CIO insights
The Chief Information Officer (CIO) plays a crucial and complicated role in today’s enterprises. Read insights on how to balance innovation with practicality; the power of big data with customer privacy; and the opportunities of new tech with its accompanying risks.
Insights
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From Volatility To Chaos: Navigating Wartime Impacts For Tech Leaders
Leading Through War-Driven Chaos The last few years have been defined by compounding uncertainty. From the COVID‑19 pandemic to the 2025 US tariff escalations, along with the ongoing war in Ukraine now entering its fourth year, enterprise leaders have had to navigate relentless geopolitical and economic pressure. These shocks forced organizations to strengthen their scenario […]
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When Code Is Free, What’s Left To Sell?
As code becomes cheap and abundant, software vendors must rethink what customers actually pay for. Durable differentiation shifts from features to outcomes, expertise, and trust.
AI Isn’t A Hardware Contest — It’s A Human Test
Most orgs get less than 50% ROI on AI. See how people, skills, operating models, and culture — not more tech — unlock the value your AI investments are missing.
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When The Cloud Comes To Town: How Energy, Communities, And Accountability Need A Rethink
The rapid expansion of AI-driven data centers transforms what once seemed like invisible, back-end digital infrastructure into a highly visible, very localized challenge. According to Forrester’s US Tech Market Forecast, 2025 To 2030, AI could add 1.3 to 1.7 gigatons of carbon emissions annually, equivalent to 2–3% of global emissions. Additionally, global data center demand […]
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Agentic Software Development: Defining The Next Phase Of AI‑Driven Engineering Tools
GenAI is already reshaping software development — but not primarily through chatbots or code autocomplete. The most consequential shift is the emergence of agentic software development (ASD): a new way of building software in which AI systems do real development work, not just assist humans. ASD deserves to be treated as a distinct category, with […]
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Which Technology Service Providers Are Strategic To The Enterprise?
For the first time, we reveal what 2,078 enterprise services decision-makers have to say about their strategic partners. But first, some groundwork. After a reset in revenue expectations last year, service providers are back on a slow growth trajectory. Why? Because companies need more help than ever. Services are a huge part of most IT […]
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US Tariff Tumult Reinforces The Need For Always-On Scenario Planning For Executives
Amid quickly changing policy, the takeaway lesson for executive leaders is this: If you aren’t leveraging a robust scenario planning discipline, now is the time to get started in earnest.
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How CIOs Connect Security, Cost, And Value To The Board
What CIOs are working on, Part 4 of 4 Over the past six months of guidance kickoff conversations with CIOs and CTOs, security, cost, and value almost always surface as top-priority initiatives. Leaders know that boards and executive committees care deeply about resilience, regulatory exposure, and technology spend, yet they often lack a simple, credible […]
Predictions 2026: Your Planning Starts Here
2026 will demand proof, not promises. Explore Forrester’s Predictions resources — guides, webinars, and blogs — to plan smarter, lead with trust, and stay ahead of disruption.
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What CIOs Are Doing To Evolve Operating Models And Talent
Many organizations run on hybrid models that were never intentionally designed. Here are three patterns that emerge in conversations with CIOs on how they plan to move toward something better.
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Hello Again! Bhusri Is Back Behind The Workday Wheel
What We Know Workday just announced its new CEO, and, well, he isn’t really new at all. Aneel Bhusri is returning as CEO after two years as executive chair. The move follows a turbulent period for enterprise SaaS stocks, with Workday shares down more than 20% year-to-date (2026) and significantly declining since the start of 2025, […]
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Data Centers, Semiconductors, And Sovereignty: The Upcoming AI Divide
What Is The AI Divide In Data Centers, Semiconductors, And Sovereignty? The AI divide represents a strategic inflection point for global business. Those without these resources will fall behind, not just technologically but competitively. Productivity, customer engagement, and decision-making is widening across industries and geographies, creating systemic issues for companies that fail to invest, such as: […]
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US Insurance Tech Spending 2026: From Modernization To Intelligence
Forrester projects that industry technology spending will increase by $173 billion in 2026 — up 7.8% relative to last year. For insurers, technology is no longer only about modernization; it’s about intelligence, efficiency, and differentiation.
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Takeaways From The Future Of Software Development Retreat: Just Because You Can Doesn’t Mean You’re Ready To
I had the pleasure of attending an intimate conference of software gurus, creators, and practitioners, including some of the people who invented object-oriented design and agile development. The Chatham House Rule prevents me from disclosing companies and names, but think of the biggest tech companies, Fortune 1000 brands, and famous authors of seminal software development […]
Now On Demand: 2026 Tech And Security Predictions
Missed it live? Watch our on-demand webinar to explore our 2026 predictions. Learn what tech and security leaders must do to lead with trust and value.
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How CIOs Are Strengthening Data And AI Foundations
What CIOs are working on, Part 2 of 4 In Part 1 of this series, I focused on core modernization. In this post, I turn to the data and AI initiatives that emerged from those same 30-plus conversations with CIOs and CTOs. Many organizations can point to their data lakes and warehouses but struggle to […]
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What CIOs Are Doing To Modernize Fragile Cores
What CIOs are working on, Part 1 of 4 Over the past six months, I’ve run guidance kickoffs with CIOs and CTOs across financial services, insurance, government, higher education, travel, and manufacturing in Europe and APAC. These are working sessions where we learn the organization’s context, constraints, and challenges, then agree on a practical action […]
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The CIO’s Guide To AI Readiness
To deploy AI safely and profitably at scale, CIOs must cut through AI hype and focus on IT capability maturity. Learn how in this preview of a new report.
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How AI Raises The Stakes For CMO-CIO Collaboration
Marketing and technology have never been more intertwined, yet effective collaboration between these functions remains elusive for many organizations. As AI accelerates transformation across workflows, this misalignment can become a liability. While collaboration improved during the pandemic, progress has stalled due to lack of goal alignment, communication failures, and conflicting priorities and budgets. GenAI And […]
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Why Business Capabilities Are Your Secret Weapon For IT Cost Optimization
Most CIOs face mounting cost pressure, driven by the business. Forrester’s Business And Technology Services Survey, 2025, found that 48% of business leaders rank cost reduction as a top priority. Many organizations have already chased quick savings: 76% have renegotiated vendor contracts, yet the strain persists. In the same survey, 22% still report insufficient budget […]
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Verizon Outage Reignites Reliability Concerns
On January 14, Verizon experienced a major nationwide cellular service disruption that left subscribers across the country facing significant connectivity issues. Although outage report numbers climbed into the hundreds of thousands, this visible count represents only a small portion of the true impact. As is typical in large‑scale outages, many customers who encountered problems never […]
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Digital Sovereignty: Why Tech Execs Must Act Now
As global tensions continue to rise and cloud adoption accelerates, digital sovereignty has become a board-level topic. Tech execs must now modernize infrastructure, protect autonomy, ensure compliance, and manage geopolitical risk at the same time. As we outlined in a recent report, 2025 showed a clear trend: Digital sovereignty is reshaping public cloud strategy across […]
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VMware Migration Checklist: A Practical Way To Plan And Track
VMware migrations are no longer a theoretical exercise. Infrastructure and operations leaders are actively reassessing their VMware environments, driven by cost pressure, licensing uncertainty, and broader platform modernization goals. Learn how Forrester’s new VMware Migration Checklist can bring structure to your VMware migration approach.
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