우동 브랜드 마루가메제면 등을 운영하는 일본 외식 기업 트리도르홀딩스는 글로벌 시장 확장을 목표로 디지털과 IT 기반의 경영 혁신에 속도를 내고 있다. 이 과정에서 시스템 전면 현대화와 조직 개편, SaaS·AI 활용까지 직접 이끌어 온 CIO 이소무라 야스노리(磯村康典)가 벤더 경험과 경영 시각을 바탕으로 변화에 강한 기업 기반을 구축하는 전략과 철학을 제시했다.

Q(CIO재팬) : 지금까지의 경력에 대해 설명해 달라.
A(이소무라 야스노리) : 커리어는 후지쓰에서 시작했다. 약 7년 동안 주로 공공 부문 시스템을 담당하는 시스템 엔지니어로 일하며 현장에서 기술 역량을 다져왔다.

이후 2000년 소프트뱅크(현 소프트뱅크그룹)로 이직했다. 당시 손정의 회장이 “앞으로는 인터넷 시대”라고 강조하던 시기로, 사내에서는 인터넷 관련 벤처가 잇따라 출범하고 있었다. 그중 하나가 전자상거래 사업으로, 현재의 세븐넷쇼핑이다. 나는 시스템 책임자로 사업 출범에 참여해 약 8년 동안 사업 성장을 뒷받침하는 역할을 맡았다.

다음으로 도전한 곳은 외식 IT 벤처 갈프넷이다. 트리도르홀딩스를 비롯한 주요 외식 체인을 고객으로 둔 회사로, 이곳에서 4년 동안 개발 책임자로 시스템을 이끌었을 뿐 아니라 영업 책임자 역할도 경험했다. 기술뿐 아니라 비즈니스 현장을 직접 움직이는 어려움과 재미를 체감할 수 있었던 점은 큰 수확이었다.

이후 투자회사 오크캐피탈(현 UNIVA·오크홀딩스)로 자리를 옮겨 약 8년간 투자 기업에 핸즈온으로 관여했다. 경영 재건과 기업 가치 제고를 추진했고, 경우에 따라서는 직접 대표이사를 맡는 등 경영 전반에 깊이 관여하는 경험을 쌓았다. 이 시기에 형성된 ‘사업을 어떻게 재정비하고 성장으로 이끌 것인가’라는 관점은 지금의 중요한 자산이 되고 있다.

그리고 2019년 트리도르홀딩스 CIO로 부임했다. 어느덧 6년이 지난 현재, 벤더로서 축적한 지식과 사업회사에서의 경험, 경영자로서의 시각을 모두 활용해 사업 성장을 견인하는 CIO로서 도전을 이어가고 있다.

Q : 지금까지의 경력 가운데 특히 인상에 남는 일은 무엇인가.
A : 돌아보면 각 업종과 역할마다 큰 도전이 있었다. 처음 SI 업무를 맡았을 때는 얼마나 큰 규모의 프로젝트를 운영할 수 있는지가 성장의 기준이었다. 당시 20대에 800인월(人月, 여러 인력이 수개월 이상 투입돼, 인력 수×투입 개월 수를 합산하면 800에 이르는) 규모의 프로젝트를 맡았는데, 지금 생각해 보면 젊은 시절에 상당히 큰 책임을 맡길 만큼 기회를 주던 회사였다고 느낀다.

소프트뱅크에서는 처음으로 ‘비즈니스를 만든다’는 일에 도전했다. 담당한 것은 현재의 세븐넷쇼핑으로 이어지는 전자상거래 사업이다. 매출이 전혀 없는 상태에서 출발해, 시스템 책임자로서 사업이 약 200억 엔 규모로 성장하는 과정을 뒷받침했다. 단순한 시스템 개발이 아니라, 비즈니스 성장과 직접적으로 연결된 경험이었다는 점에서 커리어 전반에 매우 큰 의미를 남겼다.

현직인 트리도르홀딩스 CIO로서 처음 맡은 큰 과제는 전사 시스템의 전면적인 현대화였다. 부임 이후 약 6년에 걸쳐 추진해 왔고, 이제 모든 교체 작업이 마무리 단계에 이르고 있다.

당초에는 3년 내 완료를 목표로 했지만, 사내 사정과 기존 구조를 세심하게 고려하며 진행할 필요가 있었다. 그 결과, 속도보다 완성도를 택해 시간이 걸리더라도 확실히 끝내는 방향으로 추진하게 됐다.

프로젝트의 출발점은 ‘시스템이 몇 개나 있는지를 파악하는 것’이었다. 처음 점검했을 때 약 180개의 시스템이 존재했고, 이후 업무 목적에 따라 재정리하며 통합을 진행했다. 그 결과 현재는 약 40개 수준까지 대폭 줄일 수 있었다.

이 과정을 돌아보면, 시스템 자산 정리부터 현대화까지 전 과정을 직접 이끌어 온 경험은 CIO로서 가장 처음에 도전하기에 걸맞은 과제였다고 생각한다.

Q : 가장 어려웠던 경험은 무엇인가.
A : 가장 신경을 많이 쓴 일은 트리도르홀딩스에서 추진한 업무 조직 개편이었다. 구체적으로는 트리도르그룹의 본사 업무를 지주회사와 쉐어드서비스 회사(그룹 공통 관리·운영 업무를 통합 수행하는 조직)로 역할을 나눠 재구성했다. 이후 회계·인사·IT 운영 등 반복적인 관리 업무를 내부 조직이 아닌 외부 전문 위탁업체(Business Process Outsourcing, BPO)에 맡기는 방식으로 운영 구조를 바꿨다.

사내에서 수행하던 업무를 외부로 옮기는 과정은 대담하면서도 매우 섬세한 조정이 필요한 프로젝트였다. 우선 IT 부문부터 착수했는데, 이 과정이 가장 어려웠다.

당시 나는 쉐어드서비스 회사의 대표를 겸임하며 최대 약 180명의 인력을 이끌고 있었다. 이 조직에는 IT 운영팀뿐 아니라 회계 기장을 담당하는 재무 조직, 급여 계산을 맡은 인사 조직 등 이른바 오퍼레이션 기능이 집약돼 있었다. 전략 수립은 지주회사가 맡고, 일상적인 오퍼레이션은 하나로 묶어 관리하는 체제를 갖추고 있었으며, 이 가운데 일부 업무를 단계적으로 분리해 외부로 이전하는 것이 당시 맡은 역할이었다.

당연히 기존 업무를 수행하던 인력의 다음 커리어를 어떻게 설계할지가 큰 과제가 됐다. 트리도르는 효고현 가코가와시에서 창업해 이후 고베시에 본사를 두고 있었고, 당시 쉐어드서비스 회사의 거점 역시 고베에 있었다.

시부야 본사로 이동이 가능한 인력에게는 지주회사 업무를 제안했지만, 가정 사정 등으로 전근이 어려운 경우도 적지 않았다. 이런 경우에는 BPO 벤더로 전적해 기존과 같은 업무를 이어가도록 하거나, 트리도르그룹 매장으로 활동 무대를 옮기는 방안을 제시했다. 나는 구성원 한 사람 한 사람과 면담을 거듭하며 다음 진로를 함께 결정해 나갔다.

물론 이 과정은 혼자서 감당할 수 있는 일이 아니었다. 부장과 관리직의 협조를 얻어 직원들과 진지하게 대화를 이어가며 추진했다. 최종적인 목표는 각자가 새로운 환경에서도 장기간 역량을 발휘할 수 있도록 하는 것이었다. 회사 차원의 방침은 분명했지만, 최대한 구성원들이 납득할 수 있는 결론에 이르는 것이 당시 스스로에게 주어진 가장 큰 책임이었다고 본다.

Q : 특히 기억에 남는 말이나 사건이 있는가.
A : 크게 두 가지가 있다. 첫 번째는 세븐넷쇼핑 출범에 관여하던 시기의 경험이다. 당시 세븐&아이홀딩스 회장이었던 스즈키 도시후미의 말을, 당시 상사이자 회장의 아들인 스즈키 야스히로로부터 전해 들은 적이 있다.

한 번은 “사람들 앞에서 이야기할 때 어떻게 하면 긴장하지 않을 수 있느냐”고 물었는데, “무리해서 잘난 척하지 말고, 모르는 것은 이야기하지 않으며, 알고 있는 것만 말하면 긴장하지 않는다”는 답을 들었다. 모르는 것은 모른다고 말하면 된다는 이야기였다. 있는 그대로, 과장하지 않고 말하는 사람이야말로 결국 성과를 만들어 간다는 점을 강하게 느꼈다.

두 번째는 같은 시기, 세븐넷쇼핑이 야후의 자회사 사업이었을 때의 경험이다. 당시에는 인터넷이 아직 본격적인 비즈니스로 자리 잡기 전이었고, 일본에서는 야후가 앞서 있었으며 구글이 막 진입하던 시기였다.

이용자가 급증하면서 서버가 혼잡해지고 시스템이 한계에 부딪히는 상황이 자주 발생했는데, 그때 당시 야후 대표였던 이노우에 마사히로로부터 “인터넷 비즈니스에서는 사용자가 늘어나면 서버를 증설하는 것이 기본 원칙”이라는 말을 들었다. 그 한마디에 큰 깨달음을 얻었다.

기존 엔터프라이즈 환경에서는 값비싼 자원을 어떻게 최적화해 끝까지 활용할 것인가가 기본적인 사고방식이었다. 나는 역시 제한된 자원을 효율적으로 쓰는 것이 당연하다고 여겨 왔다.

하지만 인터넷의 세계에서는 저렴한 서버를 추가해 확장하는 것이 자연스러운 선택이었다. 투자를 전제로 한 스케일아웃 문화가 뿌리내려 있었고, 추가 투자가 불가능하다면 인터넷 비즈니스 자체가 성립하지 않는다는 인식이 자리 잡고 있었다.

이러한 사고방식의 차이는 매우 충격적이었다. 엔터프라이즈 기술과 인터넷 기술 사이의 본질적인 차이를 분명하게 체감한 순간이었고, 그 간극은 지금도 완전히 메워지지 않은 채 남아 있다고 느끼고 있다.

Q : CIO로서 어떨 때 보람을 느끼는가.
A: 회사의 방향성을 빠르게 실현할 수 있는 기반을 마련할 때 CIO로서의 보람을 느낀다. 그런 면에서 트리도르의 목표는 고객에게 감동적인 경험을 제공하는 것이다. 그 최전선에는 매장에서 일하는 직원과 이를 뒷받침하는 매니지먼트가 있다. 다만 사람의 힘에만 의존하는 데에는 한계가 있기 때문에, 이들을 뒤에서 어떻게 지원할지가 중요하다. 변화에 신속히 대응할 수 있는 비즈니스 기반을 갖추는 것이야말로 CIO로서의 가장 큰 보람이다.

IT 부서가 자체 논리만으로 움직여서는 의미가 없다. 중요한 것은 IT가 비즈니스에 얼마나 기여하고 있는지, 그리고 변화에 얼마나 유연하게 대응할 수 있는 기반을 구축했는지다.

예를 들어 사업 확장을 고민할 때는 업태가 늘어날 경우 하나의 구조로 대응할지, 여러 구조를 조합할지에 대한 설계 판단이 필요하다. 서버를 늘릴 것인지, 한 대를 대형화할 것인지와 같은 스케일아웃과 스케일업 선택도 마찬가지다. 이런 아키텍처를 검토하는 과정 자체가 매우 흥미로운 영역이다.

또 지금처럼 변화가 잦은 시대에는 경영진이 기존 방침을 바꾸는 일도 발생한다. 이때 대규모 투자를 이유로 시스템을 포기하지 못하는 상황은 바람직하지 않다. 그래서 가능한 한 구독형 서비스, 즉 SaaS를 적극 활용하고 있다. 특히 유연성이 요구되는 백오피스 영역은 SaaS를 조합하는 편이 리스크를 줄일 수 있다.

이러한 판단을 뒷받침하는 것은 엔지니어로서의 경험과 사업 경영에 직접 관여했던 경험이다. 기술을 충분히 이해하지 못하면 최적의 선택을 할 수 없고, 경영 관점이 없으면 비즈니스를 어떻게 지원할지에 대한 답도 나오지 않는다. 이 두 가지를 함께 활용해 사고할 수 있다는 점이 CIO 역할의 가장 큰 즐거움이다.

사실 IT 벤더 시절부터 앞으로는 SaaS가 필수가 될 것이라고 생각해 왔다. 당시에는 제안하더라도 사용자 기업이 채택하지 않으면 실행으로 이어지지 않았지만, CIO가 된 이후에는 스스로 결정해 실행할 수 있다는 점을 실감했다. 이는 매우 큰 차이이며, 사업회사로 자리를 옮겼기에 가능해진 도전이다.

트리도르그룹은 변화를 두려워하지 않고 진화를 거듭해 온 기업이다. 그 덕분에 급성장을 이뤘고, 격변하는 환경 속에서도 대응해 올 수 있었다. 이 강점은 반드시 지켜야 한다고 보고, 시스템 기반을 전면적으로 SaaS 중심으로 전환하는 작업을 추진해 왔다.

SaaS 벤더의 제품 뒤에는 수많은 뛰어난 엔지니어가 존재한다. 관점에 따라서는 이들이 모두 회사를 뒷받침하는 외부 인력이라고도 볼 수 있다. 자사 역량에만 의존하지 않고 외부의 힘을 어떻게 조합할지 설계하는 것, 그것이 CIO의 역할이며 나에게 가장 큰 보람이다.

Q : AI 활용에 대해서는 어떻게 보고 있는가.
A: 최근 생성형 AI에 대한 관심이 높아지고 있지만, 트리도르그룹이 집중하고 있는 것은 현장의 생산성을 높이는 AI 활용이다. 생성형 AI는 화이트칼라 업무의 효율화에는 효과적이다. 다만 사업과 직접 맞닿아 있는 현장 업무에서는 즉시 실행 가능하고 실효성이 분명한 AI 활용이 필요한 것 같다.

그 대표적인 사례가 수요 예측이다. 매출과 방문객 수를 AI로 예측함으로써 다음 날 필요한 인력 규모나 식자재 발주량을 보다 효율적으로 산정할 수 있다. 이를 통해 매장 운영 계획이 한층 수월해졌고, 현장의 부담도 크게 줄었다.

또 하나는 얼굴 인식을 활용한 근태 관리다. 트리도르그룹에는 파트타임과 아르바이트 직원이 많아 출퇴근 기록 관리가 중요한 과제였다. 기존의 지문이나 정맥 인식 방식은 물을 자주 사용하는 환경이나 추운 날씨로 인해 예외가 발생하는 경우가 많았지만, 얼굴 인식으로 전환한 이후에는 예외가 거의 발생하지 않고 있다. 인식 속도도 빠르고 마스크를 착용한 상태에서도 즉시 인식할 수 있어, 현장에서는 근태 관리가 훨씬 수월해졌다는 반응이 나온다.

화려해 보이는 기술은 아닐지 모르지만, 이런 접근이 현장의 생산성을 꾸준히 끌어올리고 있다. 이것이 트리도르그룹이 지향하는 AI 활용의 본질이라고 본다.

Q : CIO에게 필요한 자질은 무엇이라고 보는가.
A : 가장 중요하다고 생각하는 것은 ‘각오’다. 물론 한 번 정한 일을 끝까지 해내는 것도 중요하지만, 그에 앞서 무엇을 목표로 하는지 분명히 제시해야 한다. 미래의 모습을 그린 뒤 “이 방향으로 회사를 이끌겠다”고 선언하는 것 자체가 CIO에게는 각오의 표현이라고 본다.

나 역시 DX 비전을 외부에 공개하면서 “이제는 반드시 해내야 한다”는 결심이 섰다. 그렇게 해야 직원과 벤더 모두가 트리도르그룹이 어떤 모습을 지향하는지 이해하고, 같은 방향을 바라보게 된다. 이는 매우 큰 의미를 가진다.

CIO에게는 목표로 하는 모습을 하나의 그림으로 제시하고, 그 비전을 향해 흔들림 없이 나아가는 추진력이 필요하다. 이때 중요한 것이 백캐스트(backcast) 사고, 즉 최종 목표에 도달하기 위해 지금 무엇을 해야 하는지를 거꾸로 계산해 나가는 방식이다. 포어캐스트(forecast) 방식, 다시 말해 현재 상태를 출발점으로 삼아 과제를 하나씩 해결하는 방식만으로는 새로운 가치를 만들어내기 어렵다.

물론 일정 수준의 안정기에 들어서면 포어캐스트 방식의 개선으로 충분한 경우도 있다. 하지만 큰 변화를 만들어야 할 때는 백캐스트 관점에서 과감하게 방향과 경로를 그려야 한다.

