Richard Pallardy, Freelance WriterApril 23, 202510 Min ReadFeodora Chiosea via Alamy StockCEOs are increasingly honest about their IT knowledge deficiencies. Anyone who has worked in tech in the past several decades has a story or two about the imperious and dismissive attitude taken by the C-suite toward tech issues. It is a cost center, a gamble, an unworthy investment. There are plenty of CEOs and other executives who still refuse to engage with the tech side of the business. But they are now viewed as dinosaurs -- relics of an age where tech was a novelty. Now, CEOs and their cohorts have been compelled to acknowledge these errors. Many are attempting to correct them -- both personally and on an organizational level. A recent Istari survey found that 72% of CEOs felt uncomfortable making cybersecurity decisions. Respondents to the survey acknowledged the need to trust the knowledge of their tech counterparts -- an encouraging finding for CIOs.  The difficulty of this shift is understandable. CEOs were initially only responsible for industrial operations and the money they produced. Following the Industrial Revolution, their responsibilities became largely financial. Now they must juggle both fiscal and technological aspects to remain competitive.  Strategic implementation of technology, both in expanding business and defending it against attackers, is increasingly essential. Doing so requires a working knowledge of tech trends and how they can be leveraged across the organization. This may be a difficult ask for people who come from strictly business backgrounds. Thus, it is incumbent upon them to both educate themselves and consult with their CIOs to ensure that informed decisions are made.  Related:According to a 2021 MIT Sloan Management review, organizations whose leadership was savvy to new tech developments saw 48% more revenue growth. Now, when organizations seek a CEO, they increasingly ask whether their candidates possess the knowledge necessary to manage the risks and benefits of implementing new technologies such as AI while maintaining a strong security posture.  Here, InformationWeek explores the knowledge gaps that CEOs need to be aware of -- and how they can fill them -- with insights from Ashish Nagar, CEO of customer service AI company Level AI, and Susie Wee, CEO of DevAI, an AI company working on optimizing IT workflows. What CEOs Don’t Know Business-trained CEOs may lack many technological skills -- an understanding of AI, how to best manage cybersecurity, and the ability to determine what infrastructure is a worthwhile investment. The narrow parameters of their training and the responsibilities of their previous roles leave many of them in the dark on how to manage the integration of technological aspects into the businesses they manage.  Related:“Technology is not their business. The technology is used to fortify their offer,” Wee says. “The question is, how can they use technology to compete while thinking first about their customers?” Susie Wee, DevAIA 2025 report issued by Cisco offers intriguing findings about the feelings of CEOs on IT knowledge gaps. Of the CEOs surveyed, some 73% were concerned that they had lost competitive advantage due to IT knowledge gaps in their organization. And 74% felt that their deficiencies in knowledge of AI were holding them back from making informed business decisions regarding the technology.  “The arc of what is possible right now with these modern technologies, especially with how fast things are changing, is what I see as the biggest gap,” Nagar says. “That’s where it creates friction between technical leaders and the CEO.” CEOs who cannot connect the dots between the capabilities of nascent tech and what it may offer in the future do a disservice to their organizations. According to Cisco, around 84% of respondents believed that CEOs will need to be increasingly informed about new technologies in coming years in order to operate effectively. However, other data from the report suggests that some CEOs view IT deficiencies as the responsibility of their teams -- only 26% saw problems with their own lack of knowledge. Related:“Some are very scared -- and actually frozen and not moving forward. They're deciding to allow legal and compliance to put up gates everywhere,” Wee observes. Other research, however, indicates that CEOs are taking ownership of their personal knowledge gaps -- 64% of respondents to an AND Digital survey felt that they were “analogue leaders.” That is, they were concerned that their skill sets did not match the increasing integration of digital into all aspects of business. And some 34% said that their digital knowledge was insufficient to lead their companies to the next growth phase. The survey found that female CEOs were more nervous about their knowledge gaps -- 46% thought they lacked the necessary technological skills. “The buck stops with me. If anything goes wrong in cyber for whatever reason, customers will not excuse me because it is in an area I can say somebody else is looking after,” said one CEO who spoke with Istari. One of their main complaints is the lack of usable data and how to obtain it. If they have structured data, many of them can adapt their existing skill sets around it and make effective decisions. But obtaining that information requires at least a general understanding of the landscape. If they can direct their subordinates to capture that data and massage it into a usable format, they can make more informed choices for their organizations. How CEOs Can Bridge the Gap CEOs are increasingly seeking tech training -- 78% were enrolled in digital upskilling courses according to the AND Digital survey. Some CEOs are even engaging in reverse mentoring, where they form partnerships in which their subordinates share their skill sets in a semi-structured environment, allowing them to leverage that knowledge. Advisory boards and other programs that put CEOs in contact with their tech teams are also useful in facilitating upward knowledge transfer.  