- For CIOs, the goal with AI is to scale the use cases that already deliver value, supported by governance that ensures trust, security, sovereignty and meaningful impact.
- Digital twins are becoming an essential for modern industries. By connecting IoT signals, process data and AI models, they create real‑time feedback loops that continually refine how systems run.
- CIOs must take a strategic approach when it comes to cloud and decide which systems stay put, which move, and which require sovereign control, balancing agility, performance and oversight across trusted environments.
- By unifying automation, data governance and AI, CIOs can turn sustainable IT practices into day‑to‑day operations, such as delivering more reliable green reporting.
The role of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) has never been more complex. With budgets under pressure and organisations racing to harness AI for meaningful transformation, many CIOs face board expectations that far outpace operational reality.
Research shows a third believe their leadership teams hold unrealistic assumptions about how emerging technologies will impact performance. These days, CIOs are strategic leaders expected to blend human expertise with technological potential to deliver measurable business value.
CIOs need a clearer idea of where they’re heading. Over the next 18–24 months, these four tips will be essential to turning innovation into impact.
Tip 1: Scale for AI impact
AI is a key starting point. Its potential to reshape business isn’t theoretical anymore, which is why board‑level curiosity has rapidly turned into a demand for measurable outcomes. For CIOs, that means shifting from proof to purpose and industrialising operational AI with FinOps, MLOps and clear sustainability frameworks and ROI guardrails.
The goal isn’t to multiply pilots. Rather, it’s to scale the use cases that already deliver value, supported by governance that ensures trust, security, sovereignty and meaningful impact. The CIOs who succeed will strike the right balance between creativity and control, turning experimentation into sustainable, enterprise‑wide performance.
A major next step is scaling AI across the entire software development lifecycle, not just at isolated stages. By treating each user story as a clear unit of value, teams can capture the intent behind the work and measure the outcomes more reliably. For example, when developers use AI to generate tests, highlight risks, and check that features behave as expected, each prompt becomes a traceable part of the build process. This strengthens engineering discipline and helps teams learn faster as they deliver.
Tip 2: Build a data platform and governance aligned with the highest standards
Increasingly, CIOs are recognising that data governance and AI governance can no longer run separately or distinctly from each other. They need to be fused into a single, accountable framework that ensures the same trusted data used to train models is the data driving decisions across the business. Many organisations are responding by creating a Chief Data & AI Officer role to unify ethics, compliance and architecture under one roof.
Beyond governance, CIOs can take proactive decisions regarding data by using digital twins. Once seen as experimental, digital twins are becoming an essential for modern industries. By connecting IoT signals, process data and AI models, they create real‑time feedback loops that continually refine how systems run. For example, a customer support team can create a digital twin of its operation by connecting live ticket volumes, agent availability and system performance into one real‑time model. This lets leaders forecast demand, test staffing changes, and trial new AI routing rules without affecting customers. It moves the function beyond simple automation, allowing complete reimagination of process redesign, not just automation around the edges.
See also: Why every business needs to start digital twinning in 2026 – Danielle Jaffit introduces us to the concept of digital twinning and how it can help unite silos across your organisation
Tip 3: Move towards agile and secure IT infrastructures
IT is becoming genuinely intelligent, shifting from reacting to problems to predicting and preventing them. For CIOs, this is an opportunity to go beyond using smart tools simply to speed up tasks. Instead, intelligent IT can become a real-time engine that improves how the whole organisation performs while keeping innovation safe and controlled. Modern observability platforms give you the ability to act quickly in the face of problems, leading to reductions in downtime and improved user experience. For example, spotting a slowdown in a core application hours before users notice. IT teams can fix the issue early, preventing outages and protecting productivity.
Another crucial aspect around IT infrastructure is hybrid cloud, which is now a cornerstone of digital transformation. One core priority is optimising the cloud estate as organisations blend public, private and trusted clouds, making the ability to control where data lives and moves essential. The principle around optimisation should also remain the same: use the cloud for innovation but stay grounded with the resilience and trust that regulated workloads demand. CIOs must take a strategic approach and decide which systems stay put, which move, and which require sovereign control, balancing agility, performance and oversight across trusted environments.
Tip 4: Redefine how IT department performance is assessed
ESG has become a key driver of business performance. By unifying automation, data governance and AI, CIOs can turn sustainable IT practices into day‑to‑day operations, such as delivering more reliable green reporting. On top of this, by prioritising sustainable IT operations and eco‑design principles, like embedding lifecycle thinking into system architecture by default, IT and business systems can reduce waste and deliver measurable impact. With more green regulations and expectations, building sustainability into IT and linking environmental goals directly to business results places CIOs central to how ESG is put into practice.
The shift from CAPEX to OPEX has changed how CIOs manage performance. Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) helps replace slow annual planning with continuous, outcome‑based funding, allowing investment to shift quickly toward the work that delivers the most value. Product‑mode teams add accountability and agility, while FinOps gives leaders real‑time visibility over cost and impact. Together, these capabilities can help CIOs strengthen financial discipline, balance efficiency with trust, and stay responsive in a fast‑moving economy.
CIOs must conduct the orchestra
As technology, regulation and customer expectations continue to accelerate, the CIO’s advantage will come from their ability to orchestrate, not just implement change. The next 18–24 months will reward leaders who build organisations that learn quickly and govern intelligently. Success will depend less on any single transformation effort and more on the CIO’s capacity to create momentum by aligning people, platforms and priorities so innovation becomes not an initiative, but a sustained organisational rhythm.
Fiz Yazdi is UK managing director at Sopra Steria Next.
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