The Stakes Rise For The CIO Role In 2026
InformationWeek, Wednesday, January 28th, 2026
Can the CIO job get much bigger? Yes. Pressure is rising for top CIOs as the role expands. Here's what's getting harder in 2026 -- and the few things that may be easier.
CIO Shelley Seewald is overseeing a lead-to-cash initiative at her company, Tungsten Automation. It's a project traditionally led by a chief revenue officer or COO.
Increasingly, however, work like this is falling to CIOs like Seewald, as these enterprise IT leaders find themselves uniquely positioned to combine business acumen with technical expertise.
"I'm able to look at how to use tech to enable the business -- where is AI a good fit, and where we need process change," Seewald said.