Ten CIO agenda predictions that will impact IT pros by 2026

According to an IDC report, through 2026, 65% of CIOs will sustain a cycle of tech-based empowerment, agility, and resilience through collaborative governance, new service delivery models, and a business outcomes orientation.

CIO agenda predictions

Analysts Joe Pucciarelli, Serge Findling, and Pete Lindstrom focused on the “Future IT” and presented the key predictions that will impact CIOs and IT professionals worldwide over the next one-to-five years.

IT leaders are faced with responsibilities and opportunities that will not present themselves again in their lifetimes.

The CIO agenda predictions

Prediction 1: Through 2026, 65% of CIOs will sustain a cycle of tech-based empowerment, agility, and resilience through collaborative governance, new service delivery models, and a business outcomes orientation.

Prediction 2: By 2023, 60% of CIOs will be primarily measured for their ability to co-create new business models and outcomes through extensive enterprise and ecosystem-wide collaboration.

Prediction 3: By 2025, 75% of CIOs and CFOs will be forced to accelerate or enact formal technical debt management practices due to project delays or failures caused by unresolved technical debt.

Prediction 4: Given the rising imperative for hybrid and smart workplaces, by 2024, 60% of CIOs will reimagine user support and create center of excellence (COE) based teams to guide the necessary investments in technology and process.

Prediction 5: By 2026, 85% of organizations whose data practices inhibit their business and operating strategies will empower CIOs to lead cross-enterprise investments in data governance, quality, and compliance.

Prediction 6: By 2024, 40% of CIOs will fail to effectively evolve IT’s capability to deliver modern digital infrastructures, provide ecosystem tech governance, and support architecture-driven business outcomes.

Prediction 7: Driven by investor pressure to minimize SG&A expenses, by 2024, 40% of organizations will shift at least 25% of IT spending to direct cost aligned with specific line of business products/services.

Prediction 8: Despite the cost and friction, 60% of CIOs will embrace ecosystem-wide multifactor authentication for its efficacy as an essential minimum to counter rising cybersecurity threats by 2022.

Prediction 9: By 2025, 60% of CIOs will collaborate to harness industry ecosystem capabilities as a critical source of innovation, data sharing, differentiation, and cybersecurity risk management.

Prediction 10: By 2023, businesses will require 55% of G2000 CIOs to implement sustainable IT, embedding environmental, social, and governance practices into the technology life cycle from acquisition to disposal.

“In the next five years, CIOs will be instrumental in helping their enterprise navigate the winds of change by enabling ecosystems, co-creating new business models and outcomes, empowering employees, and building resiliency,” said Serge Findling, VP of research for IDC‘s IT Executive Programs (IEP).

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