Report: CIOs Have the AI Mandate and the Budget, but Few Organizations Are Well-Positioned for True Autonomous Work
ServiceNow, Monday, October 5th, 2026
ServiceNow's CIO report finds AI investment up 111% year over year, but only 5% of organizations have re-architected work for autonomy.
ServiceNow's report 'The New CIO Mandate', based on 285 IT executives at organizations averaging $11 billion in revenue, found AI investments rose 111% from 2025 to 2026 and are set to grow another 81% next year.
More than nine in ten CIOs are piloting or implementing agentic AI, but only 5% have fully re-architected jobs and workflows for autonomous execution, and 74% name data accuracy, access and management as the biggest obstacle.
Help desk shows the strongest AI impact, cited by 53% of CIOs, and 'Pacesetter' organizations report 184% average ROI on AI compared with 141% across all respondents.