Building AI That Works: What CIOs and CTOs Know About Turning Pilots Into Productivity

It’s no exaggeration to say generative and agentic AI have stormed into the boardroom. According to recent research, only 11% of CIOs have fully implemented AI, despite the majority acknowledging its potential to enhance their business operations. The paradox — lots of hype, little adoption — is becoming impossible to ignore. Now, as the hype around agentic AI continues to grow, leaders are taking a closer look at how they can drive ROI with AI.

Our team wanted to get at the root of what IT leaders are thinking, so we surveyed CIOs and CTOs from around the globe. What we found was fascinating: 84% of IT leaders believe automation (the structured, governed execution of repetitive business processes that can be optimized to run without human intervention) must come first if AI is to succeed. Those with mature automation programs were more than twice as likely to describe their AI initiatives as transformational compared to peers still in the early stages.

For IT leaders, this is not a debate about hype cycles — it’s the daily reality of managing workflows, systems, and data. They see clearly where pilots fail and what it takes to turn them into platforms.

Automation, Governance, and a Single Platform – A Recipe for AI ROI

CIOs and CTOs around the globe are consistent in their thinking: 71% say that AI delivers the best outcomes when built on a foundation of automation. And among IT leaders with advanced automation programs, more than half report significant or transformational results from AI. By contrast, organizations still in the early stages of automation remain largely stuck in experimentation. This gap underscores why 84% of CIOs and CTOs say automation is a necessary first step before deploying AI.

Governance also emerged as a defining theme. Forty percent of IT leaders now report that compliance and auditability are tracked alongside ROI and productivity — elevating governance from a “necessary evil” to a core success metric. This reflects a major mindset shift: CIOs increasingly view guardrails as accelerators of scale, not barriers to it.

Finally, CIOs are sounding the alarm on the need for structured processes and data. For those who have successfully implemented AI, 53% cited having access to high-quality and accessible data as the biggest factor. That was followed by one-third citing strong automation and orchestration capabilities as positive enablers to AI implementation.

Taken together, these findings highlight a fundamental mindset shift: for IT leaders, the future of AI isn’t about the next model or tool, but about the architectures that make those technologies sustainable at scale.

Also Read: CIO Influence Interview With Jake Mosey, Chief Product Officer at Recast

The IT Leader Mandate

So, what can CIOs and CTOs do? It’s clear that they are the stewards of the systems, data, and processes that determine whether AI will generate lasting impact or stall as another failed experiment. The mandate for IT leaders is not simply to deploy AI, but to architect the environment in which it can thrive.

That environment must start with standardized processes and clean data pipelines, ensuring that AI operates on reliable foundations. It must also include process orchestration, not just integration — moving away from brittle point-to-point connections and toward unified platforms that connect humans, systems, and AI agents seamlessly. And finally, it must embed governance into the very fabric of business orchestration, creating a layer of trust that allows AI to scale across business units without exposing the enterprise to undue risk.

Based on these insights, CIOs and CTOs consistently point to three imperatives:

1. Standardize before you scale. AI magnifies inefficiencies if it’s layered onto messy processes. Start by mapping processes, automating workflows, and improving data quality so that AI has a stable foundation.
2. Orchestrate workflows and systems, don’t just integrate. Point-to-point integrations create brittle systems. IT leaders recommend moving to a single, orchestrated platform that unifies workflows end-to-end and allows AI to adapt as conditions change.
3. Embed governance into the stack. Automation should carry policies, auditability, and compliance into every workflow. This builds trust among stakeholders and accelerates adoption.

CIOs also stress the importance of investing in people. Upskilling teams in automation and AI literacy often delivers more durable results than chasing scarce outside talent. And aligning projects directly to business KPIs — cycle times, margins, risk reduction — ensures that technical success translates into executive support.

The message from IT leaders is clear: AI alone may bring speed, but AI and automation together bring value. As AI and automation work together, IT leaders will begin to see the value of automation’s next evolution, agentic business orchestration, which brings people, processes, systems, automation, and AI together in a single, governed platform to drive measurable impact across an organization.

For boards and CEOs, this may sound like caution. For IT leaders, it is simply the architecture of business transformation.