Gartner Forecasts The CIO Agenda 2026

Volatility demands decisive action. CIOs who pivot strategically maximize digital investments and drive transformative change.

Explore the CIO Agenda 2026 to uncover peer priorities, strengthen C-suite partnerships, and accelerate leadership impact

Executive Summary: Gartner CIO Agenda 2026 – Master the A.R.T. of Change

The CIO Agenda 2026 by Gartner highlights a critical shift in technology leadership: moving from calendar-based planning to “trigger-based" agility. With 94% of CIOs anticipating significant disruptions to their plans over the next 24 months, the traditional annual strategy is no longer fit for purpose.

The Core Framework: A.R.T.

To bridge the gap where only 48% of digital initiatives currently meet or exceed their business targets, Gartner proposes the A.R.T. model:

1. Agility: Dynamic Resource Allocation

• Continuous Reprioritisation: CIOs must move away from rigid yearly cycles, developing the capacity to kill underperforming projects and reallocate capital and talent instantly.
• Responsive Planning: Decisions should be driven by market signals and technological breakthroughs rather than fiscal dates.

2. Risk: Geo-strategic Resilience

• Sovereignty & Compliance: The focus has shifted from global efficiency to regional resilience, ensuring IT stacks comply with local digital sovereignty laws and mitigate geopolitical friction.
• Proactive Management: Leaders who manage risk proactively are 51% more likely to outperform their peers in project delivery.

3. Tenacity: Financial Impact of AI

• From Pilot to Profit: The “experimentation" phase of AI is over. CIOs are now under immense pressure to deliver measurable financial returns.
• Strategic Insourcing: By leveraging AI, organisations can bring outsourced work back in-house, potentially reducing operational costs by 5% to 30%.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

• The Execution Gap: Despite high investment, over half of digital projects still fall short of their intended ROI.
• Commercial Pressure: 57% of CIOs are being tasked with immediate productivity gains, while 52% are focused on direct cost reduction.

The chart presented outlines the funding priorities for CIOs and technology executives entering 2026, showing that investment in most technologies is growing despite budget constraints:

Top Growth Areas

The most significant increases in technology funding are concentrated in Artificial Intelligence and security:

• GenAI: Leads the pack with 91% of respondents increasing funding, representing a mean change of +38%.
• AI (General): Follows closely with 88% increasing funding and a +36% mean change.
• Cyber/Information Security: Remains a critical priority, with 84% of executives increasing investment.
• Business Intelligence/Data Analytics: Continues to see strong growth with 79% increase in funding.

Infrastructure Shift

The data highlights a clear move away from traditional hardware toward cloud-based and modernised systems:

• Cloud Platforms: 72% of respondents are increasing investment in cloud infrastructure.
• Application Modernisation: 69% are dedicating more funds to updating their software stacks.
• On-premises Infrastructure: This is the only category seeing an overall decline, with 41% of respondents decreasing funding, resulting in a -5% mean change.

Enterprise & Operations

Moderate growth is seen across core business systems:

• ERP & CRM: Both see funding increases from over half of the respondents (55% and 61% respectively).
• Human Capital Management (HCM): 47% are increasing investment, while 7% are decreasing.
• Supply Chain: Warehouse and Supplier Management Systems see the lowest relative growth, with mean percent changes of +10% and +7% respectively.

 

Strategic Conclusion

The CIO’s mandate for 2026 is to evolve into a strategic orchestrator of the C-suite. Success is no longer measured by uptime or deployment speed alone, but by the “tenacity" to translate technological efficiency into tangible bottom-line growth and the “agility" to pivot before the competition does.

Stay tuned for further updates as we continue to explore the evolving landscape of technological innovation and its impact on businesses worldwide.