2026 will not be for the faint of heart — or the faint of budget. Technology leaders are about to face a year that’s part roller coaster, part chess match, and part improv comedy. Forrester’s research says that most CIOs will get more budget but also more headaches, more volatility, and more pressure to prove that every dollar spent is worth its weight in gold-plated AI chips. Here are three of our 2026 predictions to help you chart your course:

  • One-quarter of CIOs will be asked to bail out business-led AI failures in their organization. Agentic systems promise to automate tasks and empower employees, but when adoption lags and accuracy errors mount, CEOs will turn to their technology chiefs to fix failed AI projects. Already, 39% of AI decision-makers say their CIO or CTO leads AI technology strategy, and 21% lead AI business strategy. These numbers are set to double as organizations realize that tech leaders are best positioned to marshal the teams needed for successful AI agents. CIOs will need to establish governance, curate data and knowledge assets, design user experiences, and manage output quality. CEOs cannot wait for a high-profile AI ethics or policy failure to force action. Tech leaders must strengthen governance and scenario planning now to avoid costly mistakes.
  • Two-thirds of CIOs will need to justify budgets by linking tech spend to business value. CIOs are driving business value with their tech strategy, but communicating this to CEOs and business leaders is often lost in translation. Mapping tech services to the business capabilities that underpin strategy is difficult — only about a third of enterprises do it today. As tech spend grows faster than inflation due to AI, cloud, and security, the C-suite will force tech leaders to focus on value. CIOs will need to adopt IT finance frameworks such as technology business management, to map total tech spend to business capabilities, and practices like FinOps, to attribute variable costs such as cloud. AI can accelerate this mandate by using agents to automate mapping and attribution. In 2026, CIOs must become fluent in the language of business value.
  • A third of CIOs will adopt gig-worker protocols and agents to support multi-job IT employees. CIOs will adjust to new team structures made up of AI agents, gig workers, and employees with multiple jobs. Due to job dissatisfaction, layoff instability, and AI automation threats, IT employees will seek to maximize compensation and security by working multiple simultaneous jobs. CIOs will respond by creating a vision of no worker left behind, scaling the use of AI-assisted development agents, and establishing gig-worker protocols that meet corporate standards. Leadership teams will need to optimize human expertise alongside AI process reengineering. The best CIOs will support job security and prove that they won’t discard valuable employees as automation increases. Addressing labor pool pressure will require stronger engagement, career development, and competitive compensation.

Volatility: The Only Sure Thing In 2026

If there’s one thing tech leaders can count on in 2026, it’s that nothing will stay the same for long. Volatility isn’t just a buzzword; it is the overriding theme of the current time. Whether you are talking about AI projects gone off the rails, budgets needing to be justified in three languages, or your best developer moonlighting as a gig worker (and maybe an AI agent on weekends), unpredictability will be the norm.

So what’s the survival kit for this wild roller-coaster ride? First, keep your governance toolkit handy for those surprise AI rescues. Second, learn to speak fluent “business value,” because your CFO will want more than smoke and mirrors. And finally, embrace the new normal: Your workforce will be a mix of humans, bots, and gig workers. Managing this workforce mix will require an increased focus on your teams’ leadership skills.

2026 will reward leaders who treat volatility as a feature, not a bug. If you can laugh when your AI bot schedules a meeting with your office plant, pivot when your budget gets questioned, and keep your team together even when half of them are working from a beach somewhere, you’re ready for whatever comes next. The future is unpredictable, but with a little flexibility (and maybe a sense of humor), you’ll be ready to thrive.

Forrester clients can read our full Predictions 2026: Tech Leadership report to get more detail about each of these predictions, plus two more bonus predictions. Set up a Forrester guidance session to discuss these predictions with me and other key contributors of this report to plan out a 2026 technology strategy and roadmap that will set your organization up for success.

If you aren’t yet a client, sign up here to get alerted when you can download one of our complimentary Predictions guides. Get additional complimentary resources, including webinars, on the Predictions 2026 hub.