The past year was another one of rapid change, as economic cycles, business trends, and technology itself evolved at a breakneck pace.
So what did the year that was — and all its frenetic energy — teach us?
We asked a handful of CIOs to catch their breath and think about what they are taking away from the past year. Here’s what they say.
1. Gen AI moved past hype and proved its worth
ChatGPT and the generative AI revolution marked their second anniversary in November 2024. To University of Phoenix CIOJamie Smith, that makes gen AI all grown up.
“We’re moving away from the hype and learning to live with generative AI,” he says.
Smith says he has seen that transition over the past 12 months or so, saying the technology has matured to the point where it is winning over skeptics. He points to one of his staffers, a senior engineer who for many months would not use gen AI for coding because the technology wasn’t accurate enough for his needs and its tendency to hallucinate was higher than he could tolerate.
But this past fall, the engineer retested a gen AI tool and found the accuracy of its outputs had significantly improved.
“It hit the threshold for accuracy he had in his mind; it hit a tipping point,” Smith says, explaining that the engineer concluded that the gen AI tool could now compete with top coders in quality, not just speed — bringing AI-native software engineering closer than many previously thought.
2. AI investment — and pressure — grew upward
As AI has moved from emerging to mainstream, and organizations matured in their ability to harness AI’s potential over the past year or two, CEOs now expect less experimentation and more AI projects that deliver outcomes with measurable business value.
“Technology leaders and their organizations must be intentional regarding their company’s AI investments,” says Greg Barrett, CEO and founder of GMB Consulting, which provides fractional/interim CIO services and senior advisor support.
“Artificial intelligence, and in particular generative AI, is very exciting, given its potential. Given this excitement, there have been higher, sometimes unrealistic, expectations in terms of the ROI and timing of the returns. This is not surprising given the promise of this technology,” he adds. “The key is that we, technology leaders/CIOs, are required to be that voice in the room that is thoughtful and intentional about how AI can be used. We will need to drive the conversation away from coming up with ways to implement AI to [answering], ‘What are the top N business needs, and how might we address them using AI?’”
3. It’s all about business value
CIOs say the past year has reinforced a core requirement: that they have to show how all tech initiatives — not just AI ones — are going to deliver business value.
“IT leaders had to learn to show a return on investment on everything they do and drive meaningful business outcomes,” says Sathish Muthukrishnan, chief information and digital officer with Ally Financial. “That’s why they should be highly integrated and partner with the business and the business functions.”
4. Change is accelerating — and that’s positive for IT
A constant theme among CIOs has been the ever-increasing pace of change and how this is raising IT’s profile across the business.
Kellie Romack, chief digital information officer at ServiceNow, says 2024 has taught her to “embrace that reality.”
“Change is good,” she declares, adding that her “biggest takeaway from this year is embracing the role of CIO as a changemaker, especially now in the AI era. This means thinking beyond the technology function to be a unifier across the C-suite, breaking down silos to remove friction and deliver better business outcomes. As CDIO, I partner closely with my peers across ServiceNow to unify our tech and business strategy and make everyday moments easier for employees and customers. Aligning on shared goals helps us deliver amazing experiences and outcomes, so we can be that driver of change.”
Romack says this 2024 lesson is influencing how she plans to work in 2025.
“I’m heading into the new year with ‘unity’ top of mind, because as CIOs, we can connect the dots and the world,” she explains. “I’ll remain focused on understanding what business problems my fellow leaders are trying to solve and enabling them with the tech to deliver our business outcomes. I’ll also continue strengthening partnerships across our executive team to understand their insights and perspectives — from financials, strategy, and employee and customer enablement to talent acquisition, skills development and more. That way I can ensure they all have a technology and business strategy roadmap infused with AI everywhere and get those unified, seamless and hyper-personalized experiences.”
5. People still need help navigating change
Like Romack, IT exec Ryan Downing welcomes all the change on the horizon.
But Downing, vice president and CIO of enterprise business solutions at Principal Financial Group, knows others don’t feel that way. Change may be coming faster and more often than ever, he says, but that doesn’t mean everyone has learned to quickly adjust — which is why he said this past year reminded him of the need to help others along.
“While technology continues to evolve rapidly, the human side of adoption is just as critical — if not more so — in realizing value for the business, our employees, and our customers,” he says. “Implementing AI tools isn’t enough; we must invest in training, coaching, and support for our teams so they can fully integrate these capabilities into their work.”
