Office-based employees often struggle with long commutes, loss of autonomy, and workplace stressors such as micromanagement or rigid schedules. Both environments become a perfect storm for burnout, but the triggers do differ.”  Justina Raskauskiene, human resource team lead at ecommerce marketing platform Omnisend, agrees.  “How burnout manifests depends on the work environment,” says Raskauskiene. “Remote workers often risk blurring the lines between work and personal life, feeling like they [must] always be ‘on’, or unable to distance themselves from work. All of this makes it more likely they’ll work overtime. Plus, it’s no secret that fewer in-person interactions often equal poorer emotional well-being. In-office employees, on the other hand, may struggle with burnout due to a demanding company culture, excessive workloads or even the stress of a mandatory RTO policy. Reduced flexibility always carries the risk of contributing to employees’ stress and dissatisfaction.”  Related:How to Get a Delayed IT Project Back on Track Many employees are now in the “sandwich generation” — caregiving for children, parents or both.  “As our population ages, more and more employees will become caregivers. This isn’t just a personal crisis; it’s a ticking time bomb for our economy,” says Jennifer Fink, community educator at Alzheimer’s Association. “Seventy three percent of employees have some sort of caregiving responsibilities. Employees with caregiving responsibilities cost their employers an estimated 8% –- an additional $13.4 billion per year! By creating a caregiving-friendly workplace, organizations can unlock employee potential, reduce frustration and boost their bottom lines. [C]reating a caregiving-friendly culture isn’t expensive especially when the return on the investment is considered.”  Related:Who Makes the Best Citizen Developers? Katie Roland, chief human resources officer at KCSA Strategic Communications, says burnout occurs when employees feel they are giving more than they are getting.   “It can happen because they are actually overprogrammed and don’t feel compensated enough, or because they are working in a hostile environment and are masking all day,” says Roland. “It can be because they have responsibilities in life and at work, and they do not have the flexibility to manage both the way they feel they need to, making them feel constantly inadequate. Essentially, burnout is exhaustion.”  Many seasoned leaders are instinctively doubling down on RTO, implementing technology to oversee productivity, and demanding respect.   “What organizations need to understand is that employees who are trusted to do their job, and manage their life as needed, will produce far more for you than someone you try to control and monitor,” says Roland. “Nobody likes to be micromanaged. Instead figure out how to partner with your employees to find solutions that work on both ends.”  What HR/Hiring Managers Should Do About It  Susan Snipes, head of people at Remote People, says HR leaders need to be prepared to address burnout in all its forms for both in-office and remote team members.   Related:Quick Study: The Evolving Roles of CIOs and IT Leaders “Flexibility is the word of the day! Flexibility should be incorporated into all aspects of the employee experience from benefits to policies and procedures,” says Snipes. “Benefits like hybrid work, flexible schedules, and mental health days go a long way toward preventing employee burnout.”  Nicole Issa, The Center for Dynamic and Behavioral Therapy Nicole Issa, The Center for Dynamic and Behavioral Therapy The Center for Dynamic and Behavioral Therapy’s Issa suggests that chief human resources officers (CHRO) and hiring managers could approach burnout as a strategic issue rather than individual failings.   “This means being proactive about identifying risk factors and offering flexibility where possible,” says Issa. “Trying to build a company culture that prioritizes well-being should be top of the list for companies now. For remote employees, organizations should set clear expectations around availability, encourage a digital detox and provide routes for social connection. For in-office workers, offering hybrid working models, focusing on meaningful in-person collaboration and ensuring workload balance is key.”  Utilizing Data Is Also Important  “Absenteeism, tardiness, lack of vacation usage, etc. all can help identify the potential issue — there may be an issue with individuals or potentially managers,” says Fran Maxwell, global lead at business consulting firm Protiviti. “If they have a robust people analytics function, they can proactively determine which employees could start to become burnt out and can work with their managers to proactively support their employees. This would include looking at time, assuming the organization tracks time, or more simply looking at vacation time accrued and taken.”  MDR provider Expel discovered that quantifying workloads creates a common language between technical teams and business leaders. According to Amy Rossi, chief people officer at Expel, the most effective solution combines data with empathy.   “Organizations need metrics to identify burnout risks objectively, but they also need leaders who understand the human elements at play,” says Amy Rossi, chief people officer at Expel. “By adapting capacity utilization formulas to track workloads, teams can turn burnout from an abstract concern into concrete data that can inform staffing, scheduling, and resource allocation decisions. This approach has revolutionized how we manage and reduce burnout across both remote and in-office settings.”  Omnisend’s Raskauskiene says HR can monitor employee sentiment and job satisfaction through surveys and by encouraging leaders to keep an eye on employees’ moods.   “Educate them how to notice early burnout signs and react appropriately,” says Raskauskiene We also encourage managers to hold regular one-on-ones, where

