The emergence of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) presents a unique opportunity for chief information officers (CIOs) to reposition themselves as business strategists driving enterprise-wide transformation. Making that transition requires a mindset shift, building partnerships with business-side leaders and undertaking projects that can show high-impact results.
CIOs are up to the task; 81% say their role is increasingly that of a “change-maker,” leading business and technology initiatives.1 EY Consulting research found that organizations that trust CIOs to lead digital business initiatives increase their chances of success by up to 79%.2
As organizations navigate the evolving technological landscape, there is a growing recognition of the importance of AI. The EY Consulting 2024 CIO Sentiment Study reveals that 34% of respondents are already leveraging AI as a key driver of growth, innovation and resiliency within their organizations. This highlights a promising trend, and addressing the perception of technology’s role will be a vital focus for CIOs moving forward.
Forward-looking CIOs recognize that they must transcend traditional IT responsibilities to become strategic partners to the CEO and business units.
CIOs are increasingly co-creating products with business teams, guiding digital customer experiences and working to ensure technology investments directly support revenue and market-share objectives.
“Business leaders today prioritize getting new products and services to market, creating resilient supply chains, and driving exceptional customer experiences. All of those can be accelerated by technology,” says Mazen Baroudi, EY Americas Consulting Technology Strategy and Transformation Leader.
Leading enterprise transformation with GenAI
The AI era empowers CIOs to be equal part innovator and collaborator – as comfortable discussing cloud architectures as they are new business models. Large language models (LLMs) and agents have captured attention at the board level. CIOs need to translate hype into practical results.
Many tech leaders are already recognizing the potential of GenAI, with nearly half acknowledging its importance. While some remain cautious, a significant number are actively allocating budget to explore and embrace GenAI fully.3
“CIOs have lived through many waves of hype cycles, so there’s an instinct to separate the signal from the noise,” Baroudi says, “but half believe GenAI will have a significant impact on business outcomes, so there’s optimism there as well.”
Momentum is certainly building. Most CIOs are dedicating at least 10% of their tech budgets to AI efforts, and more than eight in ten expect the GenAI component of their budgets to increase over the next 12 months.4
The payoff is even greater when CIOs partner with CEOs on a GenAI strategy: 84% achieve at least double the ROI compared to only 56% of organizations where the strategy is led by the CIO alone.5
Delivering real-world results
Successful AI initiatives are grounded in tangible business outcomes. This means identifying use cases where GenAI can either boost revenue, improve customer experience, or streamline operations in measurable ways.
For example, Microsoft’s Corporate, External and Legal Affairs group collaborated with the EY Law practice to tame the manual grind of tracking thousands of rules worldwide.
They built a Microsoft Azure OpenAI-powered POC that ingested new regulations, flagged affected products, drafted notification emails, pre-populated implementation-guidance forms and compared requirements with Microsoft policy, turning a sample work process that once took lawyers hours into minutes within their POC.
Secondly, CIOs must deliver early wins to build credibility by focusing on GenAI use cases that scale quickly and demonstrate value. This shows skeptical stakeholders that GenAI is a practical tool for transformation.
Above all, they must try to ensure trust, which research has consistently shown is one of the top barriers to AI adoption.
Risks range from data privacy to model bias. Hallucinations must be minimized through sound data quality practices, robust governance and operational guardrails. Solutions like the EY Responsible AI Framework can help CIOs balance risk and flexibility in the development lifecycle.7
Many CIOs are held back by the weight of legacy systems and the need for routine IT firefighting. They can address this technology debt issue by championing investments in modernizing core platforms, outsourcing undifferentiated IT services, or empowering lieutenants to manage operational areas.
Successful CIOs balance the need to keep the technology engine running while simultaneously steering new digital initiatives that drive growth. This requires a strong leadership bench and a culture that makes business outcomes everyone’s responsibility, not just the CIOs.
Yang Shim, EY Americas Technology Consulting Leader, says: “Now is the perfect moment for CIOs to evolve into influential business strategists. They can guide their organizations into the AI era by identifying the most impactful use cases for digital innovation programs.
“Then, they must orchestrate how new technology embeds itself into the business by working across business lines to turn their vision into measurable success.”
Partnering for impactful change
CIOs should resist the temptation to do it alone. Partnering with business leaders and creating business-IT steering committees for key programs helps focus investments.
High-performing CIOs work closely with CEOs, CFOs, CMOs and others to help ensure technology plans support their priorities. Adopting business-led frameworks like objectives and key results pairs technology deliverables with measurable business results, such as a specific increase in online sales conversion.8
That helps shift the perception of IT from a cost center to a strategic investment.
“Changing the language CIOs use from words like systems and platforms to innovation, revenue, and resilience is critical,” Baroudi says. “It’s not about convincing the organization that technology is the primary driver, but showing that without it, none of those business imperatives can be realized.”
In some organizations, the lines between roles are blurring. One emerging model is the chief information and digital officer, a role EY Consulting has defined as driving “business strategies through a digital lens while continuing to stay close to technology.”
By adopting a value-creation mindset and building credibility through collaboration, CIOs can help ensure technology becomes a key part of the business strategy.
Unlocking potential through strategic innovation
The data shows that CIOs are aware of their changing role and are investing in transformative technologies; now they must double down on asserting their strategic influence enterprise-wide. For those who have felt confined to maintenance tasks or sidelined in strategy discussions, GenAI and digital transformation are a chance to break out.
The EY organization provides a structured approach through its EY.ai platform, combining proven domain experience, data governance frameworks and AI accelerators to help CIOs integrate GenAI across multiple functions to drive enterprise-wide innovation, improve productivity and align AI initiatives with business goals.
Organizations are ready for the change.
“Generative AI is forcing us to optimize the data in the enterprise with a focus on value creation,” Baroudi says. “The more mature the organization is in its use of data, the higher the value created.”
By proactively proposing innovation projects, championing cross-functional collaboration, and aligning every tech investment with growth, CIOs can escape the order-taker trap and become orchestrators of enterprise change.
Success begins with embracing the change-maker mantle. CIOs should assess which AI projects can deliver quick wins and identify the legacy processes that benefit most from digitalization.
They must work closely with the C-suite on strategy while ensuring collaboration across the business running innovation labs that include relevant leaders. These strategies will not only future-proof the enterprise but also establish the CIO as a strategic partner and value creator.
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The views reflected in this article are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Ernst & Young LLP or other members of the global EY organization.
1Foundry, State of the CIO, 2025
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4EY, The CIO position is pivotal to generative AI success, new EY survey finds, Oct. 18, 2024
5EY, Will you set the GenAI agenda or follow the leaders? 2024 CIO Sentiment Survey
6EY, How Microsoft streamlined regulatory compliance with GenAI, Oct. 15, 2024
7EY, Responsible AI, March 19, 2024
8What Matters, What is an OKR? Definition and Examples, 2024