State of the CIO, 2026: CIOs set the course for AI ROI

Survey results from CIO.com indicate that a minority of AI initiatives are meeting business goals, with respondents citing ill-defined ROI metrics, unclear corporate AI strategy, and a lack of in-house expertise as primary barriers. Organizations are beginning to address this by prioritizing targeted use cases and forming cross-functional steering committees and task forces to align AI efforts with enterprise objectives and improve scalability.