그리고 그 과정에서 예상과 현실 사이에 큰 간극이 생긴다면, “이건 아니다”라고 판단하고 과감하게 방향을 전환할 수 있는 결단력까지 갖추는 것, 이것이 CIO에게 요구되는 핵심 자질이라고 본다.

Q : CIO를 꿈꾸는 직원에게 필요한 역량은 무엇인가.
A : 나는 팀원들에게 늘 “장차 CIO나 CTO, 혹은 CDO 같은 역할을 맡을 수 있는 인재로 성장하길 바란다”고 이야기하고 있다. 일본에는 아직 그런 인재가 충분히 많지 않다. 그렇기 때문에 디지털을 비즈니스와 연결하는 가교 역할을 할 수 있는 사람을 더 늘려야 한다고 본다. 젊은 시절부터 이 역할을 목표로 커리어를 쌓아 가길 바란다.

이를 위해 필요한 역량은 크게 세 가지다. 첫 번째는 기초적인 기술 역량이다. 코드를 직접 작성하지 않는 IT 리더도 있지만, 할 수 있다면 그 편이 훨씬 낫다. 나 역시 중학생 때부터 코드를 써 왔다. 프로그래밍 언어도 하나만 아는 것보다 두 가지 이상을 익히면 비교가 가능해지고 이해의 깊이도 달라진다. 이는 이직을 통해 새로운 시야가 열리는 것과 비슷하며, 여러 관점을 갖는 것이 중요하다고 생각한다.

두 번째는 아키텍트로서의 역량이다. 사용자 기업의 CIO는 기존 기술을 어떻게 조합해 자사 비즈니스에 가장 적합한 구조를 만들 것인지를 끊임없이 고민해야 한다. CTO의 역할과 맞닿아 있는 부분도 있지만, 네트워크나 인프라, 클라우드 같은 기초를 이해하지 못하면 최적의 조합을 판단할 수 없다. 시스템 아키텍트로서의 지식과 사고는 필수적이다.

마지막은 커뮤니케이션 역량이다. 프로젝트가 실패하는 이유는 기술 부족보다 소통 부족에서 비롯되는 경우가 훨씬 많다. 나는 평소 일대일 대화를 자주 하는데, 대화 상대는 대표부터 그룹사 임원, 사업회사 경영진까지 다양하다. 이들이 무엇을 하고 싶은지 이해하지 못하면 장기적인 관점의 시스템 설계는 불가능하고, 신뢰할 수 있는 조언자가 되지 못하면 성과도 나오기 어렵다. 이런 역량은 나뿐 아니라 부장급 구성원에게도 요구하고 있다.

기초적인 기술 역량, 아키텍트로서의 설계 역량, 그리고 커뮤니케이션 역량. 이 세 가지는 CIO를 목표로 할 때 반드시 갖춰야 할 자질이다. 특히 B2B 기업일수록 파트너 기업과의 관계가 중요하기 때문에, 젊은 시절부터 이를 강하게 의식하길 권하고 싶다.

Q : 앞으로의 목표는?
A: 우리는 ‘글로벌 푸드 컴퍼니’를 기업 비전으로 내세우고 있다. 목표는 유명한 햄버거 체인이나 커피 체인과 어깨를 나란히 하는, 일본 최초의 ‘세계에서 통하는 외식 기업’이 되는 것이다.

트리도르그룹은 이미 30개국 이상에 진출해 있지만, 모든 국가에서 일본과 동일한 품질을 구현하고 있느냐고 하면 아직 과제가 남아 있다. 이 수준을 어떻게 끌어올릴지가 앞으로의 큰 과제다. 디지털의 힘으로 기준을 맞추고, 새로운 국가로도 보다 쉽게 확장할 수 있는 환경을 만드는 것이 사업 가속으로 이어진다고 본다.

지금까지는 일본 시장에 집중해 왔지만, 앞으로는 글로벌 자회사와 프랜차이즈 파트너에 대해서도 보다 적극적으로 지원해 나갈 생각이다.

물론 모든 것을 일률적인 구조로 적용하는 것은 현실적이지 않다. 제조업처럼 전 세계에 동일한 시스템을 적용하는 방식도 있지만, 외식 산업은 현지 소비자가 실제로 먹어야 가치가 생긴다. 일정한 자율성을 유지하면서도, 트리도르그룹으로서 반드시 지켜야 할 기준을 어떻게 정착시킬지가 중요하다.

이 과정에서 효과적인 수단이 디지털 기반이다. 기준을 시스템에 녹여 두면, 의식하지 않아도 자연스럽게 품질과 운영 기준이 유지된다. 이런 구조를 앞으로 더 늘려 가고자 한다.

다만 과도하게 적용하면 ‘손으로 만들고 갓 조리한다’는 우리의 운영 철학이 약해질 위험도 있다. 그 균형을 어디에 둘 것인지는 쉽지 않은 과제지만, 오히려 그 지점에 재미가 있다고 느낀다.

본사 경영진과 각 사업 책임자들과 지속적으로 논의하며, 각 지역에 맞는 최적의 균형점을 찾아가는 작업을 전 세계로 확대해 나가고 싶다.
dl-ciokorea@foundryco.com

*이 기사는 CIO 재팬에 게재된 원문을 바탕으로 재구성한 것입니다. 원문은 여기서 확인할 수 있습니다.

CIO의 ‘희망 목록’은 늘 길고 비용도 많이 든다. 하지만 우선순위를 합리적으로 세우면, 팀과 예산을 소진하지 않으면서도 급변하는 요구에 대응할 수 있다.

특히 2026년에는 IT 운영을 ‘비용 센터’가 아니라 손익 관점에서 재정의하면서, 기술로 비즈니스를 재창조하는 접근이 필요하다. 액센추어(Accenture)의 기술 전략·자문 글로벌 리드 코엔라트 셸포트는 “최소한의 투자로 ‘불만 꺼지지 않게 유지’하는 데서 벗어나, 기술로 매출 성장을 견인하고 새로운 디지털 제품을 만들며, 새 비즈니스 모델을 더 빠르게 시장에 내놓는 쪽으로 초점을 옮겨야 한다”라고 권고했다.

다음은 CIO가 2026년에 우선순위 상단에 올려야 할 10가지 핵심 과제다.

1. 사이버 보안 회복탄력성과 데이터 프라이버시 강화

기업이 생성형 AI와 에이전틱 AI를 핵심 워크플로우 깊숙이 통합하면서, 공격자 역시 같은 AI 기술로 워크플로우를 교란하고 지식재산(IP)과 민감 데이터를 노릴 가능성이 커졌다. 소비자 신용평가 기업 트랜스유니언(TransUnion)의 글로벌 제품 플랫폼 담당 수석부사장 요게시 조시는 “그 결과 CIO와 CISO는 나쁜 행위자들이 동일한 AI 기술을 활용해 워크플로우를 방해하고, 고객 민감 데이터와 경쟁우위에 해당하는 정보·자산을 포함한 IP를 탈취하려 할 것임을 예상해야 한다”라고 지적했다.

조시는 디지털 전환 가속과 AI 통합 확대로 리스크 환경이 크게 넓어질 것으로 보고, 2026년 최우선 과제로 ‘보안 회복탄력성’과 ‘데이터 프라이버시’를 꼽았다. 특히, “민감 데이터 보호와 글로벌 규제 준수는 협상 대상이 아니다”라고 강조했다.

2. 보안 도구 통합

AI의 효과를 제대로 끌어내려면 기반을 다시 다져야 한다는 주장도 있다. 딜로이트의 미국 사이버 플랫폼 및 기술·미디어·통신(TMT) 산업 리더 아룬 페린콜람은 “필수 조건 중 하나는 파편화된 보안 도구를 통합·연동된 사이버 기술 플랫폼으로 묶는 것인데, 이를 ‘플랫폼화(platformization)’라고 부른다”라고 설명했다.

페린콜람은 통합은 보안을 ‘여러 포인트 솔루션의 누더기’에서 빠른 혁신과 확장 가능한 AI 중심 운영을 위한 민첩하고 확장된 기반으로 바꿀 것이라며, “위협이 정교해질수록 통합 플랫폼이 중요해지며, 도구 난립을 방치하면 오히려 분절된 보안 태세가 공격자에게 유리하게 작동해 위험이 커진다”라고 지적했다. 또 “기업은 날로 증가하는 위협에 직면할 것이며, 이를 관리하기 위해 보안 도구가 무분별하게 확산될 것이다. 공격자가 이렇게 파편화된 보안 태세를 악용할 수 있으므로, 플랫폼화를 늦추면 위험만 증폭될 것”이라고 덧붙였다.

3. 데이터 보호 ‘기본기’ 재점검

조직이 효율·속도·혁신을 위해 새로운 AI 모델 도입 경쟁에 나서고 있지만, 민감 데이터 보호를 위한 기본 단계조차 놓치는 경우가 적지 않다는 경고도 나온다. 데이터 프라이버시·보존 전문업체 도노마 소프트웨어(Donoma Software)의 최고전략책임자 파커 피어슨은 “새 AI 기술을 풀기 전에 민감 데이터를 보호하기 위한 기본 조치를 하지 않는 조직이 많다”라며 2026년에는 “데이터 프라이버시를 긴급 과제로 봐야 한다”라고 강조했다.

피어슨은 데이터 수집·사용·보호 이슈가 초기 학습부터 운영까지 AI 라이프사이클 전반에서 발생한다고 설명했다. 또 많은 기업이 “AI를 무시해 경쟁에서 뒤처지거나 민감 데이터를 노출할 수 있는 LLM을 도입하는 두 가지 나쁜 선택지 사이에 놓여 있다”라고 진단했다.

핵심은 ‘AI를 할 것인가’가 아니라 ‘민감 데이터를 위험에 빠뜨리지 않으면서 AI 가치를 최적화하는 방법’이다. 피어슨은 특히 “데이터가 ‘완전히’ 또는 ‘엔드 투 엔드’로 암호화돼 있다”는 조직의 자신감과 달리, 실제로는 사용 중 데이터까지 포함해 모든 상태에서 연속적으로 보호하는 체계가 필요하다고 주장했다. 프라이버시 강화 기술을 지금 도입하면 이후 AI 모델 적용에서도 데이터 구조화·보안이 선행돼 학습 효율이 좋아지고, 재학습에 따른 비용·리스크도 줄일 수 있다는 설명이다.

4. 팀 정체성과 경험에 집중

2026년 CIO 과제로 ‘기업 정체성’과 직원 경험을 재정비해야 한다는 목소리도 있다. IT 보안 소프트웨어 업체 넷위릭스(Netwrix)의 CIO 마이클 웻젤은 “정체성은 사람들이 조직에 합류하고 협업하고 기여하는 기반”이라며, “정체성과 직원 경험을 제대로 잡으면 보안, 생산성, 도입 등 다른 모든 것이 자연스럽게 따라온다”라고 말했다.

웻젤은 직원들이 직장에서 ‘소비자급’ 경험을 기대한다고 진단했다. 내부 기술이 불편하면 사용하지 않고 우회하게 되며, 그 순간 조직은 보안과 속도를 동시에 잃는다는 지적이다. 반대로 ‘정체성에 뿌리를 둔 매끄러운 경험’을 구축한 기업이 혁신 속도에서 앞서갈 것이라고 내다봤다.

5. 값비싼 ERP 마이그레이션 대응 방안 마련

ERP 마이그레이션은 2026년에도 CIO를 강하게 압박할 전망이다. 인보이스 라이프사이클 관리 소프트웨어 업체 바스웨어(Basware)의 CIO 배럿 쉬위츠는 “예를 들어 SAP S/4HANA 마이그레이션은 복잡하고, 계획보다 길어지면서 비용이 증가하는 경우가 많다”라고 지적했다. 쉬위츠는 업그레이드 비용이 기업 규모와 복잡도에 따라 1억 달러 이상, 많게는 5억 달러까지 뛸 수 있다고 말했다.

또한, ERP가 ‘모든 것을 하려는’ 구조인 만큼, 인보이스 처리처럼 특정 업무를 아주 잘 해내는 데에는 한계가 있다고 말했다. 여기에 수많은 애드온 커스터마이징이 더해지면 리스크가 커진다. 시위츠는 이에 대한 대안으로는 SAP가 강점을 갖는 핵심은 그대로 두고, 주변 기능은 베스트 오브 브리드 도구로 보완하는 ‘클린 코어(clean core)’ 전략을 제시했다.

6. 혁신을 확장할 수 있는 데이터 거버넌스

2026년 혁신을 지속 가능하게 만들려면, 모듈형·확장형 아키텍처와 데이터 전략이 핵심이라는 의견도 나왔다. 컴플라이언스 플랫폼 업체 삼사라(Samsara)의 CIO 스티븐 프란체티는 “혁신이 확장 가능하고 지속 가능하며 안전하게 이뤄지도록 하는 기반을 설계하는 것이 중요한 우선순위 중 하나”라고 말했다.

프란체티는 느슨하게 결합된 API 우선 아키텍처를 구축 중이며, 이를 통해 더 빠르게 움직이고 변화에 유연하게 대응하면서 솔루션 업체와 플랫폼 종속을 피할 수 있다고 설명했다. 워크플로우·도구·AI 에이전트까지 더 역동적으로 바뀌는 환경에서 ‘강하게 결합된 스택’은 확장에 한계가 있다는 판단이다. 또한 데이터는 AI뿐 아니라 비즈니스 인사이트, 규제 대응, 고객 신뢰를 위한 장기 전략 자산이라며, 데이터 품질과 거버넌스, 접근성을 전사적으로 강화하고 있다고 덧붙였다.

7. 인력 전환 가속화

AI 시대 인력 전략은 ‘채용’만으로 해결되지 않는다. 임원 서치·경영 컨설팅 기업 하이드릭 앤 스트러글스(Heidrick & Struggles)의 파트너 스콧 톰슨은 “업스킬링과 리스킬링은 차세대 리더를 키우는 핵심”이라며, “2026년의 기술 리더는 제품 중심의 기술 리더로서, 제품·기술·비즈니스를 사실상 하나로 묶어야 한다”라고 강조했다.

톰슨은 ‘디지털 인재 공장’ 모델을 제안했다. 역량 분류 체계(기술 역량 분류), 역할 기반 학습 경로, 실전 프로젝트 순환을 구조화해 내부에서 인재를 키우는 방식이다. 또한 AI가 활성화된 환경에 맞춰 직무를 재설계하고 자동화로 고도의 전문 노동 의존도를 줄이며, ‘퓨전 팀(fusion teams)’으로 희소 역량을 조직 전반에 확산해야 한다고 설명했다.

8. 팀 커뮤니케이션 고도화

기술 조직에서 불확실성이 커질수록 불안이 확산되고, 그 양상은 개인별로 다르게 나타난다. CompTIA의 최고 기술 에반젤리스트 제임스 스탠저는 “기술 부서에서 불확실성이 미치는 1차 효과는 불안”이라며, “불안은 사람마다 다른 형태로 드러난다”라고 지적했다. 스탠저는 팀원과의 밀착 소통을 강화하고, 더 효과적이고 관련성 높은 교육으로 불안을 관리해야 한다고 제안했다.

9. 민첩성·신뢰·확장성을 위한 역량 강화

AI 자체뿐 아니라, 이를 운영할 수 있는 역량도 2026년 핵심 과제 중 하나다. 보안 솔루션 업체 넷스코프(Netskope)의 CDIO 마이크 앤더슨은 “AI를 넘어 2026년 CIO 우선순위는 민첩성, 신뢰, 확장성을 이끄는 기반 역량을 강화하는 것”이라고 말했다.

앤더슨은 제품 운영 모델(product operating model)이 전통적 소프트웨어 팀을 넘어, IAM, 데이터 플랫폼, 통합 서비스 같은 엔터프라이즈 기반 역량까지 포함하는 형태로 확장될 것이라고 내다봤다. 이때 직원·파트너·고객·서드파티·AI 에이전트 등 ‘인간/비인간 ID’를 모두 지원해야 하며, 최소 권한과 제로 트러스트 원칙을 바탕으로 한 안전하고 적응형 프레임워크가 필요하다고 강조했다.

10. 진화하는 IT 아키텍처

2026년에는 현재의 IT 아키텍처가 AI 에이전트의 자율성을 감당하지 못하는 ‘레거시 모델’이 될 수도 있다. 세일즈포스의 최고 아키텍트 에민 게르바는 “효과적으로 확장하려면 기업은 새로운 에이전틱 엔터프라이즈로 전환해야 한다”라며, 데이터 의미를 통합하는 공유 시맨틱 계층, 중앙화된 지능을 위한 통합 AI/ML 계층, 확장 가능한 에이전트 인력의 라이프사이클을 관리하는 에이전틱 계층, 복잡한 크로스 사일로 워크플로우를 안전하게 관리하는 엔터프라이즈 오케스트레이션 계층 등 4개 계층을 제시했다.

