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Priorities for CIOs: 2026 AI and Digital Trends

What CIOs Must Get Right Before AI Can Scale

Technology leaders, including CIOs, are facing heightened expectations to translate momentum into measurable value. Key takeaways from Adobe’s 2026 AI and Digital Trends report define that path forward. Discover how to prepare your data, teams, and systems for what comes next.

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Section 1

Preparing Your Data for Agentic AI

Section 2

Turning AI Adoption into an Enterprise Advantage

Section 3

Creating AI-Powered Experiences Customers Can Trust

Section 4

The Bottom Line for CIOs

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How Technology Leaders Are Empowering Data, Talent, and Governance

AI is reshaping operations faster than organizations can keep up. Technology leaders — from chief data officers to CIOs and CTOs — are under pressure to get the fundamentals right. That means building the data infrastructure AI requires, preparing workforces for roles that are changing in real time, and scaling AI in ways that are secure and trusted. This overview distills the Adobe 2026 AI and Digital Trends findings into three critical areas for the CIO to prioritize: data readiness, change management, and enterprise-level security.

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Section 1

Preparing Your Data for Agentic AI

Scaling AI-driven experiences requires a foundation of high-quality, connected data — yet many organizations are not ready. Organizations that act now to unify data infrastructure and modernize content operations will have a structural advantage as agentic AI matures.

Technology leaders are investing in AI for strategic differentiation, not just operational efficiency.
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60% of technology leaders believe agentic AI will help their org focus more on strategy and creative opportunities.
believe agentic AI will enable their organization to focus more on strategy and creative opportunities.
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Technology leaders rank their organization's top goals for AI investment over the next 18 months.
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Top AI investment goals — Personalization 65%, Customer satisfaction 54%, Automation 41%, Cost savings 28%
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The gap between AI ambition and AI readiness is widening, and data is the main bottleneck.
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37% say their organization's data quality and accessibility are adequate for AI say their organization’s data quality and accessibility are adequate for AI.
78% cite data integration and quality as a top challenge to implementing agentic AI cite data integration and quality as a top challenge to implementing agentic AI.
52% say limited data unification and structure are holding back their AI initiatives say limited data unification and structure are holding back their AI initiative.
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Shared data platforms and interoperability are critical for AI readiness but are still out of reach for most organizations.
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33% have a shared customer data platform capable of supporting agentic AI

33% have a shared customer data platform capable of supporting agentic AI.

42% cite technology infrastructure limitations as a top barrier to agentic AI implementation

42% cite technology infrastructure limitations as a top barrier to agentic AI implementation.

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Section 2

Turning AI Adoption into an Enterprise Advantage

As organizations scale generative and agentic AI across marketing and creative workflows, the rate of AI adoption is outpacing workforce readiness. The brands that treat upskilling as a strategic investment will be better equipped to move beyond AI pilots to organization-wide deployment.

For technology leaders, workforce readiness is one of the biggest barriers standing between AI investment and AI returns.
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44% say employees are comfortable using AI in their roles
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47% say AI is changing roles and workflows faster than employees can adapt
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57% say employees who do not embrace AI will fall behind in their roles
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71% cite talent and skills gaps as a major challenge for agentic AI
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Yet few are investing in the training and upskilling programs needed to successfully scale AI.
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44% have sufficient AI training and upskilling programs have sufficient AI training and upskilling programs.

50% have employee training programs to build generative AI skills

have employee training programs to build generative AI skills.

30% have training in place for agentic AI

have training in place for agentic AI.

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Even as workforce readiness lags, organizations are pressing forward with AI deployment across key marketing and creative workflows.
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Bar chart comparing Generative AI vs. Agentic AI adoption by use case. Marketing content creation leads (45% / 22%), followed by Brand discovery (34% / 19%), Sales assistance (33% / 23%), Personalization (32% / 17%), Knowledge management (32% / 26%), Digital experience (29% / 25%), and Creative thinking (20% / 16%)
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Despite adoption progress by technology leaders, there is still significant room for AI to streamline end-to-end operations.
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68% expect agentic AI to assist employees with research insights or knowledge retrieval
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65% expect agentic AI to automate routine customer service tasks
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53% expect agentic AI to support marketing with campaign orchestration
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Section 3

Creating AI-Powered Experiences Customers Can Trust

As agentic AI moves to the forefront of customer experience, the CIO’s role will need to expand from systems management to enterprise-wide AI stewardship. Brands that translate governance policies into consistent practice will be able to deliver AI-driven experiences that customers trust.

Agentic AI is set to become the front line of customer engagement.
Technology leaders expect agentic AI to play an increasingly large role in customer interactions.
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76% anticipate at least half of customer support interactions will be handled directly by agentic AI within the next 18 months anticipate that at least half of customer support interactions will be handled directly by agentic AI within the next 18 months.
63% say the same for conversational customer engagement say the same for conversational customer engagement.
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Brands are rethinking discovery, relevance, and interactions for an AI-powered customer experience environment.
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70% of technology leaders say AI-powered conversational platforms are important for their brand’s relevance
of technology leaders say AI-powered conversational platforms are important for their brand’s relevance.
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51% are preparing to optimize content for AI-powered discovery tools
are preparing to optimize content for AI-powered discovery tools.
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40% plan to design distinctive AI agent personalities for different audiences
plan to design distinctive AI agent personalities for different audiences.
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60% of technology leaders say their organization has strong AI governance policies in place
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45% believe these AI governance policies are routinely followed
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67% of technology leaders say their organization has security and privacy controls in place for its AI tools
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47% are concerned customers will be highly critical or suspicious of their brand's use of AI
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Section 4

The Bottom Line for CIOs

The path forward requires a strategic move from AI experimentation to customer experience orchestration.
CIOs who connect data, invest in talent, and scale responsibly will turn AI investments into real value. For CIOs to move from ambition to execution, three priorities need to be met:
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Build the data foundation first.

Prioritize platform consolidation and data unification before expanding agentic AI deployments.

Prepare your workforce.

Accelerate AI training and upskilling programs to ensure employees operate comfortably and effectively alongside AI agents.

Govern AI as a business-critical function.

Establish clear accountability structures to turn strong governance policies into consistent action.

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View more insights from the 2026 AI and Digital Trends research.

Learn more

Appendix

Research Methodology

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For Adobe’s 16th annual AI and Digital Trends research, Oxford Economics, in partnership with Adobe, conducted global surveys of 3,000 executives and practitioners and 4,000 customers to better understand how organizations are leveraging AI to capture customer interest, build brand loyalty, and augment customer experience (CX) workflows — and how customers are responding to these changes. The surveys were fielded online and via computer-assisted telephonic interviewing (CATI) from October through November 2025. “Technology leaders” refers to a global set of chief information officers, chief technology officers, chief digital officers, chief data officers, and chief innovation officers. This group makes up 8% of our business survey respondents and represents a wide range of industries and business sizes.

View the Adobe 2026 AI and Digital Trends report for more on the full research methodology.

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Title
Discover the AI trends shaping priorities for CIOs.
cardDate
2026-06-11
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CardDescription
The Adobe 2026 AI and Digital Trends report reveals the ways technology leaders are rebuilding operations for the AI era.
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caas:content-type/report, caas:topic/thought-leadership, caas:topic/digital-trends, caas:role/cio