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“CIOs have long struggled to balance enterprise tech budgets and big investments in AI are compounding the problem.”
McKinsey, 2026
Pressure to deliver efficiency in your business is rising fast. Your CFO is being asked to fund growth, invest in emerging tech, and control costs all at once. AI is becoming an increasingly attractive lever to improve performance and agility. And as a CIO, you’re expected to deliver these gains.
But you know the reality is far more complex. Up to 80% of your tech spend is tied up in maintenance, with around 40% absorbed by technical debt [McKinsey 2026]. Whilst tightening spend might appear to be the easy win, if you attempt to paper over the cracks and move too quickly into AI you risk compounding complexity and cost, locking into a cycle that could be deadly to your business.
So how will you navigate the discussion with your CFO and boardroom to deliver business-wide transformation that unlocks real performance gains rather than stacking deeper inefficiency?
1
Over half of UK leaders rank legacy tech & debt as the number 1 barrier to digital progress. [Deloitte, 2026]
2
80% of IT budgets are still tied up in maintaining existing systems, leaving just 20% to fund transformation. [EY, 2025]
An intimate dinner at
Michelin-starred location
City Social, Tower 42, London / 6:30-9:30PM
Jason Atherton’s handsome restaurant on the 24th floor of Tower 42 is dark and moody, with a subtle art deco twist. It boasts impressive views of the City skyline and the menu offers generous modern European dishes including multiple cuts of Cumbrian beef cooked on the Josper grill, from rib-eye to sirloin. The wine list offers an appealing mixture of prices and styles, and there are noteworthy cocktails too.
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