게르바는 이 전환이 “엔드 투 엔드 자동화를 달성한 기업과 에이전트가 애플리케이션 사일로에 갇힌 기업을 가르는 결정적 경쟁력”이 될 것이라고 강조했다.
dl-ciokorea@foundryco.com

A CIO’s wish list is typically long and costly. Fortunately, by establishing reasonable priorities, it’s possible to keep pace with emerging demands without draining your team or budget.

As 2026 arrives, CIOs need to take a step back and consider how they can use technology to help reinvent their wider business while running their IT capabilities with a profit and loss mindset, advises Koenraad Schelfaut, technology strategy and advisory global lead at business advisory firm Accenture. “The focus should shift from ‘keeping the lights on’ at the lowest cost to using technology … to drive topline growth, create new digital products, and bring new business models faster to market.”

Here’s an overview of what should be at the top of your 2026 priorities list.

1. Strengthening cybersecurity resilience and data privacy

Enterprises are increasingly integrating generative and agentic AI deep into their business workflows, spanning all critical customer interactions and transactions, says Yogesh Joshi, senior vice president of global product platforms at consumer credit reporting firm TransUnion. “As a result, CIOs and CISOs must expect bad actors will use these same AI technologies to disrupt these workflows to compromise intellectual property, including customer sensitive data and competitively differentiated information and assets.”

Cybersecurity resilience and data privacy must be top priorities in 2026, Joshi says. He believes that as enterprises accelerate their digital transformation and increasingly integrate AI, the risk landscape will expand dramatically. “Protecting sensitive data and ensuring compliance with global regulations is non-negotiable,” Joshi states.

2. Consolidating security tools

CIOs should prioritize re-baselining their foundations to capitalize on the promise of AI, says Arun Perinkolam, Deloitte’s US cyber platforms and technology, media, and telecommunications industry leader. “One of the prerequisites is consolidating fragmented security tools into unified, integrated, cyber technology platforms — also known as platformization.”

Perinkolam says a consolidation shift will move security from a patchwork of isolated solutions to an agile, extensible foundation fit for rapid innovation and scalable AI-driven operations. “As cyber threats become increasingly sophisticated, and the technology landscape evolves, integrating cybersecurity solutions into unified platforms will be crucial,” he says.

“Enterprises now face a growing array of threats, resulting in a sprawling set of tools to manage them,” Perinkolam notes. “As adversaries exploit fractured security postures, delaying platformization only amplifies these risks.”

3. Ensuring data protection

To take advantage of enhanced efficiency, speed, and innovation, organizations of all types and sizes are now racing to adopt new AI models, says Parker Pearson, chief strategy officer at data privacy and preservation firm Donoma Software.

“Unfortunately, many organizations are failing to take the basic steps necessary to protect their sensitive data before unleashing new AI technologies that could potentially be left exposed,” she warns, adding that in 2026 “data privacy should be viewed as an urgent priority.”

Implementing new AI models can raise significant concerns around how data is collected, used, and protected, Pearson notes. These issues arise across the entire AI lifecycle, from how the data used for initial training to ongoing interactions with the model. “Until now, the choices for most enterprises are between two bad options: either ignore AI and face the consequences in an increasingly competitive marketplace; or implement an LLM that could potentially expose sensitive data,” she says. Both options, she adds, can result in an enormous amount of damage.

The question for CIOs is not whether to implement AI, but how to derive optimal value from AI without placing sensitive data at risk, Pearson says. “Many CIOs confidently report that their organization’s data is either ‘fully’ or ‘end to end’ encrypted.” Yet Pearson believes that true data protection requires continuous encryption that keeps information secure during all states, including when it’s being used. “Until organizations address this fundamental gap, they will continue to be blindsided by breaches that bypass all their traditional security measures.”

Organizations that implement privacy-enhancing technology today will have a distinct advantage in implementing future AI models, Pearson says. “Their data will be structured and secured correctly, and their AI training will be more efficient right from the start, rather than continually incurring the expense, and risk of retraining their models.”

4. Focusing on team identity and experience

A top priority for CIOs in 2026 should be resetting their enterprise identity and employee experience, says Michael Wetzel, CIO at IT security software company Netwrix. “Identity is the foundation of how people show up, collaborate, and contribute,” he states. “When you get identity and experience right, everything else, including security, productivity, and adoption, follows naturally.”

Employees expect a consumer-grade experience at work, Wetzel says. “If your internal technology is clunky, they simply won’t use it.” When people work around IT, the organization loses both security and speed, he warns. “Enterprises that build a seamless, identity-rooted experience will innovate faster while organizations that don’t will fall behind.”

5. Navigating increasingly costly ERP migrations

Effectively navigating costly ERP migrations should be at the top of the CIO agenda in 2026, says Barrett Schiwitz, CIO at invoice lifecycle management software firm Basware. “SAP S/4HANA migrations, for instance, are complex and often take longer than planned, leading to rising costs.” He notes that upgrades can cost enterprises upwards of $100 million, rising to as much as $500 million depending on the ERP’s size and complexity.

The problem is that while ERPs try to do everything, they rarely perform specific tasks, such as invoice processing, really well, Schiwitz says. “Many businesses overcomplicate their ERP systems, customizing them with lots of add-ons that further increase risk.” The answer, he suggests, is adopting a “clean core” strategy that lets SAP do what it does best and then supplement it with best-in-class tools to drive additional value.

6. Doubling-down on innovation — and data governance

One of the most important priorities for CIOs in 2026 is architecting a foundation that makes innovation scalable, sustainable, and secure, says Stephen Franchetti, CIO at compliance platform provider Samsara.

Franchetti says he’s currently building a loosely coupled, API-first architecture that’s designed to be modular, composable, and extensible. “This allows us to move faster, adapt to change more easily, and avoid vendor or platform lock-in.” Franchetti adds that in an era where workflows, tools, and even AI agents are increasingly dynamic, a tightly bound stack simply won’t scale.

Franchetti is also continuing to evolve his enterprise data strategy. “For us, data is a long-term strategic asset — not just for AI, but also for business insight, regulatory readiness, and customer trust,” he says. “This means doubling down on data quality, lineage, governance, and accessibility across all functions.”

7. Facilitating workforce transformation

CIOs must prioritize workforce transformation in 2026, says Scott Thompson, a partner in executive search and management consulting company Heidrick & Struggles. “Upskilling and reskilling teams will help develop the next generation of leaders,” he predicts. “The technology leader of 2026 needs to be a product-centric tech leader, ensuring that product, technology, and the business are all one and the same.”

CIOs can’t hire their way out of the talent gap, so they must build talent internally, not simply buy it on the market, Thompson says. “The most effective strategy is creating a digital talent factory with structured skills taxonomies, role-based learning paths, and hands-on project rotations.”

Thompson also believes that CIOs should redesign job roles for an AI-enabled environment and use automation to reduce the amount of specialized labor required. “Forming fusion teams will help spread scarce expertise across the organization, while strong career mobility and a modern engineering culture will improve retention,” he states. “Together, these approaches will let CIOs grow, multiply, and retain the talent they need at scale.”

8. Improving team communication

A CIO’s top priority should be developing sophisticated and nuanced approaches to communication, says James Stanger, chief technology evangelist at IT certification firm CompTIA. “The primary effect of uncertainty in tech departments is anxiety,” he observes. “Anxiety takes different forms, depending upon the individual worker.”

Stanger suggests working closer with team members as well as managing anxiety through more effective and relevant training.

9. Strengthening drive agility, trust, and scale

Beyond AI, the priority for CIOs in 2026 should be strengthening the enabling capabilities that drive agility, trust, and scale, says Mike Anderson, chief digital and information officer at security firm Netskope.

Anderson feels that the product operating model will be central to this shift, expanding beyond traditional software teams to include foundational enterprise capabilities, such as identity and access management, data platforms, and integration services.

“These capabilities must support both human and non-human identities — employees, partners, customers, third parties, and AI agents — through secure, adaptive frameworks built on least-privileged access and zero trust principles,” he says, noting that CIOs who invest in these enabling capabilities now will be positioned to move faster and innovate more confidently throughout 2026 and beyond.

10. Addressing an evolving IT architecture

In 2026, today’s IT architecture will become a legacy model, unable to support the autonomous power of AI agents, predicts Emin Gerba, chief architect at Salesforce. He believes that in order to effectively scale, enterprises will have to pivot to a new agentic enterprise blueprint with four new architectural layers: a shared semantic layer to unify data meaning, an integrated AI/ML layer for centralized intelligence, an agentic layer to manage the full lifecycle of a scalable agent workforce, and an enterprise orchestration layer to securely manage complex, cross-silo agent workflows.

“This architectural shift will be the defining competitive wedge, separating companies that achieve end-to-end automation from those whose agents remain trapped in application silos,” Gerba says.

Project managers are doing exactly what they were taught to do. They build plans, chase team members for updates, and report status. Despite all the activity, your leadership team is wondering why projects take so long and cost so much.

When projects don’t seem to move fast enough or deliver the ROI you expected, it usually has less to do with effort and more with a set of common mistakes your project managers make because of how they were trained, and what that training left out. Most project teams operate like order takers instead of the business-focused leaders you need to deliver your organization’s strategy.

To accelerate strategy delivery in your organization, something has to change. The way projects are led needs to shift, and traditional project management approaches and mindsets won’t get you there.

Here are the most common project management mistakes we see holding teams back, and what you can do to help your project leaders shift from being order takers to drivers of IMPACT: instilling focus, measuring outcomes, performing, adapting, communicating, and transforming.

Mistake #1: Solving project problems instead of business problems

Project managers are trained to solve project problems. Scope creep. Missed deadlines. Resource bottlenecks. They spend their days managing tasks and chasing status updates, but most of them have no idea whether the work they manage is solving a real business problem.

That’s not their fault. They’ve been taught to stay in their lane in formal training and by many executives. Keep the project moving. Don’t ask questions. Focus on delivery.

But no one is talking to them about the purpose of these projects and what success looks like from a business perspective, so how can they help you achieve it?

You don’t need another project checked off the list. You need the business problem solved.

IMPACT driver mindset: Instill focus

Start by helping your teams understand the business context behind the work. What problem are we trying to solve? Why does this project matter to the organization? What outcome are we aiming for?

Your teams can’t answer those questions unless you bring them into the strategy conversation. When they understand the business goals, not just the project goals, they can start making decisions differently. Their conversations change to ensure everyone knows why their work matters. The entire team begins choosing priorities, tradeoffs, and solutions that are aligned with solving that business problem instead of just checking tasks off the list.

Mistake #2: Tracking progress instead of measuring business value

Your teams are taught to track progress toward delivering outputs. On time, on scope, and on budget are the metrics they hear repeatedly. But those metrics only tell you if deliverables will be created as planned, not if that work will deliver the results the business expects.

Most project managers are taught to measure how busy the team is. Everyone walks around wearing their busy badge of honor as if that proves value. They give updates about what’s done, what’s in progress, and what’s late. But the metrics they use show how busy everyone is at creating outputs, not how they’re tracking toward achieving outcomes.

All of that busyness can look impressive on paper, but it’s not the same as being productive. In fact, busy gets in the way of being productive.

IMPACT driver mindset: Measure outcomes

Now that the team understands what they’re doing and why, the next question to answer is how will we know we’re successful.

Right from the start of the project, you need to define not just the business goal but how you’ll measure it was successful in business terms. Did the project reduce cost, increase revenue, improve the customer experience? That’s what you and your peers care about, but often that’s not the focus you ask the project people to drive toward.

Think about a project that’s intended to drive revenue but ends up costing you twice as much to deliver. If the revenue target stays the same, the project may no longer make sense. Or they might come up with a way to drive even higher revenue because they understood the way you measure success.

Shift how you measure project success from outputs to outcomes and watch how quickly your projects start creating real business value.

Mistake #3: Perfecting process instead of streamlining it

If your teams spend more time tweaking templates, building frameworks, or debating methodology than actually delivering results, processes become inefficient.

Often project managers are hired for their certifications, which leads many of them to believe their value is tied to how much of and how perfectly they create and follow that process. They work hard to make sure every box is checked, every template is filled out, and every report is delivered on time. But if the process becomes the goal, they’re missing the point.

You invested in project management to get business results, not build a deliverable machine, and the faster you achieve those results, the higher your return on your project investments.

IMPACT driver mindset: Perform relentlessly

With a clear plan to drive business value, now we need to show them how to accelerate. That means relentlessly evaluating, streamlining, and optimizing the delivery process so it helps the team achieve the project goals faster.

Give them permission to simplify. When the process slows them down or adds work that doesn’t add value, they should be able to call it out.

This isn’t an excuse to have no process or claim you’re being agile just to skip the necessary steps. It’s about right-sizing the process, simplifying where you can, and being thoughtful about what’s truly needed to deliver the outcome. Do you really need a 30-page document no one will read, or would two pages that people actually use be enough? You don’t need perfection. You need progress.

Mistake #4: Blaming people instead of leading them through change

A lot of leaders start from the belief that people are naturally resistant to change. When projects stall or results fall short, it’s easy to assume someone just didn’t want to change. Project teams blame people, then layer on more governance, more process, and more pressure. Most of the time, it’s not a people problem. It’s how the changes are being done to people instead of with them.

People don’t resist because they’re lazy or difficult. They resist because they don’t understand why it’s happening or what it means for them. And no amount of process will fix that.

IMPACT driver mindset: Adapt to thrive

With an accelerated delivery plan designed to drive business value, your project teams can now turn their attention to bringing people with them through the change process.

Change management is everyone’s job, not something you outsource to HR or a change team. Projects fail without good change management and everyone needs to be involved. Your teams must understand that people aren’t resistant to change. They’re resistant to having change done to them. You have to teach them how to bring others through the change process instead of pushing change at them.

Teach your project teams how to engage stakeholders early and often so they feel part of the change journey. When people are included, feel heard, and involved in shaping the solution, resistance starts to fade and you create a united force that supports your accelerated delivery plan.

Mistake #5: Communicating for compliance instead of engagement

The reason most project communication fails is because it’s treated like a one-way path. Status reports people don’t understand. Steering committee slides read to a room full of executives who aren’t engaged. Unread emails. The information goes out because it’s required, not because it’s helping people make better decisions or take the right action.

But that kind of communication doesn’t create clarity, build engagement, or drive alignment. And it doesn’t inspire anyone to lean in and help solve the real problems.

IMPACT driver mindset: Communicate with purpose

To keep people engaged in the project and help it keep accelerating toward business goals, you need purpose-driven communication designed to drive actions and decisions. Your teams shouldn’t just push information but enable action. That means getting the right people and the right message at the right time, with a clear next step.

If you want your projects to move faster, communication can’t be a formality. When teams, sponsors, and stakeholders know what’s happening and why it matters, they make decisions faster. You don’t need more status reports. You need communication that drives actions and decisions.

Mistake #6: Driving project goals instead of business outcomes

Most organizations still define the project leadership role around task-focused delivery. Get the project done. Hit the date. Stay on budget. Project managers have been trained to believe that finishing the project as planned is the definition of success. But that’s not how you define project success.

If you keep project managers out of the conversations about strategy and business goals, they’ll naturally focus on project outputs instead of business outcomes. This leaves you in the same place you are today. Projects are completed, outputs are delivered, but the business doesn’t always see the impact expected.

IMPACT driver mindset: Transform mindset

When you help your teams instill focus, measure outcomes, perform relentlessly, adapt to thrive, and communicate with purpose, you do more than improve project delivery. You build the foundation for a different kind of leadership.

Shift how you and your organization see the project leadership role. Your project managers are no longer just running projects. You’re developing strategy navigators who partner with you to guide how strategy gets delivered, and help you see around corners, connect initiatives, and decide where to invest next.

When project managers are trusted to think this way and given visibility into the strategy, they learn how the business really works. They stop chasing project success and start driving business success.