Downing has seen the importance of taking that approach over the past year. His company deployed Microsoft Copilot, its AI solution, to software engineering teams; some had meaningful efficiency gains right away but others did not.
“The disparity in adoption levels revealed a very real change management curve that required enhanced support and coaching to help teams integrate these solutions,” Downing explains.
“We’ve learned that we have to look beyond the technical challenge of making technology available and assume it will be adopted by teams. Just as important as investing in technology is investing in a culture that embraces change and continuous learning,” he adds. “Moving forward, my team and I are committed to placing equal focus on the technical and human sides of technology adoption.”
6. Talent remains more important than tech
CIOs say the past year also has shown them that having the right people matters more than having the right technology.
“Despite the explosion of everything AI, the thing that continued to resonate with me is it’s still about your existing talent,” says Stephen Watt, senior vice president and CIO at software company Hyland. “There’s a recognition that continued investment in our existing staff is going to be just as impactful as finding the perfect technology. Technology will change, and with everything changing so quickly, the goal really is to have the right people who can change with it. And because of that, I don’t think you should underestimate the value of continuing to support your staff.”
He adds: “Our employees, especially those who have been with the organization for a long time, bring a lot of expertise. They have that situational awareness. And you shouldn’t minimize that; it has a big impact on the success of projects and on successful implementations. It’s tough to replace that experience.”
7. Jobs are rapidly changing
Additionally, Watt says the past year really drove home how rapidly jobs are changing as a result of technology and in particular because of AI. Recent surveys underscore this reality, as 92% of IT jobs are likely to be transformed by AI, according to the AI-Enabled ICT Workforce Consortium, and 74% of IT pros see AI making their skills obsolete, Pluralsight reports.
“I don’t get a sense that people are looking to use AI as a replacement methodology for the workforce. Rather, AI is an augmentation tool. And workers recognize that they have to learn to use AI as a tool to be more effective in their jobs,” Watt says.
As an example, he points to the business intelligence analysts on his team who are using AI to run analysis and generate reports, making them significantly more efficient at those tasks and giving them more time for other, higher-value tasks such as engaging with colleagues.
Watt says as an executive he needs to help workers prepare to do their jobs as they adapt — both for their sake and for the company’s.
“What we all need to do is make sure our teams are prepared, even though we’re not close to figuring out how much any job will change,” he says. “We always have a lot of training and development, but AI is something we are now layering across all training. We’re having everyone take at least one AI course in our [learning management system] platform and people can then go from there.”
8. The CIO role is changing, too
That’s the lesson Ankur Anand, CIO at Nash Squared, took away from 2024 — that the CIO role itself is rapidly transforming
“That’s what I’d really like to talk about: how the role has evolved, how it has become even more prominent and even more strategic. The CIO is getting deeper into the business, contributing to top-line growth and the bottom line,” he says. “As a CIO, I know I am having a bigger contribution in every area of the business.”
To illustrate that contribution, he points to how he weaves data, technology, and AI into the company’s strategies for ongoing transformation and reimagination of how and what work is done.
Anand says the expectation today is that CIOs are not mere supporters of but are actually originators of those strategies. As a result, CIOs can’t slow down at all. Like their teams, they, too, must become constant learners who keep up with technology innovations and improvements in vendor products as well as business and industry trends.
“I’ve doubled the time I’m putting into learning,” Anand adds.
9. CIOs must be ready for anything
Ally’s Muthukrishnan says the past year and, in fact, the years prior to it have shown how the world can turn on a dime.
“The environment — technology, economic, customer behaviors, politics — it’s completely uncertain,” Muthukrishnan says. “We’re all in a landscape that is evolving faster than ever, and because of that, our operational pressures and business priorities can change rapidly in ways you cannot always anticipate.”
Consequently, Muthukrishnan says, technology should be hyper-agile, flexible, and fast to ensure the organization can cope with the uncertainty and pivot as quickly as needed.
CIOs and their teams need to be hyper-agile, flexible, and fast, too, for the same reasons, he adds.
However, he says they also have to be mindful and thoughtful.
“It’s being able to respond quickly, but not just react. The situation will try to force you to react, but you want to respond in a controlled, measured, and thoughtful way,” Muthukrishnan explains. “That’s the balancing act for all technologists, so they can deliver what’s needed today but be fungible and flexible for the future. We have to be well-prepared and have the ability to react quickly to changing scenarios.”
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