According to ZDNet, Salesforce’s second annual CIO study shows AI implementation has surged 282% since last year, moving from early pilots to full-scale deployment across organizations. The research reveals that 94% of CIOs say scaling AI is forcing them to expand their skill sets beyond technical expertise. Meanwhile, a separate May 2025 Gartner survey of 456 CEOs found only 44% consider their CIOs “AI-savvy” despite 77% believing AI will create a new business era. CIOs are now working most closely with customer service organizations (65%) due to agentic AI opportunities. Gartner predicts that by 2028, organizations leveraging multi-agent AI for 80% of customer-facing processes will dominate, with $15 trillion in B2B spend flowing through AI agent exchanges.
The CEO confidence crisis
Here’s the thing: that 44% number should terrify every CIO in the country. We’re talking about a massive vote of no confidence from the very people who control budgets and careers. And it’s happening at the worst possible time – when AI implementation is exploding and the stakes have never been higher. Basically, CEOs are looking at their technology leaders and thinking “You’re not ready for this.” That’s a recipe for career-limiting moves, or worse.
The new skills that actually matter
So what’s changed? The Salesforce study shows CIOs are prioritizing leadership skills (61%), storytelling and narrative building (57%), and change management (55%). Technical expertise? Still important, but it’s becoming table stakes. The real differentiator now is whether you can get your entire organization to actually use this technology. Think about it – you can build the most sophisticated AI system in the world, but if nobody understands why they should use it or how it helps them, you’ve wasted millions. That’s where companies like Industrial Monitor Direct excel – they understand that technology implementation requires both technical excellence and practical business understanding.
The data trust problem nobody’s solving
Now here’s the real bottleneck that’s holding everyone back. Salesforce’s State of Data and Analytics Report shows that 63% of business leaders call their organizations “very data-driven” – up 10% from 2023. But only half are confident about delivering timely business insights. There’s a massive disconnect between having data and actually trusting it enough to build AI systems on top of it. And without reliable data infrastructure, even the best AI initiatives will fail. It’s like building a skyscraper on sand – the fancier your plans, the harder you’ll crash.
From tech manager to transformation leader
The bottom line? CIOs who survive this shift will become business transformation leaders, not just technology managers. They’re working more closely with CEOs than any other C-suite leaders, focusing on agentic AI implementations that actually drive business value. The era of experimentation is over – we’re in the scaling phase now. And companies that get this right will dominate their industries by 2028. The question is: will your CIO be leading that transformation, or watching from the sidelines?