More on project management:

• Project management guide: Tips, strategies, best practices
• What is a project manager? The lead role for project success
• 5 early warning signs of project failure
• 10 project management myths to avoid
• 16 tips for a smooth switch to agile project management
• The 22 best project management tools for business
• Scrum vs. Lean vs. Kanban: Comparing agile project management frameworks
• How to pick the right project management methodology for success
• Agile project management: A comprehensive guide
• 8 common project management mistakes — and how to avoid them
• Top 11 project management certifications for 2017
• 10 traits of highly effective project managers
• 8 goals every project manager should aspire to achieve
• Project management: 7 steps to on-time, on-budget, goal-based delivery

ベンダー経験を武器に、事業成長を牽引するCIOへ

——これまでのキャリアについて教えてください。

私のキャリアは富士通から始まりました。7年間、主に行政向けシステムのシステムエンジニアとして働き、現場で技術を磨いてきました。

その後、2000年にソフトバンク（現 ソフトバンクグループ）へ転職します。当時は孫正義さんが「これからはインターネットの時代だ」と発信していた頃で、社内では次々とインターネット関連のベンチャーが立ち上がっていました。その一つがEコマース事業、現在のセブンネットショッピングです。私はシステム責任者として立ち上げに関わり、約8年間、事業の成長を支える役割を担いました。

次に挑戦したのは、外食ITベンチャーのガルフネットです。トリドールホールディングスをはじめ有名な外食チェーンを顧客に持つ会社で、ここでは4年間、開発責任者としてシステム面をリードするだけでなく、営業責任者も経験しました。技術に加えてビジネスの現場を動かす難しさと面白さを体感できたのは大きな収穫でした。

その後は投資会社Oakキャピタル（現 UNIVA・Oakホールディングス）に移り、約8年間にわたって投資先の企業にハンズオンで関わりました。経営再建やバリューアップ、時には自ら社長に就任するなど、経営そのものに深く入り込む経験を積みました。この時期に培った「事業をどう立て直し、成長へ導くか」という視点は、今の自分の大きな財産になっています。

そして2019年、トリドールホールディングスのCIOに着任しました。ちょうど6年が経過したところですが、これまでのキャリアで積み重ねてきたベンダーとしての知識、事業会社での経験、そして経営者としての視点のすべてを総動員し、事業成長を牽引するCIOとして挑戦を続けています。

キャリアを変えた「ビジネスをつくる」という挑戦

——これまでの経歴の中で、特に印象に残っている仕事はありますか？

振り返ると、それぞれの業種や立場で大きな挑戦がありました。最初にSIに携わっていた頃は、どれだけの規模のプロジェクトを回せるかが自分の成長のものさしでした。当時、800人月規模の開発プロジェクトを20代で任されていて、今思えばとても大きな責任を若いうちに与えてくれる会社だったと思います。

ソフトバンクでは、初めて「ビジネスをつくる」ということに挑戦しました。担当したのは、現在のセブンネットショッピングにつながるEコマース事業です。売上ゼロからスタートし、システム責任者として約200億円規模まで事業が成長するプロセスを支えた経験は、自分のキャリアにおいて非常に大きな意味を持ちました。単なるシステム開発ではなく、ビジネスを成長させることに直結する仕事だったからです。

現職であるトリドールホールディングスのCIOとしての最初の大仕事は、システムの全面的なモダナイズでした。着任してから6年をかけて取り組んできたのですが、ようやくすべての置き換えが完了する段階にきています。

当初は3年で完了させるつもりでしたが、社内の事情や既存の仕組みを丁寧に考慮しながら進める必要があり、結果として時間をかけてでも確実にやり切る形になりました。

取り組みのスタートは「システムがいくつあるのかを数える」ところからでした。最初に洗い出した時点で180ほどのシステムが存在していて、そこから業務の目的に立ち返って整理し、統合を進めてきました。最終的には180のシステムを大幅に集約し、今では40程度にまで減らすことができています。

こうしてみると、システムの棚卸しからモダナイズまでを自分の手でリードしてこられたことは、CIOとして最初に取り組むにふさわしいチャレンジだったと思います。

「オペレーション領域を切り離す」という挑戦

——これまでのキャリアの中で、最もチャレンジングだった出来事を教えてください。

とても神経を使ったのが、トリドールホールディングスで手がけた業務組織改革の取り組みです。

具体的には、トリドールグループの本社業務を、持ち株会社とシェアードサービス会社に分けたうえで、シェアードサービス会社が担っている管理部門の定型業務をオフバランス化し、BPOベンダーに移管するという取り組みでした。社内で担っていた業務を外部に出すというのは、大胆で、非常に繊細な調整を伴うプロジェクトでした。まずはIT部門から着手しましたが、これが最も大変だったと思います。

私は当時、シェアードサービス会社の社長を兼務しており、最大で180人ほどのメンバーを率いていました。そこにはIT運用のチームだけでなく、経理の記帳を担うファイナンス部隊や、人事の給与計算を担当する部隊など、いわゆるオペレーション機能が集約されていました。戦略立案は持ち株会社が担い、日常のオペレーションは一つに束ねて管理する体制を整えていたのです。その業務を少しずつ切り出して外部に移すというのが、当時の私の役割でした。

当然、既存の仕事を担っていた人材の「次のキャリアをどうつくるか」が課題になります。トリドールは兵庫県加古川市で創業し、その後兵庫県神戸市に本社を置いていましたが、当時シェアードサービス会社の拠点も神戸にありました。

渋谷の本社へ転勤可能な人にはホールディングスの業務を打診しましたが、家庭の事情などで転勤が難しい方も多くいました。そうした方には、BPOベンダーへ転籍してこれまでと同じ業務を継続してもらったり、トリドールグループの店舗に活躍の場を移してもらったりと、一人ひとりと面談を重ねて次の道を一緒に決めていきました。

もちろん、これは私ひとりでできることではありません。部長や管理職のメンバーに協力を得て、従業員たちと真摯に対話を重ねながら進めました。最終的には「それぞれが次の環境で長く活躍できること」がゴールでした。会社としての方針は明確にある一方で、できるだけ納得感を持って着地させることが、自分の最大の使命だったと思います。

投資を惜しまぬインターネットの発想がもたらした気づき

——仕事をする上で心に残っている言葉や出来事はありますか？

心に残っている言葉は2つあります。

まず一つは、セブンネットショッピングの立ち上げに関わっていた頃のことです。当時セブン&アイ・ホールディングスの会長を務めていた鈴木敏文さんの言葉を、当時の上司であって会長のご子息である、鈴木康弘さんより教えていただいたことがありました。

あるとき「人前で話すときにどうすれば緊張しないのでしょうか」と尋ねたら、「背伸びせず、分からないことは話さず、知っていることだけ話せば緊張しない」とおっしゃったんです。確かに、分からないことは「分からない」と言えばよい。そうやって等身大で話す人こそ、実績を残していけるのだと強く感じました。

もう一つは同じ時期、セブンネットショッピングがヤフーの子会社の事業だった頃の経験です。当時はまだインターネットが本格的なビジネスになりきっておらず、日本ではヤフーが先駆けていて、Googleがようやく参入したばかりの時期でした。

ユーザーが急増するとサーバが混み合い、システムが逼迫する場面も多かったのですが、その時に当時ヤフーの社長であった井上雅博さんから「インターネットビジネスというのはユーザーのアクセスが増えたらサーバを追加するのがゲームのルールなんだ。」と言われたんです。その言葉にハッとしました。

従来のエンタープライズの世界では、高価なリソースをどう最適化して使い切るか、という発想が基本でした。私自身も「限られた資源を大事に活用する」ことを当たり前だと思っていたのです。

しかしインターネットの世界では「安価なサーバを並べればいい」という発想が主流で、投資を前提にしたスケールアウトの文化が根づいていました。もし追加投資ができないのであれば、インターネットビジネス自体が成り立たないという考え方です。

この考え方の違いは衝撃でした。エンタープライズのテクノロジーと、インターネットのテクノロジーとの大きな違いをまざまざと感じた瞬間でしたし、その違いはいまなお、世の中では完全に融合しきれていない部分が残っていると感じています。

変化に強い基盤づくりこそCIOの最大のやりがい

——CIOとして、どのようなところにやりがいを感じますか？

私にとってCIOのやりがいは、「会社が目指す方向性を加速させる基盤をどうやってつくるか」に尽きると思っています。

当社のミッションは「お客さまに感動体験を届けること」です。その最前線に立っているのは店舗のスタッフであり、それを支えるマネジメント層です。

とはいえ、人だけに頼るのには限界がありますから、そこで「裏側から彼らをどう支えるか」が重要になります。変化に素早く対応できるビジネス基盤を整えることこそ、CIOとしての醍醐味だと思います。

IT部門が自分たちの論理だけで動いていても面白くはなりません。大事なのは「ビジネスにどれだけ貢献できているか」「変化にどれだけ柔軟に対応できる基盤を築けたか」ということです。

例えば事業のスケールを考えるとき、「業態が増えたら一つの仕組みで賄うのか、それとも複数を組み合わせるのか」といった設計思想が問われます。また「サーバ台数を増やすのか、一台を大規模化するのか」というスケールアウト／スケールアップの判断も必要になります。こうしたアーキテクチャの検討は非常に面白い部分です。

さらに、今のように変化の激しい時代では、経営陣が「やっぱりやめよう」と方針を転換することは必ず起こります。そんなときに「多額の投資をしてしまったからシステムを捨てられない」というのでは困るわけです。

だからこそ、私はなるべくサブスクリプション、つまりSaaSを活用しています。特にバックオフィスのように柔軟性が求められる領域は、SaaSを組み合わせた方がリスクを抑えられます。

こうした判断を支えているのは、エンジニアとしての経験と、事業経営に携わった経験の両方です。テクノロジーに精通していないと最適な選択はできませんし、経営の視点がなければ「ビジネスをどう支えるか」という答えも出せません。その両方を活かして考えられるのは、CIOとしての一番の楽しさだと思っています。

実は私はITベンダー時代から「これからはSaaSが必須になる」と考えていました。当時は提案してもユーザー企業が採用しなければ形になりませんでしたが、CIOの立場になって初めて「自分が決めれば実行できる」と実感しました。これは非常に大きな違いであり、事業会社側に移ったからこそ挑戦できていることです。

トリドールグループは変化を恐れずに進化を続けてきた会社です。だからこそ急成長してこられたし、時代の荒波にも沈まずに対応してきました。この強みは絶対に失ってはいけないですから、そのためにも、システム基盤を全面的にSaaSにする取り組みを進めてきました。

SaaSベンダーの製品の裏には優秀なエンジニアが数多くいて、考え方によっては彼ら全員が私たちを支えてくれている存在とも言えます。自社の力だけではなく、外部の力をどう組み合わせるか。それを設計できることこそがCIOの役割であり、私にとってのやりがいなのです。

——AI活用についてはいかがですか？

世の中では生成AIばかりが注目されていますが、私たちが注力しているのは「現場の生産性を高めるAI活用」です。生成AIはホワイトカラーの業務効率化には有効ですが、私たちの事業に直結する現場業務では、もっと実務的なAIの力が必要だと考えています。

その代表例が需要予測です。売上や来店客数をAIで予測することで、「明日は何人のスタッフを配置すべきか」「どれだけ食材を仕入れるべきか」といった店舗マネジメントの計画を効率化できます。これにより、現場の負担を大幅に軽減することができました。

もう一つは顔認証を活用した勤怠管理です。当社には多くのパート・アルバイトスタッフが働いており、その打刻作業は大きな課題でした。従来の指紋や静脈認証では水仕事や寒さで例外が発生しがちでしたが、顔認証に切り替えてからは例外ゼロ。しかも打刻スピードも速く、マスクをしていても瞬時に認証できるため、現場から「勤怠がスムーズになった」と好評です。

派手さはありませんが、こうした取り組みが現場の生産性を着実に引き上げています。これこそが、私たちが目指すAI活用の本質だと思っています。

CIOに必要なのは「ビジョンを語ること」と「やり抜く覚悟」

——CIOに必要な資質とは何でしょうか？

私が最も大事だと思うのは「覚悟」です。もちろん「決めたことをやり切る」ことも重要ですが、その前に「何を目指すのか」をはっきりと打ち出さなければなりません。未来の絵を描いたら、「この方向へ会社を導いていく」と宣言する。その宣言自体が、CIOにとっての覚悟の証だと思っています。

私自身も「DXビジョン」を社外に公表したことで、「もう絶対にやり切るしかない」と腹が決まりました。そうすることで、社員もベンダーも「トリドールグループはこういう姿を目指しているのだ」と理解し、同じ方向を向けるようになるのです。これは非常に大きな意味を持ちます。

CIOには、目指す姿を絵として示し、そのビジョンに向かってひたすら突き進む力が求められます。その際、バックキャストの発想が欠かせません。「このゴールに到達するために、今何をすべきか」を逆算して考えるのです。フォアキャスト、つまり現状の延長線上で課題解決を積み重ねるだけでは、新しい価値は生まれません。

もちろん、一定の安定期に入ればフォアキャスト的な改善で十分なこともあります。しかし、大きな変革を起こす時には、バックキャストで大胆に道筋を描く必要があります。

そして、ときに大きなギャップが生じたら「違う、こちらに舵を切るぞ」と果断に方向転換できる——。これこそがCIOに求められる資質だと私は考えています。

デジタル時代のリーダーが身につけるべき「三本柱」とは

——これからCIOを目指す人材に求められるスキルは何でしょうか？

私自身、チームのメンバーには「将来はCIOやCTO、あるいはCDOといった役割を担える人材になってほしい」と常々伝えています。日本にはまだそうした人材が十分に育っていません。だからこそ、多くの企業でデジタルをビジネスに結びつける橋渡し役となれる人を増やす必要があると思っています。若い人も、最初からこの役割を目指してキャリアを積んでほしいと考えています。

そのために必要なのは大きく三つの力です。

まずは基礎的な技術力です。コードを書けないITリーダーもいますが、書けるに越したことはありません。私自身も中学生の頃からコードを書いてきました。プログラミング言語も一つではなく、二つ以上学ぶことで比較ができ、より深い理解につながります。これは転職を経験すると新しい世界が見えるのと同じで、複数の視点を持つことが重要だと思います。

次に必要なのはアーキテクトとしての力です。ユーザー企業のCIOは「既存の技術をどう組み合わせ、自社のビジネスに最適な構造をつくるか」を常に考えなければなりません。CTOの役割に近い部分でもありますが、ネットワークやインフラ、クラウドといった基礎を理解していないと、最適な組み合わせを判断できません。システムアーキテクトとしての知識と発想は必須だと考えています。

そして最後はコミュニケーション力です。プロジェクトがうまくいかない原因の多くは、技術力不足よりもコミュニケーション不足にあります。私は1on1をよくやりますが、相手は社長からグループ会社の役員、事業会社の幹部まで幅広いです。彼らが「何をやりたいのか」を理解しなければ、先を見据えたシステム設計はできませんし、信頼できる相談相手になれなければ良い成果も出せません。これは自分だけでなく、部長クラスのメンバーにも求めています。

基礎的な技術力、アーキテクトとしての構築力、そしてコミュニケーション力——。この三つはCIOを目指す上で欠かせない資質です。BtoB企業なら特に、パートナー企業との関係が重要ですから、若いうちから強く意識してほしいと思っています。

目指すは「世界に通じる外食企業」――グローバルブランドへの挑戦

——今後の展望について教えてください。

当社は「グローバルフードカンパニー」を企業ビジョンに掲げています。目指しているのは、有名なハンバーガーチェーンやコーヒーチェーンと肩を並べる、日本初の「世界に通じる外食企業」になることです。

トリドールグループはすでに30カ国以上に展開していますが、すべての国で日本と同じクオリティーを実現できているかといえば、まだ課題が残っています。ここをどう底上げするかが、これからの大きなテーマです。私はデジタルの力で水準をそろえ、さらに新しい国へ展開しやすい環境を整えることが、ビジネスの加速につながると考えています。

これまでは日本市場に注力してきましたが、今後はグローバルの子会社やフランチャイズパートナーに対して、より積極的に支援していきたいと思っています。

もちろん、すべてを一律の仕組みに当てはめるのは現実的ではありません。製造業のように全世界で同じシステムを展開するアプローチもありますが、私たち外食産業では「現地の人に食べてもらって初めて価値がある」わけですから、一定の自由度を残しつつ、「トリドールグループとして絶対に守ってほしい基準」をどう浸透させるかが重要になります。

そこで有効なのがデジタル基盤です。仕組みに組み込んでしまえば、意識せずとも自然に基準が担保される。そうした仕掛けを増やしていきたいと考えています。

ただしやりすぎると、当社の強みである「手づくり・できたて」のこだわりが薄れてしまうリスクもあります。その線引きをどうするかは難しい課題ですが、むしろそこに面白さがあると感じています。

トップや事業会社の責任者と一緒に議論を重ね、現地に合った最適なバランスを見つけていく。そうした取り組みをグローバルに広げていきたいと思っています。

Modern CIOs and tech leaders carry responsibility not only for an organization’s technology but, as key partners, for its entire business success. So having access to readily transferable lessons is critical in order to solve real business challenges, and lead with clarity, confidence, and purpose.

As a jumping off point, I’ve distilled here some of my favourite maxims from different business functions.

Maxim 2: Try to be human

You’re more interesting than you think. Try to be human. I realize this is a tough ask for us classic IT introvert types, but with many interactions now conducted remotely, it’s even more important to find opportunities to meet in person.

