As boards push for AI wins, CIOs are studying that attempting to shoulder each accountability themselves is a quick path to burnout.
Nina Tatsiy, CIO at Quadient, confronted that actuality after taking the highest expertise position final 12 months on the enterprise automation software program supplier.
“I noticed once I began the job, I used to be working 20 hours a day … as a result of I wished to do all of it, together with AI,” Tatsiy instructed InformationWeek. “It is, after all, not sustainable.”
Burnout in IT management shouldn’t be new. The CISO position, for instance, has lengthy carried that danger; based on Proofpoint’s 2025 Voice of the CISO report, 63% of the responding CISOs stated they skilled or noticed burnout throughout the earlier 12 months.
As CIOs grapple with the calls for of AI adoption and AI’s speedy evolution, they could face related dangers.
CIOs beneath stress
CIOs are typically keen about new expertise, however AI — arguably the closest that expertise has come to mimicking human intelligence — brings a singular set of challenges:
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A nonetheless unclear path to ROI after thousands and thousands to billions spent by firms.
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Stakeholder expectations for enterprise transformation by way of AI.
IBM’s 2026 Tech Chief Research elucidates the stress that CIOs face as they try to steer AI from pilot initiatives to enterprise-wide manufacturing. Simply 11% of the two,000 C-suite expertise leaders surveyed stated that they’re ready for the AI agent deployment deliberate over the following 12 months. Plus, 77% of organizations surveyed reported that governance is lagging. Regardless of not having full management over techniques, two-thirds of expertise leaders stated they’re chargeable for the outcomes of these techniques.
After which there may be the monetary aspect of CIO management. AI spending is ballooning, but 84% of expertise leaders surveyed by IBM stated they haven’t totally operationalized AI monetary administration, and 85% stated they don’t have full visibility into real-time spending on AI.
The trail to burnout
Within the race to embrace AI, CIOs could also be pushing themselves and their groups laborious, however Jean-Philippe Avelange, CIO at managed community companies supplier Expereo, chalks up the chance to a problem that extends past workload points.
“There’s a variety of work that may be carried out — however that is not what burns out an IT division or CIOs,” he stated. “It is the mismatch with the expectations.”
If the hole between what boards and C-suites anticipate from CIOs and actuality can’t be bridged, the chance of burnout is excessive, he stated.
He stated CIO burnout has a multiplier impact throughout the group. Burnt-out staff frightened about their jobs being reshaped — or eradicated — by AI could make it tough for the group to understand the advantages of the expertise.
“FOBO — the concern of changing into out of date — is now a part of the office jargon,” stated Stacey Cadigan, accomplice at Data Providers Group, noting that the anxiousness threatens to erode the features organizations wish to obtain with AI.
“The anticipated productiveness enhancements is perhaps unattainable to realize if the workforce is disengaged, shaken and depleted by the transition to AI,” she stated.
A route to success as a substitute of AI oblivion
In response to Tatsiy, CIOs ought to embrace the truth that they can not repair each concern that arises as their organizations work to take advantage of out of AI.
“You may not study all of it, and you shouldn’t study all of it. You need to … protect your expertise as a human managing this house,” she stated.
Comfortable expertise: “Creativity, understanding individuals and understanding enterprise aims is way extra essential for the CIOs I feel, than understanding each nitty-gritty [detail] of the expertise on the market,” Tatsiy stated.
New crew constructions and upskilling: So as to meet the brand new calls for on IT, Tatsiy really helpful CIOs concentrate on upskilling present crew members and making strategic hires, noting that CIOs “positively have to vary the form and construction of the crew to accommodate this shift in expertise and the methods of working.”
Handle expectations: As CIOs construct their groups and work out be these brokers of change inside their enterprises, they might want to discover methods to speak with different executives and their boards in regards to the strategic choices they make.
“CIOs have to handle expectations, reasonably than attempting to run behind attempting to ship and to please everybody,” Avelange stated.
Everybody wants a stress reduction valve
As all-consuming as AI could be, “all work, on a regular basis” is unsustainable. If CIOs are going to keep away from burning out now or later, they should carve out time for different features of their lives.
“I would like to seek out that one hour a day once I’m not enthusiastic about work, which may be very laborious,” Tatsiy stated. “Train or go for a stroll … in any other case, you’ll not be actually helpful to your self or your loved ones or work.”
CIOs can higher handle the chance of burnout by surrounding themselves with the best individuals and prioritizing their time, however in addition they want structural assist from their enterprises.
“The organizations that basically are going to scale back a number of the management fatigue and most successfully be capable of tackle a number of the burnout are those that may actually spend money on redesigning their AI governance,” Cadigan stated. Shared accountability for AI outcomes and early critiques of working fashions could be more practical than continuously placing stress on CIOs alone.
