Many CIOs are experiencing a noticeable shift in how decisions are made inside their organisations. Decision-making is no longer shaped only by experience and meetings. AI systems now contribute directly by generating options, analysing trade-offs, and working at a pace that traditional governance struggles to keep up with.
Boards are responding to this shift with new expectations. When an AI model proposes reducing output, changing priorities or reallocating budget, the board wants clarity on how the conclusion was reached. It expects answers on accountability, model validation and how to proceed when a machine’s recommendation conflicts with human judgment.
This is changing the CIO’s role. Beyond architecture and security, CIOs are becoming responsible for decision orchestration. This means defining how human judgment and machine intelligence interact clearly and reliably. The aim is not to hand over decision-making to AI, but to ensure that AI-supported choices remain transparent and properly owned.
The need for this becomes obvious when AI delivers confident, highly optimised recommendations. A model can test thousands of scenarios and highlight the most effective route, but the organisation still requires a structured process to review the logic and decide whether to act. Here, the CIO must interpret the model’s reasoning, explain the risks and ensure alignment with strategy.
This evolution naturally leads to the rise of advanced digital twins. While digital twins once focused on operational visibility, the new generation uses behavioural, contextual, and physical data to predict how systems will evolve and which actions will return the best outcomes. They no longer simply reflect the state of the business. They propose improvements.
For CIOs, digital twins offer strong strategic value but also raise governance questions. When a twin identifies inefficiencies or suggests changes that challenge established practices, the CIO must ensure that the organisation has a disciplined way to assess and respond. The objective is not to replace leadership but to embed model-driven insight into decision-making in a controlled manner.
Boards increasingly expect this level of discipline. They want faster decisions that are still transparent and data-driven, and clearly owned by management. Building these frameworks is becoming a central part of the CIO’s mandate.
This is why the upcoming CIONET event on 11 December, The Next Generation Digital Twins, is so relevant. The discussion will explore how CIOs can build decision frameworks where human expertise and intelligent digital systems operate together with clarity and impact.
The organisations that will succeed are those where CIOs lead this shift and ensure that AI and digital twins become structured, reliable contributors to better, faster decision-making.