Enterprises have been laser-focused on digital transformation for years, but IT-specific transformation hasn’t necessarily been part of the plan. Sure, IT and the CIO role are constantly evolving, but in 2026, the pace of technology innovation and shifting business requirements raises the stakes. IT departments will need to transform more mindfully — culturally, operationally, technologically, and structurally.
For example, there’s a lot of hype around agentic AI that obscures the reality of its deployment in enterprises. According to forthcoming research from Genpact, only a tiny fraction of the 500 CEOs and C-suite leaders surveyed said their companies are actively implementing multi-agent orchestration. Meanwhile, most organizations are grappling with fragmented data, legacy systems, unclear ownership, governance gaps, human dependency, and cultural resistance — all symptoms of the need for IT transformation.
In today’s business environment, IT departments cannot afford to operate as separate entities. They must plan, invest in, and deploy solutions in tandem with other C-suite leaders. This shift extends beyond the CIO role to the broader IT organization.
## What IT Transformation Looks Like in 2026
Daniel Burrus, founder of Burrus Research, noted that the IT organizations that have successfully transformed thus far remain outliers. Many still operate with an “old mindset” that limits real transformation.
> “It’ll be changed,” he said. “But that’s not good enough.”
Ken Englund, technology sector growth leader at EY Americas, agreed that IT needs to understand the business and its goals better than it has in the past. This expectation is tied to the business’s pressing need to show ROI from AI, which remains under IT’s purview to deploy.
> “More broadly, we’re going to look for IT organizations to own a lot of the business case, execution and tracking, and KPI measurement — well beyond uptime, five nines, all that sort of stuff they’ve done for years,” Englund said. “The IT organization will become the keeper of the journal in terms of business value, and a lot of organizations haven’t developed those muscles yet.”
## Technology Complexity
Technical complexity remains a huge challenge. Back-end systems are becoming more complicated, requiring stronger architecture frameworks, faster design cycles, and reliable data access to support emerging agentic AI frameworks.
Sergio de la Fe, enterprise digital leader at assurance, tax and consulting services provider RSM US, said many IT organizations have been caught flat-footed over the past three to four years by poor access controls, weak data governance, and outdated data architecture — each of which can torpedo success.
> “Many IT organizations have taken the easy way,” said de la Fe, referring to cloud and application service providers. As a result, their data is spread across different environments. Organizations may technically own their data, he said, but “it isn’t with them — or architected in a manner where they can access and use it as they may need to.”
Michael Corrigan, CIO at insurance broker World Insurance Associates, observed similar pressures playing out in practice. His IT organization has focused on automation, operational efficiency, and software development over the past few years, with a more recent emphasis on rapid development due to business pressures.
> “A lot of that focus is now on agentic AI. It certainly is what all leaders on the business side are thinking about,” Corrigan said. “They want to talk about how AI can improve their processes, [such as] making things more efficient, giving time back to someone and really driving value.”
Sanjeev Vohra, chief technology and innovation officer at Genpact, said the most advanced IT organizations are approaching these tech challenges with greater discipline.
> “They believe it’s a period of architectural redux because applications are becoming more heterogeneous,” Vohra said. “Their architecture must be more modular and open, but they can’t simply say no to core applications, because the business will demand them. They must be more responsive to the business than ever before.”
## How to Know You’re on the Right Track
IT transformation success takes different forms depending on what the organization is trying to accomplish, how mature it is, the culture, and budget.
At Genpact, the IT department tracks modernization efforts and new technologies on a weekly basis, while the CIO — who also serves as the chief transformation officer — has been helping the IT department and all corporate functions evolve into more of an agent-based architecture.
> “We are moving our systems of record to next-generation systems and creating an innovation layer on top of it that is a family of agents [collectively called] Scout,” Vohra said. “There are separate Scouts for internal functions such as HR and IT that automate the specific workflow or processes that can generate high returns.”
After six months of design and implementation, the last 12 months have focused on achieving a positive ROI, he added.
Khaliq Khan, global lead of the design-led transformation practice at Kyndryl Vital, recommended smaller, incremental transformations to help IT departments achieve proof points more quickly. Such an approach also enables agility, since as one step is completed, the project can be evaluated to determine whether the next step should be executed, skipped, or moved in a different direction.
