More than half of organisations are seeing positive returns from artificial intelligence investments, according to the Experis CIO 2026 Outlook. The survey of 1,930 senior technology leaders across 12 countries found that 54% reported positive ROI from AI. At the same time, 31% believe their organisations are overinvesting in the technology. Only 17% listed delivering AI solutions among the CIO's top responsibilities. Sixty percent of leaders are actively embedding AI into existing systems. Business and IT alignment has overtaken cybersecurity as the leading CIO priority for the first time, ranked by 48% of respondents, up from 34% in 2025. Forty-four percent named the pace of technological innovation as their biggest challenge. Skills shortages remain acute: 61% of tech leaders say other C-suite executives do not fully understand the CIO role. Cybersecurity is still viewed as the most important capability for IT teams by 46%, followed by AI and machine learning skills at 37%.
More than half of organisations are seeing positive returns from artificial intelligence investments, according to the Experis CIO 2026 Outlook. The survey of 1,930 senior technology leaders across 12 countries found that 54% reported positive ROI from AI. At the same time, 31% believe their organisations are overinvesting in the technology. Only 17% listed delivering AI solutions among the CIO's top responsibilities. Sixty percent of leaders are actively embedding AI into existing systems. Business and IT alignment has overtaken cybersecurity as the leading CIO priority for the first time, ranked by 48% of respondents, up from 34% in 2025. Forty-four percent named the pace of technological innovation as their biggest challenge. Skills shortages remain acute: 61% of tech leaders say other C-suite executives do not fully understand the CIO role. Cybersecurity is still viewed as the most important capability for IT teams by 46%, followed by AI and machine learning skills at 37%.