Technology is no longer just an enabler – it transforms how organizations function, compete, and deliver value. Specifically, AI is now fundamentally changing business processes, operations, and experiences, something that presents CIOs with both challenges and opportunities. As a result, the role of the CIO and IT must evolve beyond an enabling function.
Historically focused on operational excellence, CIOs now face a strategic imperative: becoming orchestrators of business value. Leveraging deep technical expertise and proactively acquiring new capabilities, CIOs are expected to effectively harness AI to drive meaningful innovation and measurable business outcomes.
However, many CIOs and IT departments remain too focused on traditional IT and IT-related metrics, limiting their ability to drive broader business outcomes. Closing this gap requires a fundamental shift that was already anticipated as part of digitalization efforts but now intensified by the pressure to deliver value on the AI agenda.
CIOs must evolve from technology stewards to strategic innovators, driving resilient and adaptive organizations. Those who proactively do and align AI with business priorities will shape their organization’s future, those who hesitate risk being left behind. To successfully navigate this evolution, CIOs must address six imperatives. This is what this looks like in practice.
1. Manage Regulatory Complexity and Enforce AI Governance
Rapidly changing AI regulations present major hurdles. In the report IDC FutureScape: Worldwide CIO Agenda 2025 Predictions – Asia/Pacific (Excluding) Japan Implications, IDC predicts that in 2025, 50% of the Asia-based top 1000 (A1000) organizations will struggle with divergent regulatory changes and rapidly evolving compliance standards, challenging their ability to adapt to market conditions and drive AI innovation. CIOs must proactively address these challenges by developing agile compliance frameworks.
Also, 41% of APEJ organizations are focusing on establishing organizational data governance policies for AI/GenAI usage, according to the IDC 2024 CIO Sentiment Survey. We expect this to increase as this regulatory complexity demands organizations to have unified AI governance, and IDC predicts that by 2025, 70% of organizations will be formalizing policies and oversight to address AI risks (e.g., ethical, brand, and PII), aligning AI governance with strategic business goals. CIOs must develop trust-centric AI governance models that align clearly with strategic business objectives. This can help organizations use AI responsibly, maintaining customer trust, while still capturing the benefits of rapid technological innovation.
2. Reduce Technical Debt to Accelerate Innovation
Modernizing IT is the top strategic priority for 37% of CIOs in the Asia/Pacific region, according to the same survey. This is because technical debt creates complexity, slows innovation, and restricts the ability to effectively adopt and scale new technologies like AI. IDC predicts that responding to the drag of technical debt, 40% of CIOs in 2025 will drive enterprise initiatives in high-impact areas to remediate technical debt for competitive advantage. Clearing technical debt – from aging codebases to outdated systems, and inefficient processes – enables organizations to quickly adopt new technologies, reducing barriers to innovation and accelerating AI integration.
CIOs who prioritize tackling technical debt will position their organizations to adopt technology innovations faster, ensuring readiness for more complex AI-driven transformations. This can help boost innovation, improve agility, and increase the return on technology investments.
3. Turn AI Experimentation into Enterprise Value
Although AI adoption has rapidly moved from niche to mainstream, many organizations remain stuck in pilot paralysis, struggling to advance beyond the proof-of-concept (PoC) stage. According to the IDC’s 2024 Future Enterprise Resiliency and Spending (FERS) survey, wave 4, organizations in Asia Pacific conducted an average of 24 GenAI pilots over the past 12 months, but only 3 progressed into production, partly due to the lack of clear direction. In fact, IDC predicts that in 2026, over one-third of organizations will be stuck in the experimental, point-solution phase of AI experimentation, requiring a shift of focus to enterprise use cases to deliver ROI. This stagnation hinders competitiveness, slows growth, and increases exposure to ethical risks and regulatory scrutiny.
CIOs must become orchestrators of business value by effectively partnering with other CxOs to translate unclear ideas into practical AI applications. They should establish an AI Center of Excellence (CoE) to centralize expertise, share best practices, and coordinate cross-functional teams, accelerating AI deployment and ensuring consistency. Additionally, CIOs must lead the creation of a strategic roadmap for responsible AI that maximizes business impact, ensures ethical deployment, and proactively mitigates risks. So, we expect that by 2026, 70% of CIOs will lead the creation of a strategic road map to rapidly implement responsible AI solutions, maximizing benefits while mitigating risks across their operations. CIOs who bridge the gap between innovative AI experimentation and enterprise-wide deployment will help their organizations capture substantial competitive advantages and achieve tangible financial returns.
4. Strengthen Cybersecurity with AI-Driven Defense
Cybersecurity is much more than just an IT issue; it is a strategic business imperative. Yet, CIOs are ultimately responsible for safeguarding their organizations, particularly as threats grow increasingly sophisticated. IDC predicts that in 2026, 50% of CIOs will diversify and broaden security strategies across their organization’s IT and security teams to address new/fast-evolving threats to their technology and supply chain ecosystem. CIOs must actively integrate AI and ML into their cyber-defense systems to protect against advanced threats, both internal and external.
AI-driven cybersecurity can help not only improve threat detection, but also enhance incident response times, potentially reducing risks to operations and reputation. CIOs who effectively leverage AI to protect their IT infrastructure can improve organizational resilience, positioning their organizations as leaders in cybersecurity effectiveness.
5. Embed Sustainability into IT Strategy
Sustainability has become a core business priority and technology investments play a critical role in achieving organizations’ ESG goals. IDC predicts that by 2027, 50% of CIOs will be accountable for embedding sustainability goals into every technology project, measuring outcomes to refine investments and align with environmental objectives. CIOs must actively incorporate environmental considerations into IT investment decisions, embedding clear sustainability metrics into infrastructure development and AI initiatives.
By proactively integrating sustainability into their technology agendas, CIOs are effectively linking technology leadership with broader corporate responsibility. This can help in positioning organizations favorably in the minds of consumers, investors, and regulators, strengthening brand value and competitive differentiation.
6. Close the Digital and AI Skills Gap with Advanced Tools
The rapid adoption of AI technologies exacerbates an already complex problem: the digital skills shortage. To address this over 45% of Asia/Pacific organizations are giving more developer duties to non-IT staff, according to the IDC’s 2024 Asia/Pacific Software Survey. So, IDC predicts that by 2028, 50% of A1000 will adopt cutting-edge tools to close the digital and AI skills gap, easing reliance on specialized talent, boosting the workforce, and bridging the expertise gap for innovation. Organizations will actively leverage automation, AI-driven platforms, and low-code/no-code tools to empower nontechnical employees to create and manage applications. While this expands access to digital solutions, boosting productivity and freeing skilled talent for strategic work, it also introduces the risk of app sprawl, a challenge that must be managed as AI further simplifies app development.
CIOs must ensure the workforce is not only technically skilled but also aligned with business outcomes. Embracing low-code/no-code platforms can democratize technology access, allowing teams to quickly develop customer-facing applications. By leading this shift in skills, CIOs can enhance speed to market, drive business agility and create lasting competitive advantage.
The Path Forward in the AI-Fueled Era
The CIO role is evolving rapidly, with AI at its core. CIOs must move beyond technology facilitation and take the lead in AI governance, cybersecurity, skills development, sustainability, regulatory compliance, and technical debt management. Ultimately, they hold the key to bridging technological opportunities and strategic business outcomes. Those who embrace these responsibilities will not only drive business value but also shape their organizations’ futures, becoming indispensable leaders in the AI-Fueled Organization.
To learn how to integrate AI into your strategy and make 2025 a defining year for your organization, download the IDC eBook Top Predictions and Insights for CIOs in 2025 today!