Letting people know what makes you tick personally is of more interest than you could probably imagine. Colleagues are interested in you as a whole person, not simply as the person they work with. So don’t be afraid to bring yourself to work, as the phrase goes. This allows others to do the same, and to talk about their own feelings and circumstances.

As an INTP (an introverted, intuitive, thinking, and perceiving type from the Myers-Briggs personality assessment), social events aren’t my natural environment. And we’ve probably all experienced how work and socializing sometimes don’t mix. Is an orchestrated corporate event all that comfortable for anyone? But try to show up and meet people, relax a bit, and have some fun.

Maxim 6: Beware the IT cultural cringe

IT people often prefer to vent about the technology-ignorant business rather than stand up and explain the tech. Instead of declaring something’s bad for the company or a dead-end, they shrug and say the business just doesn’t get it.

No matter how great your strategy is, your plans will fail without a company culture that encourages people to implement it. I know from speaking to other CIOs that a frequent role for them is standing up for IT and defending their teams in a culture where the business blames IT for its failures.

It’s therefore vital to coach your teams to deal on equal terms with their internal business customers. Key to this is talking in business terms, not IT jargon. The reason for not adopting a nonstandard piece of tech is it’ll inflate future company running costs, not that it doesn’t neatly fit the IT estate. So stand up and be counted on a matter of tech principle, and win the debate.

Maxim 8: There are no IT projects, only business projects.

When IT projects fail, it’s often because of a lack of ownership by the business.

The entire purpose of your IT department is to move the organization forward. So any investment must deliver on quantifiable financial targets or defined business objectives. If it doesn’t, move on. This is fundamental. Forgetting to do so is easy when under pressure, as others press you with their own agendas, but dangerous for you and the business.

Everything I’ve learned and seen reinforces this. Without this focus, you’re just an IT supplier taking orders, not the executive IT partner of the business. Question any actions by your team that can’t be linked back to the company’s core objectives.

It all comes down to building relationships based on trust with your business colleagues who recognize that you understand what the business needs and can afford, so challenge projects not owned by the business leaders.

Maxim 10: The CIO as the personification of IT

Be vocal about your team’s successes and be honest about your mistakes. As CIO, you’re the face of the IT function in your organization, and you set the tone for everyone in IT.

Try not to talk about the business and IT as separate entities. You and your team are just as integral to the company as sales, operations, or finance. Always talk about our business needs and what we should do.

Remember, you’re accountable for all the IT. These days, we talk about being authentic, so being honest about your slip-ups, and how you feel about them, is important in establishing your reputation, both internally and externally.

Explain a success to others in the organization and why it worked. Bring out how collaboration between their teams and IT, working to aligned plans and objectives, made good things happen for everyone involved.

Maxim 36: Join up digital and IT

Digital natives need to work together with old techies. Advances of the last decade have been delivered by fast-moving digital startups, financed by deep-pocketed investors. Unsurprisingly, this has spawned organizational impatience with the costs and time taken by traditional or legacy IT functions. This frustration can then translate into setting up a completely separate digital department under a CDO, charged with implementing the new and faster-moving business.

Your current business is built on long-established ways of working, and processes that remain necessary, unless you’re going to build them all a second time for the new digital channel. If not, then new components, including services and products, will have to interface with existing systems, as well as firmly established and mission-critical business processes. So with this dynamic, ensure that both traditional IT and new digital report to you.

Maxim 56: AI is a tech-driven business revolution

AI is the most overhyped bandwagon in technology, more than bitcoin, big data, and augmented and virtual reality. Nevertheless, it’s the most far-reaching tech-driven change since the advent of the internet. In a matter of months, AI and AI agents are doing to white-collar jobs what production line robots did to blue-collar jobs 20 years ago.

AI is transforming the world and we’re just at the beginning of this revolution. So what are you doing about it?

Your challenge as CIO is that AI has cut through to your board and executive leadership like nothing before. Furthermore, all your partners and suppliers are building AI agents into their software and services. Plus, all your best digital innovators in the business, and definitely all your recent grad hires, are using Chat GPT and bespoke AI tools in their day jobs. As CIO, you hold the keys to AI working well by effectively wielding the data in your systems. After all, you and your team are the ones who best understand how the AI works as the means to achieve business value.

Movers & Shakers is where you can keep up with new CIO appointments and gain valuable insight into the job market and CIO hiring trends. As every company becomes a technology company, CEOs and corporate boards are seeking multi-dimensional CIOs and IT leaders with superior skills in technology, communications, business strategy, and digital innovation. The role is more challenging than ever before — but even more exciting and rewarding! If you have CIO job news to share, please email me!

Nationwide appoints Michael Carrel as CTO

Nationwide provides a full range of insurance and financial services products across the US. Its insurance portfolio includes car, motorcycle, homeowners, pet, farm, life, and commercial policies. The company also offers annuities, mutual funds, retirement, plans and specialty health services. Carrel brings more than 30 years of experience within Nationwide Technology. Most recently, he served as SVP and CTO for Nationwide Financial where he was responsible for all tech solutions supporting Nationwide’s financial services businesses. He earned a BS from Bowling Green State University and an MBA from the University of Dayton.

Anand Varadarajan named CTO for Starbucks

Starbucks Coffee Company is a roaster and retailer of specialty coffee, and an American multinational chain, with cafes and stores around the globe. Varadarajan was most recently with Amazon, where he led technology and supply chain efforts for the Worldwide Grocery Stores business. Earlier in his career, he held software engineering roles at Oracle and contributed to several early-stage tech companies. Varadarajan earned a B. Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology and an MS from Purdue and from the University of Washington.

Goodyear welcomes Raman Mehta as CIO

The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, distributes, and sells tires, and related products and services worldwide. Most recently, Mehta served as SVP and CIO at Johnson Electric, where he led enterprise-wide transformation across ERP, PLM, smart manufacturing, analytics, and AI. His prior leadership experience includes CIO roles at Visteon Corporation, Fabrinet, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and a senior role at Oracle where he drove large-scale IT modernization, software-led transformation, and operational resilience across global automotive and manufacturing ecosystems.

Jim Fowler joins Lumen as CTPO

Lumen Technologies is a global tech company providing network, cloud, security, and IT services.Fowler joins from Nationwide Insurance, where he served as EVP and CTO, responsible for modernizing core tech capabilities, driving digital transformation of business operations, and scaling intelligent automation across the enterprise. Prior to Nationwide, Fowler held senior tech leadership roles at GE, including Global CIO, where he led the internal digital transformation strategy and operations. Fowler holds a BS from Miami University and an MBA from Xavier University.

DXC Technology appoints Russell Jukes as CDIO

DXC Technology is an enterprise tech and innovation partner delivering software, services, and solutions to global enterprises and public sector organizations. Jukes joined in 2017 and has played a pivotal role in shaping DXC’s digital strategy and global technology capabilities. Before joining, he held senior roles across global tech organizations at HP and HPE, where he led modernization, enterprise engineering, and digital operations programs.

Dana Haggas named CIO for Emory University

Emory University, in Atlanta, Georgia, is a private research university founded in 1836 and offers a wide range of undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs. Haggas joined as an application developer and has served in various IT leadership positions there, including manager of PeopleSoft applications, senior director, interim deputy CIO, and associate CIO in enterprise applications. She received a BS from the University of Georgia.

Associa appoints Michelle Johnson as chief information and transformation officer

Associa is a community association management firm, serving more than five million members. Most recently, Johnson served as a senior partner at Fortium Partners. Before that, she was EVP and CIO at Freeman Company, leading global technology strategy and teams of more than 200 employees and partners. Johnson has also held tech and business leadership positions at FedEx Office, Deloitte Consulting, and JCPenney. She earned a BA from St. Ambrose University and an MBA from the University of Kansas School of Business.  

Laura Fultz announced as CDIO for Emory Healthcare

Emory Healthcare is a comprehensive healthcare system that offers 11 hospitals, the Emory Clinic, more than 250 provider locations, and more than 2,800 physicians specializing in 70 different medical subspecialties. Fultz joined as an application solution analyst and held several leadership roles as manager and corporate director, associate CIO and VP of applications and digital experience for Emory Healthcare. Fultz holds a BBA from the University of Georgia.

1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. taps Alex Zelikovsky as CIO

Founded in 1976, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM provides gifts for various occasions. The company’s portfolio includes more than 18 premium brands, such as 1-800-Flowers.com, Harry & David, PersonalizationMall.com, and Things Remembered. Most recently, Zelikovsky served as EVP and Global CIO at Pitney Bowes. Before that, he held divisional CIO and head of digital tech roles at Kimberly-Clark for both EMEA and Latin America, where he executed IT transformation strategies that drove business turnarounds and operating profit growth. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Brooklyn College, and an MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.

Westfield welcomes Lloyd Scholz as CIO

Westfield is a property and casualty insurance company that underwrites commercial, personal, surety, and specialty lines of coverage. Most recently, Scholz served as senior managing director and CTO at Markel, where he led global teams supporting business operations across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific. Prior to that, he held progressive leadership roles focused on data engineering, analytics platforms, cloud strategy, and enterprise technology transformation at Capital One.

Christopher Mackie promoted to CIO at McGuireWoods

McGuireWoods represents financial services institutions, fintech company investment advisers, broker-dealers in litigation, and transactional and regulatory matters. Mackie was previously CTO at McGuireWoods, and managed a team of 70 professionals, oversaw the firm’s IT budget, collaborated with the firm’s AI and innovation team, and led a data governance initiative that reduced high-risk file exposures, and helped scale the firm’s remote work capabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Before coming to McGuireWoods, Mackie held senior roles at Winston & Strawn LLP and Huron Consulting Group, leading IT teams in the legal, healthcare and higher education sectors.

Kendall Knight joins Intermodal Tank Transport as CIO

Intermodal Tank Transport (ITT) is a global tank container logistics and transportation company. Knight arrives at Intermodal from Loomis where he served as CIO. His prior roles include CTO at Ceva Logistics, senior director enterprise applications at Hertz, and senior director of IT at Johnson Controls. Knight earned a BBA from the University of Kentucky and an MS from Houston Baptist University – Archie W. Dunham College of Business.

New CIO appointments, December 2025

Intel appoints Cindy Stoddard as CIO

John Hancock names Kartik Sakthivel CIO

Ameet Shetty joins RaceTrac as CIO

Guidehouse taps Ron White as CIO

AmeriLife names Sulabh Srivastava CIO

Tim Farris joins Clancy & Theys Construction Company as CIO

Ronald McDonald House Charities welcomes Jarrod Bell as CIO

Devang Patel joins Devereux as CIO

MIB promotes Daniel Gortze to CIO

New CIO appointments, November 2025

New York Life appoints Deepa Soni as CIO

Rohit Kapoor joins Whataburger as CDTTO

A.O. Smith taps Chris Howe as CDIO

Soma Venkat named CITAIO for Cooper Standard

Wella Company welcomes Julia Anderson as CDIO

Anthony Spangenberg joins MSPCA-Angell as CIO

Cengage Group welcomes Ken Grady as CIO

Marc Rubel joins Mirion as CIO

Smith names Mike Mercado CIO

Gregg Cottage promoted to CIO and CISO at NN, Inc.

CFA Institute taps Eliot Pikoulis as CIO

New CIO appointments, October 2025

State Farm names Joe Park as CDIO

Steve Bronson announced as CIO for Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits

Bridge Specialty Group appoints Steve Emmons as CIO

Dawn-Marie Hutchinson joins Reynolds American as CIO

Amway welcomes Ryan Talbott as CTO

Randy Dougherty promoted to CIO for Trellix

Shayne Mehringer joins Redwood Services as CIO

Kratos promotes Brian Shepard to CIO

Ravi Soin named CIO and CISO for Smartsheet

Infoblox appoints Justin Kappers as CIO

Manu Narayan named CIO for GitLab

Boomi appoints Keyur Ajmera as CIO

Eric Skinner promoted to CIO for Citadel Credit Union

CONA Services appoints Francesco Quinterno as CIO

New CIO appointments, September 2025

Bank of America names Hari Gopalkrishnan CTIO

Vishal Talwar appointed CDIO for FedEx

Highmark Health announces Alistair Erskine as CIDO

Steven Dee joins Kohl’s as CTO

AI Fire welcomes Mike Marchetti as CIO

Ted Doering joins Ball Corporation as CIO

SpartanNash names Ed Rybicki as CIO

Tara Long named CIO for FM

Trimble announces Jim Palermo as CIO

Bradley Lontz named CIO for CSAA Insurance Group

EchoStor Technologies welcomes Cale Anjoorian as CIO

Corey Farrell joins Peloton as CIO

AWP Safety appoints Craig Young as CIO

Georgeo Pulikkathara joins iMerit as CIO and CISO

Pathward appoints Charles Ingram as CIOO

Ardent Mills appoints Ryan Kelley as CIO

New CIO appointments, August 2025

Neal Sample joins Best Buy as CDTO

Southern Company names Hans Brown CITO

Tim Langley-Hawthorne named CTO of Love’s Travel Stops

QXO appoints Eric Nelson as CIO

Gaspare LoDuca named CIO for MIT

University of Wisconsin-Madison welcomes Didier Contis as CIO

Matt Keen joins Old National Bancorp as CIO

CHG Healthcare names Theresa O’Leary as CIO

Bill Poirier named CIO at the University of Central Florida

Avalara announces Shahan Parshad as CIO

Rajeev Khanna named CIO for Trucordia

Cottage Health Welcomes Ganesh Persad as CIO

Tara Cook joins Hinshaw & Culbertson as CIO

Waiting on replacement parts can be more than just an inconvenience. It can be a matter of sharp loss of income and opportunity. This is especially true for those who depend on industrial tools and equipment for agriculture and construction. So to keep things run as efficiently as possible, Parts ASAP CIO John Fraser makes sure end customer satisfaction is the highest motivation to get the tech implementation and distribution right.

“What it comes down to, in order to achieve that, is the team,” he says. “I came into this organization because of the culture, and the listen first, act later mentality. It’s something I believe in and I’m going to continue that culture.”

Bringing in talent and new products has been instrumental in creating a stable e-commerce model, so Fraser and his team can help digitally advertise to customers, establish the right partnerships to drive traffic, and provide the right amount of data.

“Once you’re a customer of ours, we have to make sure we’re a needs-based business,” he says. “We have to be the first thing that sticks in their mind because it’s not about a track on a Bobcat that just broke. It’s $1,000 a day someone’s not going to make due to a piece of equipment that’s down.”

Ultimately, this strategy helps and supports customers with a collection of highly-integrated tools to create an immersive experience. But the biggest challenge, says Fraser, is the variety of marketplace channels customers are on.

“Some people prefer our website,” he says. “But some are on Walmart or about 20 other commercial channels we sell on. Each has unique requirements, ways to purchase, and product descriptions. On a single product, we might have 20 variations to meet the character limits of eBay, for instance, or the brand limitations of Amazon. So we’ve built out our own product information management platform. It takes the right talent to use that technology and a feedback loop to refine the process.”

Of course, AI is always in the conversation since people can’t write updated descriptions for 250,000 SKUs.

“AI will fundamentally change what everybody’s job is,” he says. “I know I have to prepare for it and be forward thinking. We have to embrace it. If you don’t, you’re going to get left behind.”

Fraser also details practical AI adoption in terms of pricing, product data enhancement, and customer experience, while stressing experimentation without over-dependence. Watch the full video below for more insights, and be sure to subscribe to the monthly Center Stage newsletter by clicking here.

On consolidating disparate systems: You certainly run into challenges. People are on the same ERP system so they have some familiarity. But even within that, you have massive amounts of customization. Sometimes that’s very purpose-built for the type of process an organization is running, or that unique sales process, or whatever. But in other cases, it’s very hard. We’ve acquired companies with their own custom built ERP platform, where they spent 20 years curating it down to eliminate every button click. Those don’t go quite as well, but you start with a good culture, and being transparent with employees and customers about what’s happening, and you work through it together. The good news is it starts with putting the customer first and doing it in a consistent way. Tell people change is coming and build a rapport before you bring in massive changes. There are some quick wins and efficiencies, and so people begin to trust. Then, you’re not just dragging them along but bringing them along on the journey.

On AI: Everybody’s talking it, but there’s a danger to that, just like there was a danger with blockchain and other kinds of immersive technologies. You have to make sure you know why you’re going after AI. You can’t just use it because it’s a buzzword. You have to bake it into your strategy and existing use cases, and then leverage it. We’re doing it in a way that allows us to augment our existing strategy rather than completely and fundamentally change it. So for example, we’re going to use AI to help influence what our product pricing should be. We have great competitive data, and a great idea of what our margins need to be and where the market is for pricing. Some companies are in the news because they’ve gone all in on AI, and AI is doing some things that are maybe not so appropriate in terms of automation. But if you can go in and have it be a contributing factor to a human still deciding on pricing, that’s where we are rather than completely handing everything over to AI.

