The Expanding Role of the CIO in 2020

For the past 10 years, the majority of CIOs have had a transformational focus (currently 42%), however, this year, there is strong momentum in CIOs taking on more strategic responsibilities (40%), according to the 2020 State of the CIO research from IDG's CIO.

As CIOs continue to move towards a strategic role, they are also less likely to be challenged to find the right balance between business innovation and operational excellence (77% vs. 80% in 2019).


Defining CIO Responsibilities

Looking at the activities that CIOs currently spend the majority of their time on, security management (45%), aligning IT initiatives with business goals (44%), improving IT operations/systems performance (42%), implementing new systems and architectures (39%), driving business innovation (34%), and leading change efforts (34%) top the list.

Although the key activities today still appear to be transformational and functional tasks, there has been a declining shift in the percentages since the 2019 study. This year, strategic activities — for example, developing and refining business strategy, developing new go-to-market strategies and technologies, and driving business innovation — expect an increase in 6 to 7 percentage points over the next 3 years, closing the gap between the focus on transformational and strategic activities.

"This is an exciting time for CIOs, as their responsibilities continue to transition to provide value in both business growth and strategic initiatives," said Adam Dennison, SVP/General Manager, IDG Events & Publisher, CIO. "Line of business executives recognize that senior IT leaders are no longer only essential for optimizing IT infrastructure, but also for driving revenue and innovation."

Further supporting this claim, 89% of CIOs say they are more involved in leading digital transformation initiatives compared to their business counterparts. More than half (56%) of line of business (LOB) respondents agree with CIOs on their contribution to this initiative, which is up from 47% just one year ago.

CIOs also shared their CEO's tech priorities for the coming year, which include leading digital business/digital transformation initiatives, upgrading IT and data security to boost corporate resiliency, and strengthening IT and business collaboration skills. LOB counterparts shared their view on this question and showed strong alignment and consistency with IT responses, saying that the CEO's top priorities for IT are: upgrading IT and data security to boost corporate resiliency, identifying new data-driven business opportunities, helping reach a specific goal for corporate revenue growth, and leading digital business/digital transformation initiatives.

Customer-Centric CIO

Within the responsibilities and initiatives of senior IT leaders, there is a common trend around customer experience. The majority (95%) of CIOs believe their role is expanding beyond traditional IT responsibilities, with customer experience (46%) being in the top three areas they are expanding into.

Additional areas include cybersecurity (64%), data privacy/compliance (49%), operations (36%) and business development (36%).

Along the same lines of role expansion, 67% of CIOs say that the creation of new revenue-generating initiatives is among their job responsibilities. In order to complete this task, CIOs are creating business case scenarios with defined costs and benefits, creating teams focused on innovation, and directly interacting with the customer.

When asked which business initiatives will drive the most IT investment in the coming year, improving the customer experience ranked second for both heads of IT and LOB respondents.

Looking at the tech initiatives driving the most IT investment, customer experience technologies (chatbots, mobile apps, etc.) rank third for heads of IT respondents.

To dive deeper into how to drive business forward through digital advancements, business and technology leaders are invited to attend the AGENDA20 conference taking place March 23-25, 2020 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

Methodology: The 19th annual survey was fielded online among CIO's audience with the objective of understanding the current parameters of the CIO role and how it may be changing over time. To be considered qualified, respondents must have identified themselves as a head of IT for their company or a division within it. Results are based on 679 qualified IT responses and 250 LOB responses.

Related Links

The Latest

Why Observability Is the Missing Piece in Your Business Growth

Every digital customer interaction, every cloud deployment, and every AI model depends on the same foundation: the ability to see, understand, and act on data in real time ... Recent data from Splunk confirms that 74% of the business leaders believe observability is essential to monitoring critical business processes, and 66% feel it's key to understanding user journeys. Because while the unknown is inevitable, observability makes it manageable. Let's explore why ...

Gartner: Regular AI System Assessments Triple the Likelihood of High GenAI Value

Organizations that perform regular audits and assessments of AI system performance and compliance are over three times more likely to achieve high GenAI value than organizations that do not, according to a survey by Gartner ...

Beyond Autoscaling: What True Kubernetes Optimization Actually Requires

Kubernetes has become the backbone of cloud infrastructure, but it's also one of its biggest cost drivers. Recent research shows that 98% of senior IT leaders say Kubernetes now drives cloud spend, yet 91% still can't optimize it effectively. After years of adoption, most organizations have moved past discovery. They know container sprawl, idle resources and reactive scaling inflate costs. What they don't know is how to fix it ...

Is Your Network Ready for the AI Boom? 5 Overlooked Stress Points

Artificial intelligence is no longer a future investment. It's already embedded in how we work — whether through copilots in productivity apps, real-time transcription tools in meetings, or machine learning models fueling analytics and personalization. But while enterprise adoption accelerates, there's one critical area many leaders have yet to examine: Can your network actually support AI at the speed your users expect? ...

Keeping Your Business Stable When Going Through an IT Disaster

The more technology businesses invest in, the more potential attack surfaces they have that can be exploited. Without the right continuity plans in place, the disruptions caused by these attacks can bring operations to a standstill and cause irreparable damage to an organization. It's essential to take the time now to ensure your business has the right tools, processes, and recovery initiatives in place to weather any type of IT disaster that comes up. Here are some effective strategies you can follow to achieve this ...