A long-dormant IT project that suddenly springs back to life can be both welcome and challenging. Teams must be reassembled, abandoned timelines reconfigured, and technologies and methodologies updated to reflect current practices and standards.  The best way to launch a project revival is to look backward. “Conduct a thorough project reassessment to identify the root causes of delays, then re-prioritize deliverables using a phased, agile-based approach,” suggests Karan Kumar Ratra, an engineering leader at Walmart specializing in e-commerce technology, leadership, and innovation. “Start with high-impact, manageable milestones to restore momentum and stakeholder confidence,” he advises in an online interview. “Clear communication, accountability, and aligning leadership with revised goals are critical.”  Shanna Rahming, senior vice president of managed services for SDI Presence, an IT consulting and managed services provider, and former CIO for the State of Nevada, agrees that it’s important to understand what actually caused the delay. Was it a lack of resources, such as funding, skills, tools, hardware, or staff? “After you know why it’s off track, you can then determine what needs to be done to get the project completed,” she advises in an online interview.  Related:Who Makes the Best Citizen Developers? Once the delay’s cause has been clearly defined, seek information and insights from the original team, Rahming advises. “Then the stakeholders and executives need to have that information communicated to them.”  The next step should be performing a root-cause analysis. “Identify whether the delay stemmed from unclear requirements, technical debt, resource gaps, or scope creep,” Ratra says. “Engage stakeholders, document findings, and reset priorities based on what delivers the most value in the shortest time.”  Team Rebuilding  It’s usually best to retain past core team members who understand the project’s history and complexities but augment the team with new expertise where gaps exist, Ratra says. “Fresh perspectives often drive innovation and problem-solving, while experienced team members ensure continuity.”  Recall past team members, yet supplement them with new members with similar skills and project experience, recommends Pundalika Shenoy, automation and modernization project manager at business consulting firm Smartbridge, via email. “Outside perspectives and expertise will help the team.”  While new team members should be welcomed, try to retain at least some past contributors to ensure project continuity, Rahming advises. Fresh ideas and insights may be what the legacy project needs to succeed but try to retain at least some past contributors to ensure project continuity, Rahming advises. “The new team members may well bring a sense of urgency, enthusiasm and skills … that weren’t present in the previous team at the time of the delay.”  Related:Quick Study: The Evolving Roles of CIOs and IT Leaders Avoiding Mistakes  The biggest mistake team leaders make is rushing into execution without first addressing root causes. “Restarting a project without fixing systemic issues, such as poor communication, unrealistic timelines, or unclear scope, can lead to repeated failures,” Ratra warns. IT leaders must also avoid setting overly ambitious goals. “Start small, show progress, and scale up.”  It’s easy to focus on simply catching up with deadlines or scrambling to get back on track, but if the underlying issues aren’t addressed, the same problems will likely surface again, cautions Anbang Xu, founder of JoggAI, an AI-based video platform provider. “IT leaders sometimes ignore team dynamics, communication issues, or technical debt in favor of focusing on just getting the project finished,” he explains in an email interview. “This can create a cycle of delay, further burnout and, ultimately, project failure.”  Related:How WFH and RTO Burnout Differ Shenoy says the two big mistakes he repeatedly sees are adding additional resources without understanding the real issues and overcommitting without team consensus.  Final Thoughts  Transparency and trust are essential for successful project recovery, Ratra says. “Leaders should foster an open culture of accountability and communicate realistic goals with stakeholders.” Leveraging automation tools and using AI-driven project monitoring can also help identify bottlenecks early, ensuring the team remains on track and responsive.  To keep the relaunched project on track, it’s important to establish and monitor a detailed communication plan that regularly shares critical information with team members, Rahming says. There should also be buy-in from technology and business stakeholders.  Build a unified staff culture that’s committed to succeeding or failing as a team, Shenoy says. “Encourage transparency and active collaboration across the team and stakeholders.”  Managing delayed projects requires a deep understanding of adaptability and resilience, Xu observes. “In a fast-moving field, like AI, setbacks are inevitable,” he notes. “But the ability to pivot, reassess, and lead your team with confidence makes all the difference.”  source