On pooling data: We have a 360-degree view of all of our customers. We know when they’re buying online and in person. If they’re buying construction equipment and material handling equipment, we’ll see that. But when somebody’s buying a custom fork for a forklift, that’s very different than someone needing a new water pump for a John Deere tractor. And having a manufacturing platform that allows us to predict a two and a half day lead time on that custom fork is a different system to making sure that water pump is at your door the next day. Trying to do all that in one platform just hasn’t been successful in my experience in the past. So we’ve chosen to take a bit of a hybrid approach where you combine the data but still have best in breed operational platforms for different segments of the business.

On scaling IT systems: The key is we’re not afraid to have more than one operational platform. Today, in our ecosystem of 23 different companies, we’re manufacturing parts in our material handling business, and that’s a very different operational platform than, say, purchasing overseas parts, bringing them in, and finding a way to sell them to people in need, where you need to be able to distribute them fast. It’s an entirely different model. So we’re not establishing one core platform in that case, but the right amount of platforms. It’s not 23, but it’s also not one. So as we think about being able to scale, it’s also saying that if you try to be all things to all people, you’re going to be a jack of all trades and an expert in none. So we want to make sure when we have disparate segments that have some operational efficiency in the back end — same finance team, same IT teams — we’ll have more than one operational platform. Then through different technologies, including AI, ensure we have one view of the customer, even if they’re purchasing out of two or three different systems.

On tech deployment: Experiment early and then make certain not to be too dependent on it immediately. We have 250,000 SKUs, and more than two million parts that we can special order for our customers, and you can’t possibly augment that data with a world-class description with humans. So we selectively choose how to make the best product listing for something on Amazon or eBay. But we’re using AI to build enhanced product descriptions for us, and instead of having, say, 10 people curating and creating custom descriptions for these products, we’re leveraging AI and using agents in a way that allow people to build the content. Now humans are simply approving, rejecting, or editing that content, so we’re leveraging them for the knowledge they need to have, and if this going to be a good product listing or not. We know there are thousands of AI companies, and for us to be able to pick a winner or loser is a gamble. Our approach is to make it a bit of a commoditized service. But we’re also pulling in that data and putting it back into our core operational platform, and there it rests. So if we’re with the wrong partner, or they get acquired, or go out of business, we can switch quickly without having to rewrite our entire set of systems because we take it in, use it a bit as a commoditized service, get the data, set it at rest, and then we can exchange that AI engine. We’ve already changed it five times and we’re okay to change it another five until we find the best possible partner so we can stay bleeding edge without having all the expense of building it too deeply into our core platforms.

As 2026 begins, my recent conversations with Chief Information Officers across Southeast Asia provided me with a grounded view of how digital transformation is evolving. While their perspectives differ in nuance, they converge on several defining shifts: the maturation of artificial intelligence, the emergence of autonomous systems, a renewed focus on data governance, and a reconfiguration of work. These changes signal not only technological advancement but a rethinking of how Southeast Asia organizations intend to compete and create value in an increasingly automated economy.

For our CIOs, the year ahead represents a decisive moment as AI moves beyond pilots and hype cycles. Organizations are expected to judge AI by measurable business outcomes rather than conceptual promise. AI capabilities will become standard features embedded across applications and infrastructure, fundamental rather than differentiating. The real challenge is no longer acquiring AI technology but operationalizing it in ways that align with strategic priorities.

Among the most transformative developments is the rise of agentic AI – autonomous agents capable of performing tasks and interacting across systems. CIOs anticipate that organizations will soon manage not a single AI system but networks of agents, each with distinct logic and behaviour. This shift ushers in a new strategic focus, agentic AI orchestration. Organizations will need platforms that coordinate multiple agents, enforce governance, manage digital identity, and ensure trust across heterogeneous technology environments. As AI ecosystems grow more complex, the CIO’s role evolves from integrator to orchestrator who directs a diverse array of intelligent systems.

As AI becomes more central to operations, data governance emerges as a critical enabler. Technology leaders expect 2026 to expose the limits of weak data foundations. Data quality, lineage, access controls, and regulatory compliance determine whether AI initiatives deliver value. Organizations that have accumulated “data debt” will be unable to scale, while those that invest early will move with greater speed and confidence.

Automation in physical environments is also set to accelerate as CIOs expect robotics to expand across healthcare, emergency services, retail, and food and beverage sectors. Robotics will shift from specialised deployments to routine service delivery, supporting productivity goals, standardizing quality, and addressing persistent labour constraints.

Looking ahead, our region’s CIOs point to the early signals of quantum computing’s relevance. While still emerging, quantum technologies are expected to gain visibility through evolving products and research. In my view, for Southeast Asia organizations, the priority is not immediate adoption but proactive monitoring, particularly in cybersecurity and long-term data protection, without undertaking premature architectural shifts.

Perhaps the most provocative prediction concerns the nature of work. As specialised AI agents take on increasingly complex task chains, one CIO anticipates the rise of “cognitive supply chains” in which work is executed largely autonomously. Traditional job roles may fragment into task-based models, pushing individuals to redefine their contributions. Workplace identity could shift from static roles to dynamic capabilities, a broader evolution in how people create value in an AI-native economy.

One CIOs spotlight the changing nature of software development where natural-language-driven “vibe coding” is expected to mature, enabling non-technical teams to extend digital capabilities more intuitively. This trend will not diminish the relevance of enterprise software as both approaches will coexist to support different organizational needs.

CIO ASEAN Editorial final take:

Collectively, these perspectives shared by Southeast Asia’s CIO community point to Southeast Asia preparing for a structurally different digital future, defined by embedded AI, scaled autonomous systems, and disciplined data practices. The opportunity is substantial, but so is the responsibility placed on technology leaders.

As 2026 continue to unfold, the defining question will not simply be who uses AI, but who governs it effectively, integrates it responsibly, and shapes its trajectory to strengthen long-term enterprise resilience. Enjoy reading these top predictions for 2026 by our region’s most influential CIOs who are also our CIO100 ASEAN & Hong Kong Award 2025 winners:

Ee Kiam Keong Deputy Chief Executive (Policy & Development) concurrent Chief Information Officer InfoComm Technology Division Gambling Regulatory Authority Singapore   Prediction 1 AI continue to lead its edge esp. Agentic AI would be getting more popular and used, and AI Governance in terms AI risks and ethnics would get more focused   Prediction 2 Quantum Computing related products should start to evolve and more apparent.   Prediction 3 Deployment of robotic applications would be widened esp. in medical, emergency response and casual activities such retail, and food and beverage etc.

Ng Yee Pern, Chief Technology Officer Far East Organization   Prediction 4 AI deployments will start to mature, as enterprises confront the disconnect between the inflated promises of AI vendors and the actual value delivered.   Prediction 5 Vibe coding will mature and grow in adoption, but enterprise software is not going away. There is plenty of room for both to co-exist.

Athikom Kanchanavibhu Executive Vice President, Digital & Technology Transformation & Chief Information Security Officer Mitr Phol Group   Prediction 6 The Next Vendor Battleground: Agentic AI Orchestration By 2026, AI will no longer be a differentiator, it will be a default feature, embedded as standard equipment across modern digital products. As every vendor develops its own Agentic AI, enterprises will manage not one AI, but an orchestra of autonomous agents, each optimized for its own ecosystem.   The new battleground will be Agentic AI Orchestration where platforms can coordinate, govern, and securely connect agentic AIs across vendors and domains. 2026 won’t be about smarter agents, but about who can conduct the symphony best-safely, at scale, and across boundaries.   Prediction 7 Enterprise AI Grows Up: Data Governance Takes Center Stage 2026 will mark the transition from AI pilots to AI in production. While out-of-the-box AI will become common, true competitive advantage will come from applying AI to enterprise-specific data and context. Many organizations will face a sobering realization: AI is only as good as the data it is trusted with.   As AI moves into core business processes, data governance, management, and security will become non-negotiable foundations. Data quality, access control, privacy, and compliance will determine whether AI scales or stalls. In essence, 2026 will be the year enterprises learn that governing data well is the quiet superpower behind successful AI.

Jackson Ng Chief Technology Officer and Head of Fintech Azimut Group   Prediction 8 In 2026, organizations will see AI seeking power while humans search for purpose. Cognitive supply chains of specialized AI agents will execute work autonomously, forcing individuals to redefine identity at work, in service, and in society. Roles will disintegrate, giving way to a task-based, AI-native economy

2026年、企業のIT戦略はかつてないスピードで進化しています。生成AIの普及、サイバーセキュリティの高度化、データ活用の深化など、変革の波は経営の根幹にまで及んでいます。こうした環境下で、CIOをはじめとするITリーダーには、テクノロジーとビジネスを融合させ、持続的な競争力を生み出す戦略が求められています。

CIO.com Japanでは、国内を代表するCIO、CTO、CAIOをはじめとするITリーダーに「2026年に注目すべきITトレンド」とその背景についてコメントをいただきました。

本記事では、国内トップITリーダーが語る「次の一手」を通じて、2026年のIT戦略の方向性を探ります。

株式会社リコー
コーポレート上席執行役員CTO
セキュリティ統括担当
技術統括部 部⾧、デジタル戦略部 部⾧
野水 泰之 氏

AI駆動型プロセス最適化が企業競争力を決める

2026年はエージェント型AIの本格導入が進み、「AI駆動型プロセス最適化」とそのための「データ活用基盤・データ整備強化」が加速します。

リコーではERPの刷新を進めていますが、刷新に伴い業務プロセスをAI駆動型に再設計しながら開発・運用の自動化を進めます。

同時にAI活用強化のために予防型セキュリティへの進化、AIガバナンス・リスクマネジメントの強化を進めていきます。

株式会社荏原製作所
執行役 CIO（最高情報責任者)
小和瀬 浩之 氏

AI時代の本質は「人材再配置」とプロセス再設計

昨今報道されるAI導入促進による従業員数の整理が大きく報道されますが、生産性向上というよりは、新たなAI収益源への「人材の戦略的再配置」だとみています。

我々はAIによる真の生産性向上を実現し、ROIを高めるためには、機能プロセスの徹底的な再設計・再編成が必須であり、その労力はAI技術導入よりも一層の労力を要すると考えています。

株式会社博報堂DYホールディングス
執行役員
CAIO
森 正弥 氏

AIエージェント時代の到来：創造性と効率化の両立が鍵

2026年は、AIが単なる生成ツールから自律的に「考え、動く」エージェントへと進化し、実務への浸透が定着するフェーズに入ると予想されます。同時に、AIへの過度な依存によるアウトプットの均質化や、従業員の創造性が損なわれるリスクも指摘されています。単なる効率化にとどまらず、現場の暗黙知や自社ならではの創造性をAIといかに融合させるかを念頭に、組織デザインや業務プロセス、データのAI-Ready化を進めることが重要な経営課題となると考えます。

IT領域においては、「Vibe Coding」に代表されるAI駆動型の開発手法が広がり、システム構築のアプローチそのものが変容しつつあります。エージェントによるシステム間連携やフィジカルAIといった新たな技術潮流への対応も見据え、変化に柔軟に適応できるアーキテクチャへの刷新を計画的に進めていくことが大切です。

伊藤忠商事株式会社
准執行役員　IT・デジタル戦略部長　
浦上 善一郎 氏

AIトランスフォーメーションが経営の最大テーマになる年

2026年のITトレンドは、AIを「生産性向上のための道具」として見る段階から、「会社の競争力を支える土台」として捉え直す流れが一気に進む年になると考えています。

これに伴い、IT経営基盤の役割も大きく変わります。基幹システムは単なる業務処理の仕組みから、AIが活用しやすいデータを蓄積する「AIを前提とした基盤」へと進化し、それらを支えるオンプレミスと複数クラウドの一体的な運用、すなわち「ハイブリッドクラウド管理」の重要性がこれまで以上に高まっていくでしょう。

こうした基盤の上でビジネスを牽引するのが、自律的に業務を進めるAIエージェントや、現場でリアルタイムに判断を下すエッジAIといった技術です。しかし、AIが業務の中枢に入り込むほど、「どのAIに何を任せ、結果をどう説明するか」というAIガバナンスや、生成AIを悪用した攻撃に対抗する多層的なサイバーセキュリティ対策といった「守り」の仕組みも欠かせなくなります。

最終的には、単にツールを導入するだけでなく、ビジネスモデルや意思決定のあり方そのものをAI前提に再構築する「AIトランスフォーメーション（AIX）」を、全社としてどう実現していくか。これが、2026年の経営における最大のテーマになると見ています。

楽天グループ株式会社
専務執行役員 Group CIO（Chief Information Officer）& Group CTO（Chief Technology Officer）
黒住 昭仁 氏

AIの民主化の時代：企業競争力はデータ資産・AIテクノロジー・倫理観が鍵に

2026 年は、AIを使用しているという認識すらなくなっていくほど、AIが日常の「当たり前」になるでしょう。これはまさに、楽天グループが目指す「AI の民主化」の姿です。このAI時代の競争においては、企業の持つデータ資産、AIテクノロジー、そして倫理観 の３つが大きなキーワードになると考えています。

楽天グループでは、蓄積された各ドメインの膨大なデータを、当社独自の AI エージェントにより 70 以上のサービスに連携させ、お客様一人ひとりに最適化された体験を提供していくことで、「楽天エコシステム（経済圏）」の進化を目指しています。顧客体験を AI テクノロジーで再構築し、より便利で安全なサービスを提供できるよう、今後も努めてまいります。

Legacy manufacturing environments are inherently complex. Deep technical expertise, global operations, and precision processes create a level of interdependence that makes transformation challenging to orchestrate. For CIOs, the task isn’t just about deploying new technologies, but untangling that complexity and evolving from old and deeply embedded ways of working.

When Aroon Sehgal joined Videojet Technologies as CIO last year, he became part of an organization with decades of technical excellence and a proud engineering culture. Videojet, a global leader in coding, marking, and printing solutions for product traceability, had long operated as part of healthcare company Danaher. Now, as a key business within Veralto, a $5 billion global tech leader focused on environmental and product quality solutions, Sehgal saw an opportunity to position technology as a source of differentiation and growth.

“When we were part of Danaher, Videojet was a rounding error,” Sehgal says. “Now under Veralto, we’re a meaningful part of the portfolio. That creates both visibility and accountability, and leadership is laser-focused on using technology to drive business outcomes.”

Tech moves to the center of strategy

Following Videojet’s most recent strategic planning cycle, one of the company’s top enterprise-wide initiatives focused on commercial excellence is being led by Sehgal himself. It marks the first time in company history that a technology executive has been chosen to lead one of its most critical strategic programs.

“Historically, these initiatives were owned by product or operations leaders,” Sehgal says. “The fact that technology is now seen as a primary driver of growth says everything about how the organization’s mindset has shifted.”

When he arrived, IT was viewed largely as a service provider. His first move was to rebrand the organization, both in name and purpose. IT became digital and technology solutions, or DTS, a deliberate signal that the function would no longer operate in the background. “We needed to recast technology,” he adds. “That meant aligning to our three most important outcomes: growth, margin expansion, and productivity.”

Embedding tech in the business

To make that shift real, Sehgal restructured how technology partners with the business. His team introduced geography-based business engagement leads, each embedded with regional leadership to ensure direct input into business decisions instead of hearing technology needs second or third hand. He also elevated leaders to run new centers of excellence around Videojet’s most strategic capabilities, including data and AI, e-commerce and web, and ERP transformation.

“It’s about being deliberate,” Sehgal says. “You can’t extract long-term value from AI or automation without first fixing your data strategy and governance. We’re laying the foundation for what I call the multi-agentic future, where workflows are increasingly autonomous.”

Laying the foundation for AI and automation

That foundation is already producing results. In partnership with Sehgal’s team, Videojet is piloting AI and ML applications across multiple fronts. In operations, they’re deploying ML to optimize production scheduling, and improve inventory forecasting and planning. The goal is to digitize their sales and operations planning process using a unified data set.

On the commercial side, Videojet has implemented AI-powered translation tools to create marketing content at scale across global markets, and is working with a startup to design an AI-first ERP system that automates order intake. At the same time, tools like Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT Enterprise are being deployed widely to improve productivity across the organization.

“We’re not limiting experimentation,” Sehgal says. “Teams across R&D and operations are exploring large language models, and our job is to make sure they have the right data and governance in place to scale.”

Speaking the language of business

Still, Sehgal knows that even the most elegant technology story won’t land unless it’s translated into business terms. “You can’t walk into a leadership meeting and talk about APIs and architectures,” he said. “You have to talk about how technology contributes to growth and profitability.”

