The business race for artificial intelligence has entered a new phase led by concerns about control. Although enthusiasm for AI continues to skyrocket, Logicalis Spain, an international leader in IT solutions, warns that organizations are advancing faster than their internal structures can support, especially in the growing use of AI tools within their processes.
This is reflected in the new Logicalis Global CIO Report 2026, an international study that analyzes how technological leadership is evolving in the midst of the expansion of generative AI and autonomous systems powered by AI tools. The report reveals that 94% of organizations have increased their interest in artificial intelligence in the last year, but, at the same time, 51% of CIOs consider that the adoption of these AI technologies and tools is already advancing “too quickly.”
The data reflects a significant change in the business conversation about AI. “The question is no longer whether companies should adopt artificial intelligence or incorporate new AI tools, but rather whether they are truly prepared to govern it, scale it and assume its risks,” says Alberto Robles, director of the data and artificial intelligence unit at Logicalis.
Furthermore, the study points to a growing gap between enthusiasm and operational capacity. Although many companies are already achieving results in predictive analytics, customer experience or automation through AI tools, few are able to convert these pilots into sustainable business capabilities.
In fact, 66% of CIOs acknowledge that they are not fully confident in being able to scale AI and AI tools beyond proofs of concept or isolated pilots. Furthermore, 62% admit that the investments made in these AI tools have not yet generated clearly measurable business value.
The problem, according to Logicalis, “is not so much in the technology as in the organization itself.” The main barriers to deploying AI and AI tools at scale are lack of internal technical skills (88%), data challenges (87%), and increasing regulatory and compliance demands (88%).
The report also shows that the majority of companies continue to operate in “learning as they go” mode: 89% of CIOs admit that their organizations are implementing AI and various AI tools without fully mature governance, supervision and control models.
AI creates new security risks
One of the most relevant aspects of the report is the impact of AI on corporate cybersecurity. Technology is not only helping to automate defense through AI tools, but it is also expanding the attack surface and creating new, difficult-to-detect vulnerabilities.
77% of organizations acknowledge having suffered cybersecurity incidents in the last year and more than a third of CIOs say that the use of AI tools has introduced new “blind spots” in security.
In addition, 57% say that employees are already putting corporate data at risk through inappropriate use of generative AI tools, while 66% consider internal training on the responsible use of these AI tools insufficient.
89% of CIOs admit that they are implementing various AI tools without mature governance, supervision and control models
The lack of visibility is especially worrying to technology managers. Only 37% say they have complete control over the AI tools and AI services their organizations currently use.
The rise of autonomous AI changes the role of the CIO
The report also anticipates the next big wave of agentic or autonomous AI. While 72% of organizations plan to continue investing in generative AI and AI tools over the next year, 60% already plan to allocate resources to systems capable of executing tasks and making decisions with minimal human intervention, relying on advanced AI tools.
This advancement is redefining the role of the CIO within companies. According to the study, technological leadership stops focusing solely on deploying tools to designing environments where humans, algorithms and AI tools can operate in a coordinated manner without losing control or responsibility.
“Technology is no longer something that is simply used; it begins to actively participate in how the organization works,” says Robles.
The transformation also affects the operating model. 94% of companies plan to rely on managed service providers in the coming years to address the growing technological complexity derived from the use of AI tools, and almost half are considering outsourcing mission-critical IT services.
With all this, the report reaffirms the idea that the great business challenge of the coming years will not be to introduce AI or implement new AI tools, but to govern them with enough trust, transparency and resilience to turn them into a sustainable business capability. “CIOs no longer compete solely to innovate faster, but to prevent the speed of adoption of these AI tools from exceeding the control capacity of organizations,” concludes Alberto Robles.
