Most CEOs think their CIOs lack AI savviness

More than half of all CEOs don’t have faith that their CIOs have enough AI expertise to meet their organizations’ short-term needs, raising serious questions about CIO job security and enterprise ability to execute AI priorities.

Just 44% of CEOs believe their CIOs are savvy enough to guide their organizations to meet their organizations’ AI needs through 2026, according to a survey conducted by Gartner in the second half of 2024. Just 40% of CEOs see their chief data officers as AI savvy, and fewer than 20% believe in the AI expertise of most other C-suite executives.

Another recent survey found that most CEOs believe AI can provide better business advice than members of their boards of directors or other company executives, raising questions about whether they have swallowed the AI hype.

It’s unclear, however, what factors are driving the doubt about CIO and CDO expertise, says Jennifer Carter, an analyst at Gartner, but CEOs see AI as a transformational technology, not just another IT tool.

If the CEO concerns are justified, their organizations have real problems to fix, she says, because a lack of AI expertise in the C-suite can leave an enterprise with a huge competitive disadvantage.

“We find that technology and AI savviness augments executive strategic decision-making and helps them identify opportunities for innovation, optimize operations, mitigate risks with business disruptions,” Carter says. “If an executive is AI savvy, they can help defend the enterprise against vendor-driven hype, and they can see through what really is important for the organization to focus on.”

Who’s responsible for training?

The survey results should also spark discussions about training and upskilling, Carter says.

“The finding really begs the question of whether or not their perception of the AI savviness is actually justified, and whether or not it’s accurate,” she explains. “If it is the case that there truly is a lack of AI savviness within the senior most technology ranks, then what is it going to take to improve that AI knowledge? What do technology leaders need to do?”

A lack of AI expertise in CIOs and other C-suite leaders can be both an organizational and an individual problem, Carter says. Both the CIO and the company bear responsibility for fixing the problem.

“It should be a group effort,” she says. “At the end of the day, if all these organizations are adopting these mass amounts of advanced technologies, it’s up to everyone to take that initiative, to pursue the continuous education and to pursue cross-functional collaboration opportunities, mentorship, and networking.”

A separate 2024 C-suite survey from IBM found that only 36% of executives, including CIOs, believe their IT organizations are delivering basic services effectively.

CEOs’ fear of missing out

While Carter sees Gartner’s survey results as a call for upskilling, some IT leaders suggest that miscommunication or misunderstandings about current AI capabilities may cause some doubt about CIO expertise.

Many CEOs see the hype about AI but don’t understand the on-the-ground realities of making it work, says Boris Kolev, global CIO at youth training organization JA Worldwide. CEOs sometimes push to implement AI tools that aren’t yet useful because of a fear of falling behind, he adds.

“Often, the CEO is going to conferences and events where AI is a topic and speaks with some lecturers and presenters who explain how AI is very easy to implement and is very powerful,” he says. “But when it comes to data security, cost, privacy, compliance, protecting company data, etc., things are very complicated, and CEOs don’t go that deep.”

In many cases, there’s a gap between CEO expectations and CIO delivery of AI solutions, adds Yvette Schmitter, cofounder and CEO of IT consulting firm Fusion Collective. Most CIOs and CDOs understand the technology better than CEOs, who are often “dazzled by parlor tricks” from AI vendors, she says.

“The perceived lack of faith in CIOs and CDOs isn’t about expertise deficiency — it’s about a fundamental disconnect between CEO expectations and organizational realities,” she says. “CEOs are being bombarded with AI hype and vaporware vendor promises without fully understanding the complex infrastructure, governance, and security challenges that must be addressed first.”

Schmitter points to stories about customer-service chatbots going off script and AI-related security breaches as evidence that CIOs should be cautious when rolling out new AI tools.

“What looks like hesitation to CEOs is actually responsible caution from technology leaders who see the complete picture,” she says. “The truth is, CIOs aren’t moving too slowly — they’re moving deliberately to prevent their organizations from becoming another cautionary tale.”

This difference between CEO expectations and deployment realities can raise unwarranted questions about CIO expertise, adds Ronnie Pisani, CIO at NinjaCat, an AI vendor focused on marketing solutions.

“There’s a massive difference between what’s technically possible with AI and what’s practical to deploy in a complex enterprise environment today,” he says. “Many CEOs are absorbing headline-level narratives, while CIOs are in the trenches dealing with siloed data, legacy systems, and real-world constraints.”

The disconnect between CEOs and CIOs isn’t about knowledge, but mismatched timelines, Pisani adds. “Real transformation takes groundwork and patience,” he adds. “It’s not always flashy and doesn’t make headlines, but it’s the foundational work that makes the big leaps possible.”

Linking AI to business growth

Beyond implementation timelines, much of the problem comes from a lack of business translation, adds Assaf Melochna, president and cofounder of AI platform Aquant.

“Most CIOs and CDOs know the tech; they understand models, data pipelines, and infrastructure,” he says. “But CEOs don’t want a lesson in AI. They want to know how it drives growth.”

CIOs and CDOs need to rethink their roles because of the pace of change in the AI ecosystem, and they should focus more on being product owners and business strategists, instead of IT implementers, Melochna says.

“In today’s climate, the pace is unforgiving; by the time you master one breakthrough, two more have arrived,” he adds. “CEOs need technology executives in tune with the market like never before, just to maintain a stable view of what AI can bring to their company. That’s what earns trust.”