The CIO is taking a larger role in business change, but “chief transformation officer” is best understood as a description of an expanding remit—not a universal job title or a claim that the CIO owns every part of transformation. Foundry’s 2026 survey found that CIOs increasingly lead digital and innovation work, while earlier findings show that responsibility may sit with one executive or be shared across leaders. The practical test is whether technology, people, and operating changes are tied to measurable business outcomes.
What does a CIO do now?
The traditional focus on running IT operations and delivering technology remains important, but many CIOs are also expected to help shape business priorities and lead organization-wide change. Foundry’s 2026 State of the CIO survey included responses from 662 heads of IT and 249 line-of-business respondents. Among CIOs surveyed:
- 84% said their role was becoming more focused on digital work and innovation.
- 82% said they were more involved in leading digital transformation initiatives than their business counterparts.
- 83% agreed that the CIO was becoming a changemaker leading business and technology initiatives.
- 46% identified as business leaders shaping technology decisions for business outcomes.
These are survey responses, not a definition that applies to every CIO. Foundry notes that priorities can differ by region. Read Foundry’s 2026 State of the CIO findings.
Is the CIO becoming the chief transformation officer?
In some organizations, the CIO may lead much of the transformation agenda; in others, the CIO shares authority with business leaders or supports a separate transformation executive. Foundry’s 2025 survey illustrates the range: 82% of participants said CIOs were leading digital transformation initiatives more than their business counterparts, but only 26% said the CIO had sole responsibility for all digital transformation decisions and initiatives. Meanwhile, 29% said ownership was distributed among all leaders.
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The same 2025 survey found that 77% of CIOs reported a strong partnership with the CEO and board, while 76% said balancing business innovation with operational excellence was an ongoing challenge. Those findings point to a role that is more connected to business leadership without necessarily replacing it. See Foundry’s 2025 survey summary.
Who owns digital transformation?
There is no single ownership structure established by these surveys. The important issue is not the title on the org chart, but whether decision rights and accountability are clear. When assessing a CIO-led, dedicated transformation officer, or shared-leadership model, ask:
- Mandate: Who sets priorities, resolves conflicts between functions, and makes portfolio tradeoffs?
- Time and capacity: Is transformation leadership a dedicated role, or an added responsibility for an executive with a full operating workload?
- Scope: Does the work cover only technology modernization, or also operating models, talent, customer experience, and business models?
- Accountability: Are leaders responsible for business outcomes and execution milestones, rather than only technology delivery?
- Change capacity: Are stakeholder engagement, communications, and workforce adoption funded throughout execution?
These questions help distinguish a real transformation mandate from a title change. The evidence does not establish that one structure is always superior.
How is the CIO’s role changing?
The shift is from enabling business change through technology to helping lead the broader work needed to make that change succeed. That includes aligning stakeholders, sequencing initiatives, handling tradeoffs, and sustaining adoption—not simply choosing or deploying systems.
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Deloitte’s 2025 Chief Transformation Officer Study examined CXO-sponsored, enterprise-wide, business-driven programs. In that study, 90% of the leaders had led at least three transformation programs, more than half of team resources were dedicated full time to transformation, and more than 80% of programs were on track to meet or exceed performance targets. Deloitte also identified change management and motivating talent as underprioritized budget needs, and reported that execution posed more significant challenges than design and planning. These results describe the programs studied, not transformation efforts universally. Read Deloitte’s study announcement.
Outcome discipline matters because initiatives do not reliably meet their business targets. Gartner’s 2026 CIO agenda article reported that 48% of digital initiatives met or exceeded business targets; it also said 94% of surveyed CIOs expected major changes to plans and outcomes within the next 24 months. The implication is to define the intended business result, track it during execution, and adjust when conditions change—not to assume that a particular leadership structure guarantees success. Read Gartner’s CIO agenda article.
What skills does a transformation leader need?
A transformation leader needs to connect business ambition with the work of execution. The evidence points to several practical capabilities:
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- Business judgment: Translate technology choices into business outcomes and make tradeoffs across competing priorities.
- Enterprise leadership: Work across functions, build executive alignment, and resolve conflicts that cross organizational boundaries.
- Execution discipline: Convert plans into accountable milestones, sustain focus, and respond when assumptions or conditions change.
- Change leadership: Make room for communication, talent motivation, stakeholder involvement, and workforce adoption rather than treating these as late-stage tasks.
- Measurement: Set outcome measures before delivery begins and use them to judge progress, not just project completion.
- Technology and governance fluency: Understand how to scale new capabilities while maintaining visibility, control, and clear responsibility.
Why does AI make transformation governance part of the CIO’s job?
AI adoption can outpace the organization’s ability to see and govern what is being deployed. IBM’s Institute for Business Value, working with Oxford Economics, surveyed 2,000 senior executives responsible for IT, technology, or AI decisions across 33 geographies and 19 industries from January through April 2026. IBM reported that 77% of surveyed organizations said AI adoption was outpacing current governance capabilities, 70% said business teams were deploying technology faster than IT could track, and only 11% said they were fully ready for the expected scale of AI-agent deployment in the following year.
For a CIO involved in transformation, that makes visibility and control part of the change agenda: leaders need to understand where AI is being used, how deployment fits governance, and who is accountable as use expands. The survey findings describe the executives polled, not every organization. Read IBM’s study announcement.
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