Every initiative under his watch is evaluated through a commercial lens, with clear visibility into how it supports both the customer and the company’s strategic and financial goals. Sehgal and his team also forecast how their programs will translate to earnings per share, giving leadership a tangible measure of technology’s targeted contribution to enterprise value. “When we model the impact of our initiatives, we express that impact in business terms that everyone in the organization understands,” he says. “That’s how technology earns its credibility.”

Lessons for tech leaders in legacy industries

For Sehgal, Videojet’s vision for technology holds lessons for every CIO navigating a legacy environment. His advice, shaped by leadership roles held at manufacturing giants Terex, ESAB, and ITT Inc., begins with identifying the business pain points where tech can drive the greatest impact. “In manufacturing, you have to know what holds the business back: labor intensity, asset dependency, supply chain complexity,” he says. “Then, pinpoint where technology can make a difference.”

Building credibility early is equally essential. “The business has to see you as a peer, not a service provider,” he adds. “And you can’t have your CFO reading about a breakthrough before you do.”

Above all, Sehgal believes technology leaders have to be willing to take risks. “In manufacturing or any legacy organization, you have to put skin in the game,” he says. “If you want to drive change, you need to be willing to take on the tough initiatives, own them, and deliver results.” In an industry where efficiency often surpasses innovation, Sehgal is positioning technology to be at the core of a strategy that blends Videojet’s track record of operational rigor with forward-looking ambition, grounded in the language of the business, and aimed squarely at customer growth and innovation. “Ultimately, our success will be measured not by how digital we are, but by how much we move the business forward,” he says.

2026年、企業のIT戦略はかつてないスピードで進化しています。生成AIの普及、サイバーセキュリティの高度化、データ活用の深化など、変革の波は経営の根幹にまで及んでいます。こうした環境下で、CIOをはじめとするITリーダーには、テクノロジーとビジネスを融合させ、持続的な競争力を生み出す戦略が求められています。

CIO.com Japanでは、国内を代表するCIO、CTO、CAIOをはじめとするITリーダーに「2026年に注目すべきITトレンド」とその背景についてコメントをいただきました。

本記事では、国内トップITリーダーが語る「次の一手」を通じて、2026年のIT戦略の方向性を探ります。

ゼネラルモーターズ・ジャパン株式会社

ゼネラルモーターズ・ジャパン株式会社
ストラテジックマーケット アライアンス＆ディストリビューター　リージョンCIO
豊丹生 信隆 氏

AI前提時代のIT戦略：ガバナンスと柔軟性が鍵

AIの活用を前提としたビジネスモデルが一般化する中、目的に応じたAIの使い分けが進みそうです。その上でビジネスへのAI適用には透明性や倫理性を守るためのガバナンスの強化が一つのテーマです。個人の生産性や創造性向上に寄与するためのAI適用はなるべく自由にその利用ができる環境を整備していく一方、公私のバランスをとるために具体的な制度化と教育が重要な課題と考えます。

一方、ITにおいてはAI活用を前提としたプラットフォームからアプリケーションまで各層の定義、見直しが急務と考えています。今後各サービスの仕様や構成要素が変わっていくという認識のもと、柔軟性を残した形でそれぞれのサービス刷新を計画的に行っていく予定です。

カナデビア株式会社
取締役兼常務執行役員、ICT推進本部長
橋爪 宗信 氏

製造業もホワイトカラーも変える、AIエージェント革命

2026年の最も重要なテクノロジーはAIエージェントの「使いこなし技術」と考えています。生成AIの超進化は言うまでも無く、弊社のような製造業でも極めて重要になってきています。個々の場面で生成AIを用いたデジタル応用の品質、安全、生産性向上の個別システムが産まれてきますが、総務、人事、経理などのホワイトカラーの職員も含めた働き方、仕事の生産性を抜本的に変革するAIエージェントを全社で使いこなせる社内活用プラットフォームの構築が最重要課題で、各社がそれらのプラットフォームに適したITソリューションを探そうと動くと予想しています。当然弊社もその方向です。

関西電力株式会社
理事、IT戦略室長
上田 晃穂 氏

2026年は「AIエージェント」から「AIパートナー」へ進化の年

2025年は「AIエージェント」元年でしたが、2026年は「ヒトとAIとの協働とは何か？」、つまりAIに何を任せ、ヒトは何に特化するのかを徹底的に考え、「AIパートナー」化を進める年になります。業界・業務、各社のDXの進展度によって「ヒトとAIとの協働」の仕方は様々です。自社に最適な「ヒトとAIとの協働」を見つけ実行するヒト・会社が競争優位を確立し生き残るものと考えています。

J. フロント リテイリング株式会社
執行役　DX推進部長
野村 泰一 氏

AIエージェント時代の勝敗は「データ整備力」で決まる

ビジネスシーンにおけるAIの活用が一層加速することになりそうです。個人利用だけでなく、業務課題や戦略実現といった組織テーマに対しても事例が多く登場することになります。中でもAIエージェントは注目されるテクノロジーと思いますが、その利用にあたっては社内データの環境をいかに整えてきたのかという企業としての準備の差が表出することになるのではと思います。

アイリスオーヤマ株式会社
執行役員 ロボティクス事業部 事業部長
株式会社アイリスロボティクス 取締役社長
吉田 豊 氏

フィジカルAI時代の幕開け：ロボットが現場を変える

2026年はAIとロボティクスが企業競争力を決定づける年です。人口減少と労働力不足を背景に、政府は現場DXとロボット導入を後押しし、国家戦略技術としてAI・先端ロボットを重点支援します。製造・物流・医療など多様な現場でロボットは省人化から生産性向上のパートナーへ進化、当社もAI搭載ロボットでフィジカルAIの社会実装を加速します。

Everything is changing, from data pipelines and technology platforms, to vendor selection and employee training — even core business processes — and CIOs are in the middle of it to guide their companies into the future.

In 2024, tech leaders asked themselves if this AI thing even works and how do you do it. Last year, the big question was what the best use cases are for the new technology. This year will be all about scaling up and starting to use AI to fundamentally transform how employees, business units, or even entire companies actually function.

So whatever IT was thought of before, it’s now a driver of restructuring. Here are seven ways the CIO role will change in the next 12 months.

Enough experimenting

The role of the CIO will change for the better in 2026, says Eric Johnson, CIO at incident management company PagerDuty, with a lot of business benefit and opportunity in AI.

“It’s like having a mine of very valuable minerals and gold, and you’re not quite sure how to extract it and get full value out of it,” he says. Now, he and his peers are being asked to do just that: move out of experimentation and into extraction.

“We’re being asked to take everything we’ve learned over the past couple of years and find meaningful value with AI,” he says.

What makes this extra challenging is the pace of change is so much faster now than before.

“What generative AI was 12 months ago is completely different to what it is today,” he says. “And the business folks watching that transformation occur are starting to hear of use cases they never heard of months ago.”

From IT manager to business strategist

The traditional role of a company’s IT department has been to provide technology support to other business units.

“You tell me what the requirements are, and I’ll build you your thing,” says Marcus Murph, partner and head of technology consulting at KPMG US.

But the role is changing from back-office order taker to full business partner working alongside business leaders to leverage innovation.

“My instincts tell me that for at least the next decade, we’ll see such drastic change in technology that they won’t go back to the back office,” he says. “We’re probably in the most rapid hyper cycle of change at least since the internet or mobile phones, but almost certainly more than that.”

Change management

As AI transforms how people do their jobs, CIOs will be expected to step up and help lead the effort.

“A lot of the conversations are about implementing AI solutions, how to make solutions work, and how they add value,” says Ryan Downing, VP and CIO of enterprise business solutions at Principal Financial Group. “But the reality is with the transformation AI is bringing into the workplace right now, there’s a fundamental change in how everyone will be working.”

This transformation will challenge everyone, he says, in terms of roles, value proposition of what’s been done for years, and expertise.

“The technology we’re starting to bring into the workplace is really shaping the future of work, and we need to be agents of change beyond the tech,” he says.

That change management starts within the IT organization itself, adds Matt Kropp, MD and senior partner and CTO at Boston Consulting Group.

“There’s quite a lot of focus on AI for software development because it’s maybe the most advanced, and the tools have been around for a while,” he says. “There’s a very clear impact using AI agents for software developers.”

The lessons that CIOs learn from managing this transformation can be applied in other business units, too, he says.

“What we see happening with AI for software development is a canary in the coal mine,” he adds. And it’s an opportunity to ensure the company is getting the productivity gains it’s looking for, but also to create change management systems that can be used in other parts of the enterprise. And it starts with the CIO.

“You want the top of the organization saying they expect everyone to use AI because they use it, and can demonstrate how they use it as part of their work,” he says. Leaders need to lead by example that the use of AI is allowed, accepted, and expected.

CIOs and other executives can use AI to create first drafts of memos, organize meeting notes, and help them think through strategy. And any major technology initiative will include a change management component, yet few technologies have had as dramatic an impact on work as AI is having, and is expected to have.

Deploying AI at scale in an enterprise, however, is a very contentious issue, says Ari Lightman, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Companies have spent a lot of time focusing on understanding the customer experience, he says, but few focus on the employee experience.

“When you roll out enterprise-wide AI systems, you’re going to have people who are supportive and interested, and people who just want to blow it up,” he says. Without addressing the issues that employees have, AI projects can grind to a halt.

Cleaning up the data

As AI projects scale up, so will their data requirements. Instead of limited, curated data sets, enterprises will need to modernize their data stacks if they haven’t already, and make the data ready and accessible for AI systems while ensuring security and compliance.

“We’re thinking about data foundations and making sure we have the infrastructure in place so AI is something we can leverage and get value out of,” says Aaron Rucker, VP of data at Warner Music.

The security aspect is particularly important as AI agents gain the ability to autonomously seek out and query data sources. This was much less of a concern with small pilot projects or RAG embedding, where developers carefully curated the data that was used to augment AI prompts. And before gen AI, data scientists, analysts, and data engineers were the ones accessing data, which offered a layer of human control that might diminish or completely vanish in the agentic age. That means the controls will need to move closer to the data itself.

“With AI, sometimes you want to move fast, but you still want to make sure you’re setting up data sources with proper permissions so someone can’t just type in a chatbot and get all the family jewels,” says Rucker.

Make build vs buy decisions

This year, the build or buy decisions for AI will have dramatically bigger impacts than they did before. In many cases, vendors can build AI systems better, quicker, and cheaper than a company can do it themselves. And if a better option comes along, switching is a lot easier than when you’ve built something internally from scratch. On the other hand, some business processes represent core business value and competitive advantage, says Rucker.

“HR isn’t a competitive advantage for us because Workday is going to be better positioned to build something that’s compliant” he says. “It wouldn’t make sense for us to build that.”

But then there are areas where Warner Music can gain a strategic advantage, he says, and it’s going to be important to figure out what this advantage is going to be when it comes to AI.

“We shouldn’t be doing AI for AI’s sake,” says Rucker. “We should attach it to some business value as a reflection of our company strategy.”

If a company uses outside vendors for important business processes, there’s a risk the vendor will come to understand an industry better than the existing players.

Digitizing a business process creates behavioral capital, network capital, and cognitive capital, says John Sviokla, executive fellow at the Harvard Business School and co-founder of GAI Insights. It unlocks something that used to be exclusively inside the minds of employees.

Companies have already traded their behavioral capital to Google and Facebook, and network capital to Facebook and LinkedIn.

“Trading your cognitive capital for cheap inference or cheap access to technology is a very bad idea,” says Sviokla. Even if the AI company or hyperscaler isn’t currently in a particular line of business, this gives them the starter kit to understand that business. “Once they see a massive opportunity, they can put billions of dollars behind it,” he says.

Platform selection

As AI moves from one-off POCs and pilot projects to deployments at scale, companies will have to come to grips with choosing an AI platform, or platforms.

“With things changing so fast, we still don’t know who’s going to be the leaders in the long term,” says Principal’s Downing. “We’re going to start making some meaningful bets, but I don’t think the industry is at the point where we pick one and say that’s going to be it.”

The key is to pick platforms that have the ability to scale, but are decoupled, he says, so enterprises can pivot quickly, but still get business value. “Right now, I’m prioritizing flexibility,” he says.

Bret Greenstein, chief AI officer at management consulting firm West Monroe Partners, recommends CIOs identify aspects of AI that are stable, and those that change rapidly, and make their platform selections accordingly.

“Keep your AI close to the cloud because the cloud is going to be stable,” he says. “But the AI agent frameworks will change in six months, so build to be agnostic in order to integrate with any agent frameworks.”

Progressive CIOs are building the enterprise infrastructure of tomorrow and have to be thoughtful and deliberate, he adds, especially around building governance models.

Revenue generation

AI is poised to massively transform business models across every industry. This is a threat to many companies, but also an opportunity for others. By helping to create new AI-powered products and services, CIOs can make IT a revenue generator instead of just a cost center.

“You’re going to see this notion of most IT organizations directly building tech products that enable value in the marketplace, and change how you do manufacturing, provide services, and how you sell a product in a store,” says KPMG’s Murph.

That puts IT much closer to the customer than it had been before, raising its profile and significance in the organization, he says.

“In the past, IT was one level away from the customer,” he says. “They enabled the technology to help business functions sell products and services. Now with AI, CIOs and IT build the products, because everything is enabled by technology. They go from the notion of being services-oriented to product-oriented.”

One CIO already doing this is Amith Nair at Vituity, a national physician group serving 13.8 million patients.

“We’re building products internally and providing them back to the hospital system, and to external customers,” he says.

For example, doctors spend hours a day transcribing conversations with patients, which is something AI can help with. “When a patient comes in, they can just have a conversation,” he says. “Instead of looking at the computer and typing, they look at and listen to the patient. Then all of their charting, medical decision processes, and discharge summaries are developed using a multi-agent AI platform.”

The tool was developed in-house, custom-built on top of the Microsoft Azure platform, and is now a startup running on its own, he says.

“We’ve become a revenue generator,” he says.

Black & Veatch’s AI strategy demonstrates how thoughtful implementation can drive rapid, meaningful adoption across a large organization. Rather than deploying AI tools companywide and hoping for results, it’s built a cohort-based program that’s driven active and specific AI work usage to nearly half of its employee owners in just one year. The approach addresses the human factors that often derail AI initiatives by building champion networks, eliminating friction, and converting employee passion into tangible workplace and business benefits. By also combining partner-provided AI capabilities with proprietary tools trained on 110 years of engineering data, Black & Veatch is creating a multiplier effect that enables safety improvement, profitability, and increased resource capacity.

How is AI making its way into your business strategy?

We anchor our AI opportunities to three areas: safety, resourcing improvements, and profitable returns for our employee owners. With market demand increasing, particularly the power needs of data centers, we’re using AI to democratize knowledge across our engineers so Black & Veatch can deliver more strategic and accelerated solutions.

How are you embedding this strategy?

We’ve defined our AI capabilities continuum as foundational, differentiating, and enduring with a focus on four themes across gen AI, agentic AI, and MLOps.

The first theme is iterative innovation, which lowers the barriers to effective use of AI for all by driving adoption of Microsoft’s integrated gen AI capabilities.

Second is placing strategic bets on platforms for engineering, construction, HR, sales, and marketing while leveraging our strategic partners’ platform-specific generative and agentic AI strategies. We want the big providers to bring the models to us, so when an employee asks to use Claude, Perplexity AI, or ChatGPT, it’s fine to use a governed user experience like Microsoft 365 Copilot to bring those models to the user.

Third is disruptive innovation, which focuses less on provider AI and more on our own data. We’re rich in unstructured, natural language data from 110 years of documentation to engineer and deliver critical infrastructure. Our new BV ASK platform applies generative models against data, democratizing and improving functional expertise across engineering disciplines. So we’re leveraging AI and our data to create that multiplier effect of expertise.

Our fourth theme is in the MLOps space, turning our project sites into trillions of data points that train models to advance our work. We’re advancing plans to collect telemetry from job site equipment, employee wearables for safety monitoring, geofencing technology, and drones with computer vision to create multivariate models that can help predict the success and profitability of new projects. Rather than turn down good work, we’re creating an AI-driven feedback loop to increase our margins.

The human factor is the sticking point in driving AI adoption. How are you changing minds and behaviors?

I’ve seen CIOs give everybody Microsoft 365 Copilot and watch adoption hover at five to 10%. Instead, we started by using early successes with Copilot to build a champion network to influence more adoption. We picked a few powerful use cases, identified personas who’d benefit from those use cases, and created a cohort of early adopters. Then we found another set of use cases and created another cohort, so today, approximately 5,000 employee owners engage in AI cohorts at Black & Veatch, with 97% active usage of our core AI capabilities.

Curriculum within each cohort includes hands-on training and spark sessions to encourage growth and engagement within the community itself. In a few months, we expect to have about 7,500 of our employee owners through a program cohort, and 75% of our employee base actively using generative AI to support their work.

