The era of the CIO elbows-deep in the server stack and data center is long gone. Today’s CIOs are more business enablers than operational technology managers, thanks to the rise of cloud computing and process automation. They don’t need to manage hardware as much as they need to broker the right cloud services and align their technology purchases with what the business needs to achieve its goals.

According to the recent issue of CIO magazine, the CIO will be taking on five different roles in the coming year, and “CIO” will stand for something entirely different. These roles are chief innovation officer, chief inclusion officer, chief (artificial) intelligence officer, chief inspiration officer, and chief instructional officer. Each role is a step out of the data center and into business strategy: leading the move to digital transformation, helping to diversify the workforce, assisting with the adoption of DataOps and AIOps, articulating a vision for the entire company, and building stronger relationships within their departments.

CIO magazine isn’t wrong, and there’s a reason why they listed chief innovation officer first. Digital transformation is at the forefront of many organizations’ strategies, and it comes in a lot of different formats. The CIO will need to lead the charge or risk being left behind to answer trouble tickets. They’ll continue to be slipping into a more creative role as organizations transform.

Innovation brings tremendous benefits to an organization – but it also takes a toll. Today’s CIO must manage innovation while balancing the rate of change from both a product perspective and in staffing and implementation. The role has shifted dramatically from even five years ago, as CIOs must now increase revenue, create better customer experiences, and improve employee productivity.

CIOs will be facing a lot of unique situations in the coming year, and they and their teams will need to develop four key skillsets to adapt to the challenges. We see these four skills as a critical way to approach the innovation that will come with digital transformations. 

CIOs as the catalyst for innovation

The first critical skill or approach is to become the catalyst for change. As CIO magazine mentioned, CIOs will be leading the charge for digital transformation. They’ll need to make the business case for the new technology initiatives and show how they align with business goals. This could be showing how employees will be more productive or how customers will be more engaged. The important thing is that CIOs will be the ones rallying stakeholders to adopt these new initiatives.

Fearlessness is a key trait for any technology leader. How someone trains their teams and engages with their business partners matters when it comes to managing the pace of change. If CIOs can’t push forward even when the pace picks up, they put the organization at risk of falling behind.

Adhering to the status quo is no longer acceptable. CIOs need to recognize and anticipate when change is coming and prepare for it. They need to build teams that can meet disruptions head-on and turn them into competitive advantages, and be in a position to explain this to business partners. They also need to be able to adapt and be ready to pivot if the original plan doesn’t work out.

Becoming business strategists

Building on developing into catalysts, CIOs will be contributing significantly to business strategy in the coming year. They’ll lead the teams that find inefficiencies and turn cost centers into revenue generators. For example, they may implement predictive analytics to determine which customers are likely to churn, catching them before they leave.

Change isn’t easy, and as the business turns to the IT department for help, CIOs need to align IT with business goals. This requires being able to draw from their own broad knowledge of the business and understand how the choices made in IT will impact other departments, business partners, and the bottom line overall. They need to know where they’ll find resistance to change and be prepared to assist with change management.

In addition to technology, CIOs will need to know business strategy. They’ll need to surround themselves with teams that can help craft and execute on what the business needs. While being all-knowing isn’t realistic, CIOs that succeed will know how to articulate how IT initiatives are moving the company forward, how to spot a bad idea, and what the future of work will look like.

Evolving as technologists

Knowing technology will always be part of the CIO’s role. But CIOs will evolve as technologists to help navigate through the marketing-speak and find the best products for the company. They’ll understand what new technologies will move the business forward – and what isn’t necessary. This will require continually learning about new technology and looking at existing technology to discover new opportunities and solve business problems.

As business and technology changes, CIOs need to adopt a growth mindset. This is the ability to be flexible and adapt to new situations, as well as find creative solutions for business problems. In a way, it’s having a child’s eye toward everything: curiosity, resiliency, a desire to learn, the ability to push limits. These are the skills and attitudes that are critical for CIOs to succeed going forward.

If every moment of every day is about executing on projects, CIOs and their teams miss opportunities to expand their skills. They need to set aside time for themselves and their teams to broaden their knowledge and learn new skills. This may mean providing subscriptions to streaming learning services to their teams, or investing in lunch and learns – whatever lets the team educate themselves on new technologies, as well as soft skills like project management.

Lead operations

Yes, CIOs will be the catalyst for change in the organization. They’ll generate enthusiasm for new initiatives, contribute significantly to business strategy, and continually expand their knowledge to recommend new ways of tackling business problems. But they’ll still be managing operations. It’s the most essential part of their jobs, and the organization is relying on them to get it done.

At the end of the day, the CIO still has to keep everything running. Given all that is thrown at them, the CIO will need to meet challenges with a level of stoicism. That doesn’t mean letting everything spiral out of control and not caring; it means projecting confidence and calm when things go wrong. Whether it’s having to rework an entire system or deal with the outage of a major application, today’s CIO needs to have the confidence to lead through these catastrophes and make rational decisions. In other words, keep calm and carry on.

Why these skills matter

Technology will play a role for CIOs going forward, and having the right combination of skills and mindsets will enable them to meet the challenges of new technologies. For example, artificial intelligence (AI) is gaining a lot of traction in many of its forms: natural language processing, predictive analytics, and data science. AI is leading what’s being considered a fourth generation of the industrial revolution, and it will be disruptive to IT and to the business as a whole.

Knowing how AI technologies align with business goals, and knowing how new technology will shape and even eliminate some roles on the team, will help CIOs stay ahead of the curve. Those that can take advantage of AI will be able to create a competitive advantage for the business, helping decision makers get data faster and work in real time.

Overall, the CIO will be wearing a lot of different hats and using different skills than in the past. As technology and business needs have changed, so has the role of the CIO, encompassing responsibilities outside the current scope. However, if they can develop the skillsets and approaches to tackle these new challenges, both in themselves and on their teams, they can meet the needs of the organization and continue to be a vital part of the company’s growth.

Updated Mar 11, 2026