The Expanding Role of the CIO in 2020

For the past 10 years, the majority of CIOs have had a transformational focus (currently 42%), however, this year, there is strong momentum in CIOs taking on more strategic responsibilities (40%), according to the 2020 State of the CIO research from IDG's CIO.

As CIOs continue to move towards a strategic role, they are also less likely to be challenged to find the right balance between business innovation and operational excellence (77% vs. 80% in 2019).


Defining CIO Responsibilities

Looking at the activities that CIOs currently spend the majority of their time on, security management (45%), aligning IT initiatives with business goals (44%), improving IT operations/systems performance (42%), implementing new systems and architectures (39%), driving business innovation (34%), and leading change efforts (34%) top the list.

Although the key activities today still appear to be transformational and functional tasks, there has been a declining shift in the percentages since the 2019 study. This year, strategic activities — for example, developing and refining business strategy, developing new go-to-market strategies and technologies, and driving business innovation — expect an increase in 6 to 7 percentage points over the next 3 years, closing the gap between the focus on transformational and strategic activities.

"This is an exciting time for CIOs, as their responsibilities continue to transition to provide value in both business growth and strategic initiatives," said Adam Dennison, SVP/General Manager, IDG Events & Publisher, CIO. "Line of business executives recognize that senior IT leaders are no longer only essential for optimizing IT infrastructure, but also for driving revenue and innovation."

Further supporting this claim, 89% of CIOs say they are more involved in leading digital transformation initiatives compared to their business counterparts. More than half (56%) of line of business (LOB) respondents agree with CIOs on their contribution to this initiative, which is up from 47% just one year ago.

CIOs also shared their CEO's tech priorities for the coming year, which include leading digital business/digital transformation initiatives, upgrading IT and data security to boost corporate resiliency, and strengthening IT and business collaboration skills. LOB counterparts shared their view on this question and showed strong alignment and consistency with IT responses, saying that the CEO's top priorities for IT are: upgrading IT and data security to boost corporate resiliency, identifying new data-driven business opportunities, helping reach a specific goal for corporate revenue growth, and leading digital business/digital transformation initiatives.

Customer-Centric CIO

Within the responsibilities and initiatives of senior IT leaders, there is a common trend around customer experience. The majority (95%) of CIOs believe their role is expanding beyond traditional IT responsibilities, with customer experience (46%) being in the top three areas they are expanding into.

Additional areas include cybersecurity (64%), data privacy/compliance (49%), operations (36%) and business development (36%).

Along the same lines of role expansion, 67% of CIOs say that the creation of new revenue-generating initiatives is among their job responsibilities. In order to complete this task, CIOs are creating business case scenarios with defined costs and benefits, creating teams focused on innovation, and directly interacting with the customer.

When asked which business initiatives will drive the most IT investment in the coming year, improving the customer experience ranked second for both heads of IT and LOB respondents.

Looking at the tech initiatives driving the most IT investment, customer experience technologies (chatbots, mobile apps, etc.) rank third for heads of IT respondents.

To dive deeper into how to drive business forward through digital advancements, business and technology leaders are invited to attend the AGENDA20 conference taking place March 23-25, 2020 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.

Methodology: The 19th annual survey was fielded online among CIO's audience with the objective of understanding the current parameters of the CIO role and how it may be changing over time. To be considered qualified, respondents must have identified themselves as a head of IT for their company or a division within it. Results are based on 679 qualified IT responses and 250 LOB responses.

Related Links

The Latest

Why Observability Is the Missing Piece in Your Business Growth

Every digital customer interaction, every cloud deployment, and every AI model depends on the same foundation: the ability to see, understand, and act on data in real time ... Recent data from Splunk confirms that 74% of the business leaders believe observability is essential to monitoring critical business processes, and 66% feel it's key to understanding user journeys. Because while the unknown is inevitable, observability makes it manageable. Let's explore why ...

Gartner: Regular AI System Assessments Triple the Likelihood of High GenAI Value

Organizations that perform regular audits and assessments of AI system performance and compliance are over three times more likely to achieve high GenAI value than organizations that do not, according to a survey by Gartner ...

Beyond Autoscaling: What True Kubernetes Optimization Actually Requires

Kubernetes has become the backbone of cloud infrastructure, but it's also one of its biggest cost drivers. Recent research shows that 98% of senior IT leaders say Kubernetes now drives cloud spend, yet 91% still can't optimize it effectively. After years of adoption, most organizations have moved past discovery. They know container sprawl, idle resources and reactive scaling inflate costs. What they don't know is how to fix it ...

Is Your Network Ready for the AI Boom? 5 Overlooked Stress Points

Artificial intelligence is no longer a future investment. It's already embedded in how we work — whether through copilots in productivity apps, real-time transcription tools in meetings, or machine learning models fueling analytics and personalization. But while enterprise adoption accelerates, there's one critical area many leaders have yet to examine: Can your network actually support AI at the speed your users expect? ...

Keeping Your Business Stable When Going Through an IT Disaster

The more technology businesses invest in, the more potential attack surfaces they have that can be exploited. Without the right continuity plans in place, the disruptions caused by these attacks can bring operations to a standstill and cause irreparable damage to an organization. It's essential to take the time now to ensure your business has the right tools, processes, and recovery initiatives in place to weather any type of IT disaster that comes up. Here are some effective strategies you can follow to achieve this ...