Deployed Research · A visual story
What 410 CIOs are actually doing about AI
We read their public statements, their companies' AI hiring and what those companies disclose. The gap between what CIOs say and what they staff tells the story of 2027.
By AIM Research · 21 October 2026 · 12-minute scroll
Most surveys ask CIOs what matters to them. This study looked at what 410 of them are doing in 29 countries, scoring ten AI themes on three public signals and counting hiring twice, because an open role means a budget has been approved.
Chapter 1 · The 410
Meet the cohort
Each dot is one CIO. Counts are from AIM Research, CIO AI Priorities 2027; positions within groups are illustrative.
Meet the cohort: 410 CIOs at large enterprises in 29 countries and 12 sectors.
Nearly half are in the United States, the study's anchor market. India and Europe are the next largest groups.
73% of them show clear evidence of agentic AI work. It is the most widespread priority in the study.
130 name no AI partner in public. For vendors, that is the largest open field in the study.
And 87, about one in five, took the CIO seat in the last 12 months.
Chapter 2 · Say and do
CIOs talk about value and experience. They hire for data.
Base: 269 CIOs with at least one public statement. Source: AIM Research, CIO AI Priorities 2027.
Each theme gets two numbers: its share of what CIOs say in public, and its share of the AI roles their companies are hiring for.
Put them side by side and the lists diverge.
The quiet priorities are staffed well ahead of the keynotes. Data foundations get 14% of the talk and 28% of the hiring; talent and governance follow the same pattern.
The loud ones are barely staffed. AI ROI gets 12% of the talk and 1% of the hiring. Customer experience and core modernisation are mostly bought from partners.
Open on the theme the CIO talks about. Sell to the theme the CIO hires for.
Chapter 3 · Who is hired
0
distinct AI job titles open at 313 of the 410 companies
Agent engineering, AI platforms and governance are now hiring families of their own. European companies lead on agent engineers (28%); US companies lead on MLOps (20%) and AI security (11%).
Companies hiring, by role family · emerging families in blue
Hiring counts are a floor: roles visible in public listings at the time of research. Source: AIM Research.
Titles worth watching
Agent platforms
Director of ML Engineering, Agent Factory
AI governance
Head of AI Governance
AI economics
Lead Director, AI FinOps
Forward-deployed AI
Forward Deployed AI Engineer
AI security
Enterprise Cybersecurity AI Architect
Chapter 4 · Regions
Every region leads with agents. The mix underneath tells them apart.
United States · priority mix
Share of each region's AI evidence by theme. Middle East and Americas ex-US are directional (fewer than 15 CIOs). Source: AIM Research.
The United States runs the most agentic mix of any region, at 29%, and is the only one where AI security hiring is common: 11% of companies, against 3% or less elsewhere.
Europe is the most balanced: data foundations at 23%, almost level with agents at 24%. A 28% share of European companies is hiring agent engineers, the highest of any region.
India is close to the US on agents, at 28%, with the lowest governance share in the study, at 3%. A third of Indian CIOs took the seat in the last year.
Asia-Pacific is the only region where data foundations lead agents, 24% against 22%, driven by banks and telecoms in Singapore, Australia and Hong Kong.
In the Middle East, sovereign and hybrid AI take 9% of the mix, three to four times the weight anywhere else.
Across the rest of the Americas, talent reaches 19% of the mix, the highest share of any region.
Chapter 5 · Sectors
Each sector has a signature priority beyond agents
Agentic AI leads in every sector but one. Energy and utilities is the exception, where grid and asset data come first.
Share of each sector's AI evidence. Source: AIM Research (n = 410).
Chapter 6 · The seat
The CIO seat is widening and turning over
hold titles adding AI, digital, data or technology
took the seat in the last 12 months
of US CIOs have an extended title, against more than half elsewhere
The title on the door is changing. 42% of the CIOs in the study now carry a title that adds AI, digital, data or technology.
The people are changing too. 21% took the seat in the last 12 months, and 19 seats changed hands or fell vacant during the study itself.
The US is the exception. Only 31% of US CIOs have an extended title, because US enterprises tend to appoint separate AI and data executives alongside them. 38 CIOs in the study already work next to a Chief AI Officer.
Chapter 7 · Partners
Hyperscalers dominate. A third of the field names no AI partner at all.
130
of the 410 enterprises name no AI partner in public: the largest open field for vendors.
Only 62 name a model-lab partner, and 10 name two. Microsoft leads announced partnerships in Europe, Google Cloud in the US.
Companies with a publicly announced AI partnership, by partner. Announced partnerships only. Source: AIM Research.
Chapter 8 · Four archetypes
The 410 sort into four kinds of CIO
k-means clustering of each CIO's priority mix and intensity. Source: AIM Research (n = 410).
Each of the 410 CIOs lands in one of four groups, by the mix and intensity of their AI priorities.
Scaled builders, 169 CIOs. Agents, data, talent and governance at once. Examples: Bank of America, Cisco, Marriott, Sanofi, BNY, NatWest. The way in: Scale and control: agent operations, governance tooling, AI FinOps.
Foundation builders, 114 CIOs. Data and talent first, agents second. Examples: Maybank, Aviva, Centene, Australia Post, Vodafone, Lupin. The way in: Data platforms, migration and skills, with agents as the payoff.
Agent-first movers, 93 CIOs. Agents dominate; governance and talent thin. Examples: United Airlines, Delta, Qualcomm, Oracle, Gap, Cardinal Health. The way in: Guardrails, evaluation and governance before scale exposes the gaps.
Data catch-up, 34 CIOs. Data the only clear priority. Examples: Mixed across retail, manufacturing and energy. The way in: A data readiness assessment and one visible quick win.
Chapter 9 · What happens next
Governance catches up with agents in 2027
Ten forecasts, each with a measured baseline. AIM Research re-runs the study on the same cohort in October 2027 and will publish a scorecard against every one.
Baseline October 2026 → forecast end-2027
Baselines measured in October 2026 on 410 companies. Forecasts are AIM Research estimates.
How we did it
AIM Research scored ten AI themes for each of 410 CIOs on three public signals: what the CIO says, the AI roles the company hires for (counted twice), and what the company discloses. Roles were confirmed current on 18 October 2026.
The full report
CIO AI Priorities 2027
25 pages: 13 exhibits, four archetypes, eight named account segments and ten predictions.
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