CIOs are stressed — and more or less loving it

Comparatively speaking, with three kids under 12 and a passion for flying high on a trapeze, Allegra Driscoll finds there’s not much stress in her role as executive vice president and CTO of Bread Financial.

Driscoll tries to keep her job “in the perspective of overall life,” so it takes a lot to phase her. “Maybe it’s the fact that I have three kids or maybe it’s because I majored in AI before it was cool,” she says, “but I’m energized and excited” about the role.

Of course, for any technology leader, there are definitely those “unexpected bumps in the night” moments, as Driscoll calls them. Across the board, CIOs — especially those who straddle security and technology functions — are on heightened alert as security threats continue to get more sophisticated and prevalent, while also dealing with resiliency risks, the pace of change, the need to continuously innovate, and their evolving roles. But many IT leaders say they thrive on the challenge and that some stress is not such a bad thing.

For Driscoll, the challenge is more about issues that require “the most complicated thinking,” like “laddering up logically to the company that we want to be in the future. And are we on track to achieve the outcomes?” She also looks for “those golden nuggets that can be opportunities to influence that innovation mindset.”

The stress comes from the number of balls in the air rather than the fact that there will be a 3:00 in the morning situation, Driscoll says. Having a significant security incident occur may have been the major stressor once, she says, but “I’m a big believer in distributed decision-making … so then you need to make sure that all of those individual decisions sort of ladder in the right direction.”

Where IT leaders fall on the stress meter

Data from CIO.com’s 2025 State of the CIO report found that on a scale of 1 to 10, 23% of respondents reported a stress level of eight, with the average being 6.8.

Kristie Grinnell, executive vice president and CIO at TD SYNNEX, is very clear that she won’t work at a company looking for someone to keep the status quo. “If you want change. I thrive on that,’’ she says. Yet, at the same time, Grinnell puts her stress level at “probably right up there at an eight or nine.”

Like Driscoll, she says that some CIOs have cyber under their purview, “which immediately creates more stress.” Other stressors are having to drive transformation, keeping the business running, and finding and keeping talent.

Driscoll puts herself at four or five on the stress scale, again, pointing to the ability to keep things in perspective. “Maybe that’s because I have three young children and on a comparative level, I have a lot going on. I’m unlikely to be taking the company … to the hospital for 14 stitches.”

Matt Richard, CIO of Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA), puts his stress level at a six. “I feel like we have a good team in place; we have plans, we have projects that are ongoing and others coming down the pike,’’ he says.

But the “undercurrent of all things” in IT is security and data loss, Richard says.

The AI factor

Not surprisingly AI has upped the ante for stress — or in Richard’s case, concern over the quick adoption of AI tools by end users who may or may not know what to do with them.

“I would say that’s probably the thing I worry about the most. I don’t know that it stresses me out,” but he constantly thinks about what tools employees are using and how they are using them. “We don’t want to suck away all the productivity gains by limiting access to great tools, but at the same time, we don’t want to let people run wild with [personally identifiable information] or data” by tools not managed by IT.

Richard adds that AI also makes it an exciting time to be a CIO because “these new innovations can translate into better interaction between business leaders, my bosses, and our department.”

That said, “Here’s where I think [the job] creates headaches: People pop open ChatGPT, Gemini, or whatever particular flavor tool they like to use most and they trust it at face value,’’ Richard says. They also use AI tools to become citizen developers.

“Where the issues start to arise is either users are leveraging those tools to try to help them be better at using other tools they have, or become more efficient, and they end up breaking something” or getting false positives on results to prompts they give the tools, he says.

Richard has instilled in his staff the mandate that if they are going to use AI tools they need to look at the output with a critical eye, because the tools provide a false sense of security, he says. “Where the headaches arise is people are sharing bad information or not reviewing the content that these tools are creating — or not knowing how to properly prompt these AI tools to get the information they need.”

Is the job still worth it?

Even with all the pressures on CIOs today and the need to wear many hats, most say the job is still worth it. Pressure, it seems, is not always a bad thing.

“I’m still in it, so it must be worth it,’’ Grinnell says. “CIOs have a certain personality; we know you’re not getting into the job and it’ll be smooth sailing. We have to solve a challenge — whatever the challenge is.”

Echoing Driscoll, Grinnell says that whether you’re focused on your organization’s cyber posture or operational debt, or driving huge change, the challenge is exciting and it makes the job “absolutely worth it. … It’s tiring, it’s stressful, but I get up energized every day to go tackle that. That’s who I am.”

Driscoll says she likes pressure and finds her role “worth it more now than ever because the job of CIO and CTO has evolved to where the expectation is you will be responsible for the technology, but also be a core partner in where the business is going. For me, that ability to help drive business outcomes, and shape wherever we go as a company makes my job more exciting and worth it.”

Richard agrees, and says he loves his job because he believes in the union’s mission. The fact that he sits in more meetings than he used to makes the job better, he says.

“It gives you this feeling of okay, the business units that used to consider IT as a back house operational role are starting to see the strategic value that IT plays in all of their departments and all their day to day,” he says. “And in executing the mission of the organization. That gives me some pride in being part of that mission.”