Over the past ten years, the role of the CIO has undergone a fundamental transformation. From being the manager responsible for the technical back office of the company, the CIO has been promoted to a key partner on the board of directors, shaping the strategy and future of the entire enterprise. Driving this change have been three powerful forces: the cloud, data and, more recently, artificial intelligence.
Back in 2015, the IT world looked different. The ambitions of many chief information officers were often ahead of the tools available. IT departments were mainly seen as cost centres, responsible for maintaining internal infrastructure, servers and networks. However, this decade has brought a revolution that has changed this arrangement forever.
The cloud and the loss of control that has become a force
The first and most important catalyst for change was the massive migration of businesses to the cloud. In the middle of the last decade, the ecosystem of software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers exploded, offering turnkey solutions to almost every business problem. This presented the CIO with a fundamental challenge.
IT directors began to lose direct, physical control over infrastructure for the first time in history. Software purchasing decisions also began to be made in marketing or sales departments, which were able to implement SaaS tools without involving IT.
Paradoxically, this loss of control became a liberation for CIOs. Instead of managing the server room, they had to start orchestrating a complex ecosystem of services to deliver real business value. Their role shifted from technical contractor to strategic integrator. This was the moment when IT heads began to step out of the shadows, gaining more influence over key decisions in the business.
Boardroom partnerships and a new measure of success
As technology became more integral to every aspect of the business, the technological awareness of the rest of the board also grew. CIOs ceased to be the only people in the C-suite with an understanding of the digital world, and top-level conversations became more substantive and collaborative.
This increase in digital competence across the organisation has raised the profile of the CIO themselves. This recognition was reflected in the perception of them by CEOs, who began to rank IT chiefs among the most effective leaders on the board. By 2019, the debate about the CIO’s strategic role was essentially over. He or she has become a key partner and often even the initiator of business projects.
Success metrics have also changed. Market data from recent years clearly shows that for the majority of CIOs (more than 60%), improving the customer experience is the main goal. This is definitive evidence of a shift in focus from internal operations to external business objectives. Business sense has become an absolutely core competency for CIOs.
The moment that finally sealed this new position was the 2020 pandemic. The rapid and massive shift to remote working was an operational and strategic test that IT departments passed with flying colours, proving their crucial value for business continuity.
The new frontier: AI
Today, CIOs face another, perhaps the greatest challenge: the AI revolution. Artificial intelligence, especially generative models, dominates the technology agenda. CIOs are expected to become trusted advisors to guide their organisations through the wave of marketing hype and help implement AI in a way that delivers real benefits.
The CIO ‘s responsibility extends to building entirely new capabilities across the enterprise, particularly in the area of data and AI. They are the ones who need to ensure data quality, manage risk, bridge skills gaps and create a framework for effective human-AI collaboration.
The consensus is that the success of CIOs in the coming years will be measured precisely by their ability to implement generative artificial intelligence effectively and responsibly.
The decade 2015-2025 has been a period of unprecedented evolution. The role of the CIO has progressed from infrastructure manager, to cloud services architect, to business partner and digital transformation leader. Today, in the face of the AI revolution, they are becoming the most important guides for companies towards the future. There has never been a more exciting time to be a CIO – the role has never come with so much influence and so much responsibility for the long-term success of the business.
