Beyond The Stopwatch: Global CIOs Pivot From AI Productivity To Innovation
Techstrong.ai, Monday, March 9th, 2026
The era of doing things faster is officially giving way to an era of doing things differently.
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.'