RSM’s de la Fe said he knows his department is on the right track when it is delivering clear business value.
> “The end is the value that we provide our clients by doing something faster or better, or because we come up with new insights and new value others haven’t seen before,” he said.
Burrus added that effective transformation begins by grounding organizations in “hard trends” — future facts that the organization can be confident about — and tying them to opportunity.
> “A trend by itself is academic,” Burrus said. “When you attach an opportunity to it, it bursts into actionable life.”
In practice, that confidence can come down to how IT organizations structure their decision-making. Corrigan’s World Insurance Associates replaced traditional IT governance with a new enablement process.
> “[We use a] standardized intake process where, upfront, we evaluate the size and scope of the opportunity, the expected ROI, and then compare the actual results with the expected results,” he said.
The leadership committee includes representatives from finance, operations, sales, and sometimes even HR and legal, bringing them into decisions once handled solely by IT as needed.
## Telltale Signs of Necessary Transformation
Although the gap between business and IT continues to shrink, Genpact’s Vohra said IT organizations still need to develop stronger business skills.
> “The alignment and integration of IT and business functions is greater than ever before,” Vohra said. “And it’s happening faster. In some cases, there have been operating model changes to the extent that IT has a much stronger connection to the business in terms of budget approvals, working together and even the reporting relationships.”
Without business-IT alignment, IT cannot deliver the business impact the organization now expects.
CIOs are under increasing pressure from senior leadership and boards to improve efficiency and deliver business value, measured in business KPIs rather than traditional IT metrics. On the technology side, CIOs also need to ensure they are architecting for the future.
According to EY’s Englund, activity doesn’t necessarily translate into progress, which is why IT needs to measure performance and value captured — not just effort.
> “The expectations for these transformation programs have probably doubled or tripled in the last couple of years,” Englund said. AI has amplified those expectations — that “magically, AI is going to do all these things,” making it critical that CIOs realistically manage expectations while still allocating 10 to 15 percent of the budget to next-gen technology enablement and understanding.
Over the past decade, many IT departments have fallen behind or focused primarily on optimizing existing solutions. As core platforms evolve, accurate performance measurement becomes increasingly critical.
An EY Pulse survey published earlier this year found that IT and AI budgets are increasing, a trend often misunderstood.
> “The proof is what you do with the budget,” Englund said.
Failing to meet business needs is an early indicator that an IT organization needs to transform.
RSM’s de la Fe said the need for IT transformation becomes clear when an IT department lacks the budget to invest in future growth, is weighed down by excessive technical debt, or when the company is losing market share due to weak technology capabilities.
> “I am on the lookout for processes and groups that are just surviving,” de la Fe said. “That’s a telltale sign that some transformation needs to take place within an IT organization.”
Corrigan noted that the catalyst for IT transformation may differ from company to company, but understanding the business’s level of maturity and where leaders are forecasting growth is critical.
> “It all goes back to what the business is trying to accomplish, and then partnering with IT,” he said.
## Proof That IT Transformation Is Wise
IT has long been shaped by technological advancement and the competitive pressures facing the business. Over time, these forces — coupled with greater IT accountability, customer centricity, and alignment with the business — have elevated the role of IT from a cost center to a driver of business value.
> “I think the engagement model between business and IT, and how they work together in identifying the challenges they’re going to see in the future, is going to become more critical,” said Genpact’s Vohra.
Having an equal voice at the table and a shared understanding is essential to validating this approach, he added.
RSM’s de la Fe said one way to ensure IT transformation is sound is to validate it externally.
> “I go to these different forums — whether conference board, Gartner organizations, or even vendor conferences,” de la Fe said. “When people ask what we’re doing, and then [share] that they didn’t do that, or didn’t think of it, it shows we’re thinking and pushing the envelope in the right direction.”
IT can transform mindfully or change by default. In 2026, maintaining competitiveness will require IT departments to deepen their partnerships with the business and rethink how they deliver value. Getting there involves aligning budgets, people, processes, and technology well beyond departmental boundaries.
https://www.informationweek.com/digital-transformation/what-will-it-transformation-look-like-in-2026-and-how-do-you-know-if-you-re-on-the-right-track-
