AI adoption pushes APAC CIOs beyond technical leadership
Salesforce study shows AI adoption reshaping the CIO role across APAC, with leadership and data governance emerging as critical priorities.
Artificial intelligence is reshaping the role of the chief information officer across Asia Pacific, as organisations move from experimentation to operational deployment. New research from Salesforce suggests that CIOs are increasingly expected to lead organisational change, rather than focus solely on technology delivery.
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The company’s second annual CIO study found that global AI implementation rose 282% in 2025 compared with the previous year. As adoption accelerates, CIOs are expanding their influence beyond infrastructure and systems management into broader business transformation.
CIO role expands as AI adoption accelerates
The study indicates that CIOs are increasingly responsible for guiding enterprise-wide AI adoption and aligning leadership teams around deployment strategies. While the role has traditionally centred on technical implementation, many organisations now expect CIOs to steer organisational change and integrate AI into everyday business workflows.
According to the research, 96% of CIOs in the Asia Pacific region say the rise of AI agents is forcing them to broaden their skill sets. The shift reflects how enterprise AI projects increasingly require coordination across multiple departments, rather than being confined to technology teams.
Paul Carvouni, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Salesforce ASEAN, said the pace of AI adoption is transforming the responsibilities of IT leaders. “AI is undergoing one of the fastest adoption cycles of any technology, fundamentally transforming the CIO’s mandate from just technical delivery orientation to primary architects of business transformation.”
He added that the role now requires CIOs to connect technical capabilities with organisational strategy. “For AI to deliver value in any organisation, CIOs must move beyond the infrastructure works to become change agents – bridging the gap between raw computational power and the human-centric strategies that drive organisational transformation.”
Leadership and change management become core CIO skills
As AI deployments expand, the research suggests CIOs are investing more time in leadership and communication skills. Many report that driving adoption across business units now requires storytelling, change management, and executive alignment.
Among APAC respondents, 75% say they have strengthened their change management and communication capabilities to support AI initiatives. More than half report improving leadership skills, while 55% say they are developing storytelling and narrative-building capabilities.
The findings indicate that CIOs are also working closely with chief executives as AI programmes grow in scale. This relationship reflects how AI deployments increasingly shape broader organisational strategy, rather than remaining purely technical projects.
Data governance and trust remain major barriers
Despite the rapid increase in AI deployments, many CIOs report ongoing challenges around data governance and trust. Concerns about data security and privacy remain the most frequently cited risks associated with AI adoption.
The research found that only 29% of APAC CIOs are completely confident that their organisations are investing in AI systems with built-in data governance. At the same time, only 15% of IT budgets are dedicated to data security.
The gap highlights a continuing tension between rapid AI adoption and the underlying data infrastructure required to support it. While enterprises are scaling AI across business platforms, the study suggests that governance frameworks and data management practices have not always kept pace.
Customer service emerges as a key AI deployment area
Customer service appears to be one of the earliest operational environments for enterprise AI systems. According to the study, 84% of APAC CIOs say they are working more closely with their customer service organisations because of AI agents.
CIOs also ranked customer service as the business function with the most mature AI use cases and highest levels of adoption. The findings align with data from Salesforce’s Agentforce platform, which showed that the average number of customer service conversations led by AI agents increased 22 times in the first half of 2025.
However, cross-functional coordination remains uneven. While 80% of APAC CIOs say AI agents increase the need for collaboration across departments such as HR, finance, and sales, fewer than half report working at that level of integration today.
A CIO survey respondent in the retail industry noted that internal alignment is essential to avoid inflated costs and unrealistic expectations around AI adoption.
“There has been more emphasis [in my role] on coaching and directing the business on the potential and limitations of AI. There is a great deal of hype, which is greater than several previous emerging technologies that need grounding in realistic applications within our business. A lot more education is needed to adopt and get the most out of it, or costs escalate far quicker without adding value. There is an even greater need to ensure strategic business alignment across functions to get the most out of the data and insight potential.”
