AI Execution Is Pushing CIOs Back to IT Fundamentals, Info-Tech Research Group's Best of 2026 Mid-Year Report Finds

Info-Tech Research Group's Best of 2026 Mid-Year Report shows that CIOs and IT leaders are concentrating on the foundations required to scale AI with confidence. The report highlights the firm's most accessed research, products, diagnostics, services, and training programs from the first half of 2026, revealing strong demand for guidance on AI execution, cybersecurity, data, infrastructure, governance, risk, workforce readiness, and technology buying decisions.

ARLINGTON, Va., June 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ - AI has moved from a strategic ambition to an execution challenge for IT leaders, according to new findings from Info-Tech Research Group. The global research and advisory firm's newly published Best of 2026 Mid-Year Report reveals that the most in-demand resources from the first half of the year are centered on the capabilities organizations need to scale AI responsibly, strengthen resilience, and translate technology investment into measurable value.

As organizations embed AI more deeply in business and IT operations, CIOs are focusing on the fundamentals that determine whether innovation can scale. Info-Tech's report shows heightened interest in resources related to AI implementation, information management, cybersecurity, infrastructure modernization, data strategy, enterprise risk, workforce development, and vendor evaluation. Together, these areas point to a shift from AI exploration toward the operating discipline required for long-term value creation.

"AI is no longer at the edge of the CIO agenda as an experiment. It is becoming part of how organizations plan, operate, secure, and deliver value," says Info-Tech Research Group's Chief Research Officer Gord Harrison. "The most accessed resources from the first half of 2026 show that IT leaders understand the work ahead. They are strengthening data, governance, security, infrastructure, risk, and workforce capabilities so AI can scale responsibly instead of adding complexity."

The Best of 2026 Mid-Year Report consolidates Info-Tech's most popular new research, products, and services from the first half of the year. The findings reveal that IT leaders are prioritizing both innovation and operational readiness, with AI adoption now tied closely to data quality, cybersecurity resilience, infrastructure maturity, enterprise risk, and organizational adaptability. The report also reflects growing attention to technology buying decisions as leaders evaluate vendors, platforms, contracts, and software categories that support changing business needs.

Top Research and Resources Featured in Info-Tech's Best of 2026 Mid-Year Report
The top 12 research and resources featured in Info-Tech's Best of 2026 Mid-Year Report span CIO strategy, cybersecurity, data, infrastructure, applications, enterprise risk, vendor management, and AI-enabled operations. These resources reflect the practical areas IT leaders are strengthening as AI becomes more embedded in enterprise strategy and daily execution.

1. CIO Priorities 2026: Built on more than 700 responses to Info-Tech's Future of IT 2026 Survey, diagnostic benchmarks, and executive interviews, this annual report identifies five priorities CIOs must address to deliver measurable value in 2026. The resource focuses on maximizing AI investments through value streams, building proactive risk practices, strengthening data accountability, keeping pace in cybersecurity, and improving IT financial transparency.
   
   
2. Security Priorities 2026: This report outlines five initiatives security leaders should prioritize to build resilience in an era of AI-enabled threats, regulatory complexity, geopolitical uncertainty, and increased budget scrutiny. The resource helps organizations strengthen data resilience, scale compliance, reduce vendor sprawl, advance identity-centered zero trust, and modernize application security for the agentic AI era.
   
   
3. Leverage AI for Information Management: AI is erasing outdated boundaries between structured data, unstructured content, and organizational knowledge, forcing IT leaders to rethink how information is governed and used. Info-Tech's blueprint guides organizations in building an integrated information management strategy, identifying high-impact AI opportunities, improving information usability and reliability, and reducing risk through stronger classification and access boundaries.
   
   
4. Infrastructure and Operations Priorities 2026: Rising AI workloads, cybersecurity risk, regulatory change, and economic volatility are reshaping the infrastructure mandate. The report helps I&O leaders rethink cloud operations, apply FinOps to AI cost management, improve observability, define AIOps use cases, and build the skills needed to support modern infrastructure environments.
   
