CIO Executive Council

This IDC Connect webinar offered CIOs and digital business leaders an opportunity to discuss critical trends, rising opportunities, and new strategic options essential for making effective decisions over the next five years. The discussion was led by Daniel Saroff, Group Vice President, Consulting and Research, and Mona Liddell, Research Manager, Quantitative Analysis, CIO Executive Research. Together, they encapsulated key elements of the FutureScape report and provided details on what it takes to be a successful ‘Future CIO.’ Daniel and Mona also offered actionable guidance for CIOs as they navigate an increasingly complex landscape, helping them align AI innovation with their broader strategic goals and accelerate technology-driven progress.

This IDC Survey Spotlight, prepared by Mona Liddell, Research Manager, Quantitative Analysis, CIO Executive Research, explores the growing disconnect between organizations’ self-assessed disaster recovery (DR) maturity and their actual ability to recover from ransomware attacks. While a majority of organizations rate their DR efforts as “managed” or “optimized,” the data tells a different story: that many are failing to recover without paying ransoms or are unable to recover data at all. This document uses 2025 data to highlight the critical areas where DR strategies are falling short and provide actionable recommendations for IT leaders looking to close the gap between perception and performance.

In this CIO.com feature, CIO Executive Council member Stephen Dick, VP of Infrastructure Engineering at Paylocity, posits “cutting jobs for AI might boost profits today, but skipping on reskilling people could cost us the future we actually want. We are celebrating the wrong victories.”

This IDC CIO Sentiment Survey presentation, prepared by Mona Liddell, Research Manager, Quantitative Analysis, CIO Executive Research, and Daniel Saroff, Group Vice President Consulting and Research, “examines the evolving role of the CIO and the state of IT organizations worldwide. It offers insights into where leaders are directing resources, how success is being measured, the challenges of scaling emerging technologies, such as generative AI, and the shifting expectations for IT in enabling business outcomes. Key focus areas include investment priorities, future operating models, talent and skills development, and approaches to risk, security, and resilience.”

During this IDC Connect webinar, Ty Tastepe, Chief Digital and Technology Officer, Six Flags Entertainment Corporation, discussed strategies for leading an organization through a technology merger journey, with an emphasis on driving transformation by way of a future-focused technology stack.

This IDC tech leader presentation, prepared by Daniel Saroff, Group Vice President Consulting and Research, ‘examines commonly requested KPIs and the ways in which they can lead an IT department down the wrong path if they are accepted at face value without understanding the factors that affect them.’

This IDC Tech Buyer Survey Spotlight, prepared by Mona Liddell, Research Manager, Quantitative Analysis, CIO Executive Research, “examines the gap between stated IT priorities and actual investment patterns, based on data from IDC’s 2025 CIO Sentiment Survey. While AI remains firmly on the rise, other forms of innovation show signs of slowing. The findings highlight the risk that non-AI innovation may not receive the consistent resources needed to turn stated priorities into meaningful results.”

During this 30-minute interactive session, Thomas Shuster, Research Director, Worldwide Capital Markets, Wealth, and Digital Asset Strategies, IDC explained the ways in which leadership teams should monitor regulatory developments closely, assess which parts of their operations could benefit from stablecoin-enabled efficiencies, and explore partnerships with trusted providers to lay the groundwork for adoption.

‘Be Brief. Be Bold. Be Gone!’

This quote can be attributed to numerous luminaries and was quite a hit when voiced during the CIO Executive Council Summit West in San Carlos, CA. The words certainly resonated with a CEC members and analysts alike and perfectly summed up the point IDC Adjunct Research Advisor, Niel Nickolaisen, was making during his presentation on Strategic Management of Stakeholder Engagement.

This IDC presentation, prepared by Teodora Snoddy, Research Manager, C-Suite Tech Agenda, uses data from IDC’s CIO Quick Poll to explore the challenges CIOs are facing when trying to implement AI across the business. The objective of this presentation is to showcase the key findings from the poll and highlight crucial insights from the IDC analyst team.

During this session, Gina Smith, PhD, Research Director – IT Skills for Digital Business, IDC provided data and updates on the persistent challenge of aligning the right people with the right skills to the right roles amid widening IT skills shortages. Gina also highlighted the latest skilling trends and best practices to keep employees abreast of new and emerging technologies.