7 projects top of mind for IT leaders today
CIOs are remaking IT itself — abandoning 40 years of enterprise playbooks to ship hundreds of small agents and apps instead of a handful of big systems.
Why it matters
AI adoption has moved from pilot to operational priority across enterprises, forcing IT leaders to rebuild processes, governance, and team structures around agentic work. This is no longer about bolting AI onto legacy systems — it's about transforming how IT operates and how workers interact with autonomous systems.
The key facts
16 to know39% of CIOs cite 'accelerating AI-driven innovation' as top business initiative (CIO.com 2026 State of the CIO Study)
63% of CIOs list 'improving processes' as goal when operationalizing AI (Gartner research)
AI adoption barriers: employees lack incentive, fear AI, require training and change management
Conneen (Finance of America) building dedicated IT platform for agent deployments to avoid fragmented AI services
Dewey's 45-day sprint stood up new infrastructure for 'small agents and apps' — portfolio shift from 'large, expensive slow-moving' to 'small, cheap fast-moving'
DaVita deploying ambient listening agents, risk-identification models, and AI-augmented EMR; implemented Glean enterprise search platform
BILL prioritizing 'AI-native' culture with dashboards measuring employee AI tool usage and skill progression
Schneider Electric focusing on data transformation and rethinking IT career paths to attract talent for agentic era
39% of CIOs cite accelerating AI-driven innovation as top business initiative (CIO.com 2026 State of the CIO Study)
63% of CIOs list improving processes as goal when operationalizing AI (Gartner)
DaVita deploying ambient listening and risk-identification agents in clinical workflows
Finance of America CIO building dedicated IT platform for agent deployments to ensure alignment and prevent fragmented AI services
BILL measuring not just whether employees use AI tools, but HOW they use them—shift from adoption metrics to skill metrics
Boston-area CIO redesigning IT department to handle 'hundreds of small things' (agents/apps) rather than 'large, expensive slow-moving' legacy systems; 45-day sprint proof-of-concept with Claude prototypes
AI adoption faces change-management resistance; CIOs using dashboards, training, and champion groups to drive uptake
Esri using AI in contract review (standard vs. heavy-touch human review) and sales account orchestration
Go to the source
CIOcio.com
Publisher excerpt: As CIO of DaVita, Madhu Narasimhan drives IT priorities that align with the business mission. For the healthcare company, that means providing kidney dialysis and other services for patients with chronic kidney failure and renal disease. “We’re being super intentional on how we bring in technology.…