As I was writing this article, it was perhaps not so coincidental that I took a break and made a phone call to a home appliance customer support line for a microwave that we owned.  I soon found myself trapped in an automated agentic AI phone system with no way out and no way to reach a human agent. I finally gave up, and called a local appliance company, where a human salesman gave me the answer that I needed.  The experience is common. There are millions of consumers who experience frustration with automated phone systems and chat services that have no way of routing them to the person (or function) that can help them resolve their issues.   Companies know this, but it’s not stopping them from adopting agentic AI at breakneck speeds, as evidenced by a projected market growth for agentic AI of 43.8% CAGR (compound annual growth rate) between now and 2034. It’s all the more reason for CIOs to get involved early with agentic AI to make sure that it works for people as well as for systems.  Just What Is Agentic AI and How Does it Work?  In a 2024 interview with the Harvard Business Review, Enver Cetin, an AI expert at global experience engineering firm Ciklum, said, “[Agentic AI] refers to AI systems and models that can act autonomously to achieve goals without the need for constant human guidance. The agentic AI system understands what the goal or vision of the user is and the context to the problem they are trying to solve.”   Related:Why Most Agentic Architectures Will Fail Agentic AI uses a combination of machine learning (ML), natural language processing (NLP) and automation to do this. Its mission to make decisions and act on them.  Companies can design agentic AI systems that require a final human authorization for some decisions, or they can make the agentic AI completely autonomous, so it makes decisions on its own.  Most agentic AI adoptions are being sponsored and funded by end-user departments, which suggests that IT may or may not be in on the initial evaluations and buy decisions.  Gartner cites an early example of how agentic AI can be deployed in retail.  “AI-enabled machine customers — or nonhuman economic actors that obtain goods and services in exchange for payment — are examples of increasingly common intelligent agents. In the near future, they will make optimized decisions on behalf of human customers based on preset rules and will quickly evolve toward greater autonomy and inferring of needs.”  So, knowing that agentic AI is coming, and that IT might also be the last to know about an agentic AI buy decision, what should CIOs be doing?  Related:10 Reasons Why Multi-Agent Architectures Will Supercharge AI Key CIO Points for Agentic AI  Work up IT’s agentic AI strategy now. Agentic AI has enormous potential. It can automate rote business operations and decision making, and IT needs to strategize for it.  In a sense, agentic AI and what it can do has already been known in previous incarnations, such as automated loan decisioning software that has existed and functioned capably in bank lending departments for decades. However, now the needle is moving toward more autonomy. Business users will decide where they want to use agentic AI, but it will be IT’s responsibility to ask the questions about system and process integration, governance and security that will enable agentic AI to be used safely and to best advantage.  In this environment, an immediate CIO goal should be to participate with users in agentic AI strategy discussions so that “best use” business cases can be identified. Then, there should be a collaborative strategy with users and IT that takes into account not only business process streamlining and automation, but process exception handling, process and system integration. Plus, they should address user and IT training, security and governance. Although agentic AI will be driven by users, this is no time for IT to take a back seat.  Related:How Safe and Secure Is GenAI Really? Discuss security and failover. Your sales department might fund and adopt agentic AI to autonomously execute the mechanisms of product ordering, but what happens if a bad actor penetrates the agentic AI and locks it down for ransom or, what if that bad actor invades agentic AI software and injects malware or faulty algorithms that compromise and endanger the function?   The sales team will quickly pivot to IT to fix these issues, so CIOs should be proactively querying sales and agentic AI vendors about the types of security that come with the agentic AI. There should be a company review of the AI to ensure that it complies with corporate security and governance standards. Questions should also be asked as to whether there is a failover to a human agent if the agentic AI fails or sputters. There should be a defined failover procedure in the company disaster recovery plan that provides for human ability to override or take over from agentic AI if that becomes necessary.  Be prepared for project inclusion, whether you want it or not! IT may not be involved in initial agentic AI purchase decisions, but it will surely be pulled into agentic AI projects, because the AI won’t get very far if it isn’t integrated with other corporate systems.  Accordingly, IT should ensure that user-IT agentic AI project discussions focus on system integration, and on the clear definition of a project test bed for agentic AI integration into business processes themselves.  A successful business process integration addresses user training and readiness for a new technology, and what will happen if the agentic AI fails or begins to make poor decisions.  CIOs shouldn’t shy away from insisting that these process-oriented elements are tasked in agentic AI projects, because if anything goes wrong after the technology is placed into production, it will likely be blamed on “the system.”  source