The era of doing things faster is officially giving way to an era of doing things differently.
According to the 1H 2026 Digital Leadership & CIO Global Enterprise Decision Maker Survey released by The Futurum Group, a massive strategic shift is underway as chief information officers move past artificial intelligence (AI) experimentation toward large-scale business transformation.
The report, which tracked more than 200 global IT leaders throughout 2025, reveals a stunning collapse in productivity as a desired AI outcome, from 67.5% to 41.8%. In its place, innovation and modernization have surged, each nearly doubling to 32%. The data underscores that the corporate world is no longer satisfied with marginal gains in efficiency, but is looking for AI to build products and scale operations in ways previously unthinkable.
“The generic efficiency argument for AI is dead,” said Dion Hinchcliffe, vice president and principal analyst at The Futurum Group. “CIO AI priorities have shifted decisively from making existing processes faster to enabling capabilities that were previously impossible. Vendors still leading with productivity gains are addressing yesterday’s buyer. The 2026 CIO wants AI that drives innovation, modernizes legacy systems, and creates entirely new business models.”
Indeed, the wait-and-see period for AI has ended. Pilot-stage adoption plummeted by 31%, the largest single swing in the survey’s history. Today, nearly three-quarters of CIOs report having “thorough, well-formed” implementation plans. The transition is backed by cold, hard cash: AI and machine learning spending more than doubled over the last year, becoming the fastest-growing line item in the modern IT budget.
The study also highlights a significant migration of AI tools upstream within the enterprise. AI usage in research and development nearly tripled, jumping from 9.9% to 27.9%. Conversely, AI use in sales departments retreated 18.4%, suggesting leadership is connecting AI to core intellectual property and product development rather than simple sales enablement.
In a surprising twist, cybersecurity, once the perennial king of the IT agenda, is seeing a decline in strategic mindshare. Spending priority for security dropped from 81.3% to 48.8%. Analysts note this isn’t due to a lack of threats, but rather a normalization of the sector. CIOs now view security as a baseline requirement — an always-on infrastructure — rather than a new strategic initiative.
As technology becomes more accessible, the primary challenge has shifted from “bits and bytes” to “flesh and blood,” according to the report. For the first time, talent acquisition (54.1%) and the breakneck pace of emerging tech (53.7%) are virtually tied as the top challenges facing the C-suite.
For vendors, the message is clear: the 2026 CIO isn’t looking for a tool that saves a few hours a week. They are looking for platforms that orchestrate workflows, drive R&D, and — most importantly — reduce the friction of implementation in an increasingly talent-starved market.