   
5. Data Priorities 2026: AI and automation are increasing the stakes for data quality, governance, accountability, and literacy. Drawing on survey research and interviews with data leaders, the report outlines four priorities for CIOs and CDOs: establishing unified governance for data and AI, building data products around measurable outcomes, creating a trusted AI-ready data supply, and cultivating data champions across the organization.
   
   
6. Reimagine Business Processes With an AI-First Approach: Many organizations are still applying AI to isolated tasks rather than redesigning the processes that determine how work actually gets done. Info-Tech's blueprint helps IT and business leaders identify high-impact capability areas, diagnose workflow friction, and reimagine future-state processes around AI-enabled decision-making, automation, and collaboration.
   
   
7. Applications Priorities 2026: Applications teams are under pressure to turn AI momentum into reliable, flexible, and sustained delivery rather than short-lived pilot wins. Drawing on case studies, survey data, and diagnostic benchmarks, the report outlines four priorities for applications leaders: boosting solution delivery with AI, making AI a team member, generating contextual digital experiences, and enabling end-to-end business process automation.
   
   
8. Build an Integrated Enterprise Risk Management Program: Enterprise risks are becoming too interconnected for siloed risk practices to manage effectively. Info-Tech's blueprint helps leaders build a proactive ERM program by aligning risk appetite to strategic objectives, defining governance and risk taxonomies, developing risk response options, and creating a monitoring, reporting, and tooling plan that embeds risk management across the organization.
   
   
9. Design the IT Infrastructure & Operations Organization of the Future: I&O teams are being asked to support rapid technology change while still managing day-to-day tickets, projects, and urgent operational demands. This blueprint helps leaders review strategy, evaluate team structure, assess skills and staffing gaps, and build a multiyear roadmap for an I&O organization that is aligned, adaptable, and ready for future infrastructure needs.
   
   
10. Defend Against Deepfake Cyberattacks: Deepfakes are turning human trust into an enterprise attack surface, making traditional technical controls insufficient on their own. The firm's blueprint helps CIOs, CISOs, and CSOs identify likely deepfake threat scenarios, assess exposure across people, processes, and technology, prioritize risk by likelihood and impact, and build zero trust verification practices into everyday communications.
    
    
11. Develop a Plan to Overcome Your Microsoft Power Apps Challenges: Power Apps can accelerate application development, but its ease of use can also lead to app sprawl, shadow IT, weak governance, insecure applications, poor data modeling, and performance issues. This resource helps organizations understand their current Power Apps landscape, identify and prioritize key challenges, and build a now, next, later roadmap for secure and sustainable adoption.
    
    
12. Identify and Respond to Credible Threats Arising From Global Uncertainty: Macro-level volatility is creating risks that traditional, single-future planning models are not built to handle. Info-Tech's blueprint helps organizations scan for weak signals, assess how global uncertainties could affect strategy and operations, conduct premortem exercises, map risk events by likelihood and impact, and build a roadmap for stronger foresight and dynamic response capabilities.

"Organizations that succeed with AI will be the ones that treat foundations as strategy," explains Harrison. "This is where execution discipline matters: clear accountability, trusted information, resilient operations, and teams that can adapt as technology continues to change."

Info-Tech's Best of 2026 Mid-Year Report offers a practical view into the priorities shaping IT leadership in the first half of the year. As AI becomes more operational across the enterprise, the report shows that CIOs and IT leaders are focusing on the capabilities that make scalable innovation possible, including stronger data practices, modern infrastructure, integrated risk management, secure operations, adaptive leadership, and informed technology buying decisions.

For exclusive and timely commentary from Info-Tech's experts on any of the associated research, and access to Info-Tech's Best of 2026 Mid-Year Report, please contact [email protected].

About Info-Tech Research Group
Info-Tech Research Group is one of the world's leading and fastest-growing research and advisory firms, serving over 30,000 IT, HR, and marketing professionals around the globe. As a trusted product and service leader, the company delivers unbiased, highly relevant research and industry-leading advisory support to help leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. For nearly 30 years, Info-Tech has partnered closely with teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to expert guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

To learn more about Info-Tech's HR research and advisory services, visit McLean & Company, and for data-driven software buying insights and vendor evaluations, visit the firm's SoftwareReviews platform.

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SOURCE Info-Tech Research Group