We ask our cohorts for three things: to actively incorporate AI into your daily job, participate enthusiastically in the cohort community, and be a net producer for the community versus a net consumer. The cohorts not only increase AI skill development, but drive a whole new level of collaboration across departments.

What’s your advice for CIOs who need to balance AI innovation and data security?

Just as access to the internet and social media platforms took some time to govern in corporations, AI is bringing similar consumer-driven urgency that we need to understand and use to drive efficiencies. People see that AI provides a tangible way to improve their personal lives, so when our teams come into our offices, they expect to have the same access to AI platforms to improve their work efficiency.

My first piece of advice is to educate your teams about the need for innovation and guardrails. We set up an AI governance committee and launched several campaigns coupled with cybersecurity awareness month to outline what we’re doing to deliver experiences using BV data, but within secure and safe guardrails. We also have a technology showcase every year where we educate ourselves on the why and how: why we need the guardrails and how to use the tools. Rather than restricting access, the approach we’re taking is to eliminate friction and frustration while establishing clear guidance and data security controls.

Also, establish a formal process to increase the overall AI acumen across the entire company. AI is different from the innovations of Metaverse and blockchain. People understand AI because it’s so tangible. They can use natural language to create interesting things, so the barriers to innovation are low.

And of course, use every opportunity to shift mindsets. When people express interest in AI tools, I ask them to send me an email with the answer to two questions: Why is this new capability interesting to you, and how will it allow you to do your job better? If the response is thoughtful, we pull them into an earlier cohort immediately. This removes potential frustration by converting their passion into a benefit of a cohort where they can apply their ideas.

What’s the key motivation behind this cohort program?

The most critical factor in AI-driven transformation, and in society, is the human element. Our program helps build a level playing field to enable all Black & Veatch creators to do what they do best — create! This new but foundational knowledge across the company allows us to pursue more advanced opportunities with AI. As collective knowledge increases, this opens even more to further advance AI enablement within engineering, and even out in the field. We’re beginning to see it already.

대부분 CIO는 자신의 역할이 시스템 가동률 같은 운영 지표보다 비즈니스 가치를 제공하는 일이라는 점을 이미 이해하고 있다. 2년마다 새로운 혁신의 기회가 등장하고 있으며, 이제 문제는 IT가 일관되게 가치를 제공할 수 있는지이다.

애자일, 데브옵스, ITSM 프랙티스는 딜리버리 역량과 서비스 역량을 개선하는 것을 목표로 한다. 각 배포가 성공할수록 이해관계자의 기대치는 더 높아진다. 하지만, 가치 제공을 일관되게 유지하기는 쉽지 않으며, 직원 이직 관리, 기대에 못 미치는 기술 파트너 대응, 보안 우선순위 균형, 기술 부채 해결 등의 과제가 산재해 있다.

CIO는 생성형 AI로 비즈니스 가치를 만들어내라는 압박을 받고 있다. 최고 경영진은 실험을 넘어 AI 투자에서 단기적인 ROI와 장기적인 전략적 가치를 기대하고 있다. 필자는 최근 생성형 AI 시대의 IT 조직 재구상과 세계 수준의 IT는 어떤 모습이어야 하는지 제시한 바 있다. 이와 함께 CIO는 IT의 비즈니스 가치를 스스로 죽이는 프랙티스와 행위도 경계해야 한다. 전문가들이 지적하는 ‘하지 말아야 할 일’ 7가지를 정리했다.

1. 빅뱅 방식 배포를 목표로 설정한다

AI에 대한 과대포장은 생성형 AI 역량 제공에 대한 경영진의 기대치를 끌어올렸다. 적지 않은 기업의 경영진이 자율 운영, 고도화한 에이전틱 AI 기능, 개인화된 AI 기반 고객 여정까지 목표로 삼고 있다.

성과가 낮은 IT 부서는 요구가 큰 이해관계자에게 휘둘리기 쉽다. 반면에 제품 기반 IT 부서는 빅뱅 방식 배포를 약속하지 않으며, 실험과 최소기능제품(MVP)을 우선시하고, 점진적으로 개선하는 기능을 애자일 방식으로 제공한다는 원칙을 갖추고 있다.

베린트(Verint)의 고객 AI 혁신 담당 글로벌 부사장 라지 발라순다람은 “디지털 전환 이니셔티브를 계획하고 실행할 때 기업은 작은 규모로 시작해 중단 없이 확장해야 한다”라고 강조했다. 또, “핵심 목표는 몇 년짜리 프로젝트를 기다리기보다 측정 가능한 성과를 빠르게 실현하는 데 있어야 한다”라고 덧붙였다.

권고 사항. 이해관계자를 스프린트 리뷰에 초대하고 자주 브레인스토밍 세션을 자주 진행하며, 애자일 딜리버리 방식으로 더 쉽게 협력관계를 구축할 수 있다.

2. 배포 계획 없이 AI PoC를 추진한다

최상위 SaaS 및 보안 서비스 업체는 워크플로우를 강화하는 AI 에이전트를 출시하고 있다. CIO는 어떤 기능이 가치를 제공하는지, 데이터 품질 개선이 필요한 지점은 어디인지, 롤아웃을 어떻게 확장할지 이해하기 위해 실험이 필요하다.

하지만 많은 IT 부서가 이런 실험에서 최종 사용자와 직접 협업하지 않는다. 전체 배포에 필요한 사항을 담은 애자일 계획을 충분히 공유하지 않는 경우도 많다. 결과는 이해관계자 기대치 미충족 또는 프로덕션까지 도달하지 못한 PoC의 난립으로 이어진다.

에이오닥스(AODocs) 창업자 겸 CEO 스테판 돈제는 “많은 팀이 몇 주 만에 번쩍이는 파일럿을 공개하는 경우가 흔한데, 이는 AI가 단순하고 즉각적이라는 인식을 비즈니스 부서에 심어준다”라고 지적했다. 또, “그 뒤에는 거버넌스가 적용된 데이터 파이프라인 부재, 지식을 최신으로 유지할 계획 부재, 기밀 정보 유출을 막는 통제 부재, 모델 비용 관리 전략 부재 같은 현실을 마주하면서 모든 일이 느려진다”라고 덧붙였다.

파일럿에는 명확한 목표가 필요하며, 팀은 방향 전환이나 부진한 실험의 종료 시점을 고려해야 한다. 성공적으로 목표에 도달한다면, 더 많은 데이터, 사용자, 사용례로 파일럿을 확장하는 방안을 마련해야 한다.

데이터이쿠(Dataiku) AI 전략 책임자 커트 뮈멜은 IT 부서가 파일럿 프로젝트의 성공을 AI 에이전트가 프로덕션에서도 작동한다는 증거로 취급하는 것이 실수라고 지적했다. 뮈멜은 “파일럿은 데이터셋이 작고, 사용자가 관대하며, 문제가 터질 때 인간이 감독하는 등 실제 제약이 없는 환경에서 돌아가기 때문에 성공한다”라고 설명했다.

권고 사항. IT는 PoC의 성공 기준을 정의하는 문서를 이해관계자와 함께 작성하고, 애자일 방법론을 적용해 PoC와 여러 파일럿 단계를 관리해야 한다. 이런 원칙은 이해관계자가 여정에 함께하도록 만들고, 실험이 배포 목표 중 하나라는 점을 명확히 한다.

3. 채택이 아니라 배포에만 집중한다

반복적 배포에 대한 조직의 동의를 확보하는 일은 일관된 비즈니스 가치 제공에 필요하지만 충분조건은 아니다. 너무 많은 데브옵스 및 데이터 사이언스팀이 배포가 일정대로 진행되고 목표 범위를 달성하면 “일을 잘 끝냈다”라고 생각한다. 하지만 이런 인식은 IT의 변화관리 책임을 간과하는 것이며, 특히 AI 역량은 부서 운영 방식을 크게 바꿀 수 있다는 점에서 주의가 필요하다.

사리타사(Saritasa) 창업자 겸 CEO 닉 프로엘리치는 “IT 부서는 숙련도가 높지만 IT 구성원은 구축한 제품의 최종 사용자인 경우가 드물고, 실제 사용자로부터 충분한 피드백을 받는 경우도 드물다”라고 지적했다. 프로엘리치는 “그 결과, 기능적으로 완벽하지만 아무도 쓰지 않는 솔루션이 될 수 있다”라며, “해결책은 단순하다. 최종 사용자를 초기부터 자주 참여시키고 모든 단계에서 피드백을 듣고, 실제 사용자가 잘 쓸 수 있는 솔루션을 구축해야 한다”라고 조언했다.

권고 사항. CIO가 생성형 AI 시대에 애자일 프랙티스를 재점검해야 하는 이유 중 하나는 프로젝트의 ‘완료(done)’ 상태를 다시 정의해 애자일팀이 채택과 변화관리를 기능 수준의 수용 기준에 포함하도록 만들기 위해서다.

4. 비즈니스 부서의 업무 방식을 처방한다

이사회는 CIO가 AI 전략 거버넌스 모델을 이야기하길 기대한다. 이 모델에는 직원이 AI 역량을 어떻게 실험해야 하는지 설명하는 방법이 포함돼야 한다. 거버넌스는 직원이 사용할 수 있는 AI 도구, 접근 가능한 데이터, 실험의 성공·학습·실패를 어디에 보고해야 하는지를 정의해야 한다.

CIO는 아키텍트, 비즈니스 관계 관리자, 애널리스트를 지정해 이런 실험을 함께 진행해야 한다. 하지만 이런 경계 영역을 넘어 비즈니스 부서의 워크플로우를 처방하는 것은 가치를 손상할 수 있는데, IT 부서는 비즈니스 부서의 운영 목표와 워크플로우 예외를 잘 알지 못하는 경우가 많기 때문이다.

시트릭스 부사장 겸 CTO이자 미래학자인 브라이언 매든은 “진짜 변화는 이제 사람의 실제 업무 방식에서 출발하는 상향식 변화이며, 조직이 정한 방식에서 출발하는 변화가 아니다”라고 말한다.

매든은 “직원 스스로 AI 도구를 도입하기 시작한 순간부터 하향식 장기 로드맵 모델은 깨졌지만, 오늘날에도 대부분 기업은 서드파티 AI를 거버넌스 하에 안전하게 사용할 수 있는 경로를 제공하지 않는다”라고 지적했다. 또한, “승인된 경로가 없어도 사람은 어차피 AI 도구를 사용하며, 관리되지 않은 AI 채택은 전략적 가치를 만들지 못한 채 위험만 키운다”라고 경고했다.

권고 사항. CIO는 하향식 전략을 커뮤니케이션해야 하지만, 디지털 전환이 실패하는 1순위 이유는 IT가 운영의 발전에 상향식 참여가 필요하다는 점을 인정하지 않을 때다. IT 부서는 식스시그마 교육을 받은 프로세스 전문가를 지정해 실험의 파트너로 참여시키고, AI 에이전트와 사람이 협업하는 워크플로우 혁신을 안내하는 가이드 역할을 맡겨야 한다.

5. AI 배포 과정에서 기술 부채를 가속화한다

SaaS 서비스의 난립은 많은 IT 부서가 겪는 문제이며, 비즈니스 부서 리더가 도구를 직접 선택하고 섀도우 IT 프랙티스를 키울 때 특히 심해진다. 기업은 AI를 실험해야 하지만, 통제되지 않은 AI 에이전트를 배포하는 행위는 보안과 컴플라이언스 위험이 된다.

IT/보안 통합 플랫폼 회사 이루(Iru)의 최고 기술 전문가 웰던 도드는 “기업은 특정 문제를 해결하려고 여러 AI 도구를 구매하고 있으며, 앞으로 몇 년 동안 이런 확산으로 인해 IT 부서가 관리해야 할 솔루션 업체 수가 지나치게 늘어날 것”이라고 말했다.

IT 아키텍트는 표준으로 이야기하고 확장 가능한 플랫폼 사용을 핵심 전략으로 밀어야 한다. 이해관계자가 기술과 도구를 처방하려는 압박은 언제나 존재하지만, 아키텍트는 상쇄 요소, 신규 플랫폼 지원 비용, 기술 부채 누적 위험을 알려야 한다.

사이버 위험 평가 플랫폼 코버(Kovrr)의 CEO 야키르 골란은 “AI와 데이터 이니셔티브가 자산 가시성과 시스템이 가치를 만들면서 동시에 노출 위험을 키우는 방식에 대한 공유된 관점없이 추진될 때 IT 조직은 잠재적 영향력을 스스로 제한한다”라고 지적했다. 골란은 “효과적인 거버넌스는 어떤 도구가 존재하는지, 어떤 데이터와 상호작용하는지, 장애가 났을 때 어떤 함의가 있는지를 이해하는 데 달려 있다”라고 설명했다.

권고 사항. 비즈니스 조직이 해법을 처방하려고 할 때가 많지만, 목표한 비즈니스 요구사항을 질문으로 확인하는 책임은 IT에 있다. CIO는 IT 리더가 비즈니스 감각, 용기, 인내를 기르도록 도와 이해관계자의 ‘해법 요구’를 행군 명령으로 받아들이지 말고 목표 중심으로 협업하도록 만들어야 한다.

6. 지속적인 지원 없이 일회성 프로젝트를 수용한다

애자일 팀이 아이디어에서 PoC, 프로덕션 배포, 최종 사용자 채택까지 AI를 성공적으로 통과시키더라도 비즈니스 가치 제공은 그때부터 시작인 경우가 많다. 다음 단계는 피드백 수집, 결과 측정, 성공 기준을 충족하기 위한 반복 개선이다.

애자일 팀은 반복을 원하고, 이해관계자는 기술·데이터·AI 역량의 개선을 원한다. 그렇다면 IT 부서는 왜 레거시 애플리케이션이 너무 많고, 기술 부채가 쌓이며, 최종 사용자는 애플리케이션 현대화를 요구하며 좌절하는 것일까?

AI 기반 운영 최적화 플랫폼 회사 옵키(Opkey) CEO 판카지 고엘은 “많은 IT 팀은 구현 이후를 계획하지 않고, 지속적인 최적화에 필요한 예산을 책정하지 않는다. 지속적인 최적화에는 테스트, 사용자 채택, 데이터 거버넌스, 반복 개선이 포함되는데, 이런 요소가 있어야 쓸만한 시스템이 ‘서랍 속 소프트웨어’가 되는 것을 막을 수 있다”라고 말했다. 또, “가장 강력한 혁신은 IT가 ‘기술 배포’에서 ‘비즈니스와 함께 진화하는 동적 최적화 전환 구축’으로 전환할 때 성공한다”라고 강조했다.

권고 사항. 애자일 PMO의 핵심 책임은 부서 리더와 CFO를 대상으로 재무 거버넌스를 강제하는 일이다. 성공적인 배포와 가치 제공으로 이어지는 이니셔티브에는 업그레이드와 기타 라이프사이클 관리에 필요한 지속적인 예산이 필요하다.

7. 학습 시간을 위한 투자가 부족하다

많은 CIO는 교육 과정 배정, 컨퍼런스 참석, 리더 코칭에 배정하는 예산을 갖고 있다. 하지만 학습 프로그램 구독만으로는 충분하지 않으며, 많은 IT 직원은 교육에 시간을 쓰기 어려울 만큼 압박과 시간 제약을 받고 있다. 또한 직원은 새로운 기술을 실험하고 경험하고 가르치면서 평생학습 습관을 기를 시간이 필요하다.

디지털 전환 서비스 회사 바스(VASS)의 수석 기술 전문가 마이클 파이텔은 “성과가 높은 팀은 장기 계획에 학습을 포함해 역량 성장과 혁신이 함께 일어나도록 만든다”라며, “기술 팀에 주 1시간 학습을 요구하고 자격증에 필요한 시험 응시료를 환급하고, 팀원이 배운 내용을 주변에 공유하는 점심 학습 세션에 인센티브를 제공하라”라고 조언했다.

권고 사항. CIO는 IT가 비즈니스 가치를 죽이는 방식뿐 아니라 리더십이 IT 문화를 죽이는 방식도 돌아봐야 한다. 리더는 IT에 130% 가동률을 무기한 강요할 수 없으며, 프로세스 진화를 가능하게 하는 학습 기회와 학습 기간을 만들어야 한다.

IT의 가치를 스스로 손상하지 않으려면, 결론은 CIO가 강력한 거버넌스와 유연한 운영 모델을 도입하고 채택하는 문제로 귀결된다. 또한 CIO는 이해관계자와 파트너십을 맺어 비즈니스 가치를 제공하는 방법을 코칭하는 동시에 거버넌스, 운영 원칙, 협업 책임에서 양보할 수 없는 기준을 세우고 실행해야 한다.
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