This year’s TBM Conference made one point hard to miss: the CIO role is shifting. Leaders are being asked to bring financial clarity, take broader accountability, and use AI in practical ways that move the business forward. CIOs who rely on instinct, spreadsheets, or old communication habits will fall behind those who adapt.
In conversations with Ajay Patel, General Manager, Apptio & IBM IT Automation; Bill Lobig, Vice President, IBM Apptio; and Chris Pick, a Founding TBM Council member and Smartsheet CMO, one theme emerged clearly. CIOs are being pushed to lead, communicate, and operate in new ways because their CEOs expect more precision and clearer results.
CEOs Are Losing Confidence, and CIOs Need to Respond
One analyst briefing session showed a clear tension: 75% of CEOs expect to increase IT spend, yet 64% say they’re not comfortable making technology investment decisions.
The CIO sits in the middle of this gap.
CEOs aren’t seeing the returns they expect from their technology spend. Analysts pointed to what economist Howard Rubin calls the industry’s “inconvenient truth”: even as technology budgets rise, ROI isn’t improving.
That puts pressure on the CIO to justify value, not just defend spend.
Ajay Patel: CIOs Need to Be Strong Financial Storytellers
Ajay Patel didn’t hold back when discussing the gap he still sees in IT leadership. Many CIOs were never taught the basics of financial communication, yet the business expects them to speak in terms of value, risk, and return.
“No one teaches you this stuff in technology,” he said.
CIOs who can’t connect technology initiatives to business outcomes risk losing credibility and, in some cases, their roles. Patel emphasized clarity and simplification:
Leaders must “synthesize very complex topics into simple, relatable terms that people can appreciate and value.”
This isn’t about oversimplifying. It’s about showing command of the business. The CIOs who do this well are becoming essential partners to their executive peers.
The Scope of Responsibility Is Expanding Fast
One of the most important insights from the TBM Council briefing was that cloud cost management represents only about 25% of the total cost of technology initiatives. The other 75% includes labor, contracts, cybersecurity, operations, and facilities.
For CIOs, that means understanding the economics of the entire digital enterprise, not just cloud consumption.
Bill Lobig: TBM Is Shifting Into Enterprise Business Management
Bill Lobig sees this shift up close. As CIOs face growing pressure to provide business-ready financial insights, TBM is expanding beyond IT. His team refers to this as Enterprise Business Management (EBM), a broader view of the economic footprint of technology.
As he explained, “Total costs, not just technology costs.”
That includes the cloud bill, the building it runs in, facilities, operational technology, and the full lifecycle of assets.
The challenge isn’t the tools. It’s culture, alignment, and shared language.
“Technology is never the hard part… It’s the culture and getting people to accept it and understand it and share a common language.”
One habit stands out:
“Spreadsheets and instinct and intuition versus data and facts.”
Lobig’s message reinforces a larger shift: CIOs are moving from managing budgets to managing outcomes.
AI Will Widen the Gap Between Leading and Lagging CIOs
If Patel raised the urgency and Lobig defined the new model, Chris Pick explained what will accelerate the gap between leading CIOs and everyone else: AI.
Pick described how many organizations still rely heavily on spreadsheets and historical intuition. He recalled asking a peer:
“Would you run a business if it was 2 million to spend off a spreadsheet?”
AI is pushing companies to rethink more than tools. It’s reshaping talent needs, team structures, and operating rhythms.
Pick new hires for curiosity above everything else.
“Curiosity… that’s my point.”
AI-driven organizations will value experimentation, straightforward thinking, and speed. Teams that lack this mindset will struggle to keep up.
Pick warned that many CIOs still move too slowly:
“If they can’t keep pace, which most don’t, then the CMOs are going to move aggressively.”
The business will not wait for IT to modernize.
How CIOs Need to Lead Going Forward
The perspectives from Patel, Lobig, and Pick, along with broader analyst context, outline what’s ahead.
Financial fluency is essential. CIOs must explain investments in the same language CFOs and CEOs use.
Visibility must extend across the full technology spend. Not just cloud, not just IT, but the complete economic footprint.
Enterprise Business Management is replacing isolated cost tracking. CIOs must understand how technology affects the entire organization.
AI will reward CIOs who rethink skills and workflows. It will also expose teams that rely on instinct or legacy processes.
The Wrap
Across interviews and briefings, the message was consistent. CIOs who continue to make decisions based on intuition, anecdote, or spreadsheets are already falling behind.
Tomorrow’s IT leaders will stand out because they can:
- communicate financial value clearly,
- partner across the business with confidence,
- manage technology as an enterprise-wide economic engine, and
- guide their organizations into an AI-enabled future with curiosity and discipline.
This year’s TBM Conference showed that the shift is already underway.
The leaders who adapt will shape the next decade of enterprise technology. Those who don’t will watch that future unfold without them.