Digital immersion programs in which executives are embedded with their tech teams give them on-the-ground experience and allow them to integrate their experiences into the decisions that will ultimately influence the daily work of these groups.  “In our organization we have weekly technology days where people share best practices on what people are learning in their lines of work,” Nagar says. There are even simulation programs, which allow CEOs to test their tech knowledge against real-life scenarios and then view the results within the safety of an artificial environment -- thus gaining useful feedback at no cost to their actual business. Wee thinks that they should be encouraging their teams to learn along with them. “When the Internet was formed, there were companies that did not allow people to use the Internet,” she says. They fell behind. The same may be true when CEOs do not see the benefits of encouraging their employees to experiment with AI, for example, and doing the same themselves. The tech side can play its part in getting CEOs on board too. “The question is: how to meet them where they're at,” Wee says. To her, that means showing them the more pragmatic sides of new technology such as AI -- the tasks it can perform and how that can benefit the business. “Because of the recent technology changes, there’s much more space on the CEO agenda for technology,” Nagar adds. How It Pays Off A 2024 article in Nature describes the correlation between CEOs who have a background in scientific research and how the enterprises they run digitalize. The correlation is a positive one -- companies run by CEOs who know tech tend to be more aggressive on innovation and reap its benefits more rapidly.  CEOs with scientific and technological knowledge bases are uniquely positioned to see the benefits of implementing new technology, investing in technological infrastructure and supporting cybersecurity safeguarding. While plenty of CEOs who come from other backgrounds can do the same, they may be more reticent given their lack of understanding of the underlying principles.  A heightened awareness of the influence of tech, even on businesses without a strict technological focus, allows leadership to capitalize on developments and trends as they emerge rather than after they have been proven by peer organizations -- often saving on costs and offering a competitive advantage.  Novel technology may be secured at bargain rates when it first becomes available -- and at the same time, the talent required to run it may be more available as well. Leadership that is able to discern these trends as they emerge can uniquely position an organization to capitalize on them.  “What CEOs are finding is that customers want to have an experience that is extremely technology forward: frictionless, faster, better, cheaper. If that is the case, the CEO has to know about the technology changes, because the decisions they're making right now are not just for today,” Nagar imparts. “I think the motivation comes from working backwards from the customer.” Ashish Nagar, Level AICEOs who emphasize digital strategy -- and remain on the cutting edge by refining their own knowledge -- are far more likely to be hawkish on digital strategy and reap the resulting revenue. Technologically literate CEOs are more attuned to risk management, too. They are more likely to solicit and examine data on the risks particular to their business and allocate resources accordingly.  Rather than viewing cybersecurity as merely a cost center, they are able to discern the long-term benefits of a healthy security program and to understand that their cyber team adds immeasurable value even during periods where attacks do not occur. When an incident does occur, they are also more proficient at managing the situation in concert with their CIO and other tech staff -- no one in cybersecurity wants to work under a CEO who panics under fire.  Leveraging CIOs Cisco reports this year that almost 80% of CEOs are now leaning more than ever on their CIOs and CTOs for vital tech knowledge. And 83% acknowledge that CTOs now play a key role in their business. Istari has found additional support for this notion -- their surveys find that CEOs now view their CIOs and CTOs as invaluable collaborators. Still, CIOs remain nervous about these collaborations. Some 30% of American CIOs and 50% of their European counterparts did not think that their CEOs were equally accountable for tech problems.  The tension cuts both ways. As one CEO told Istari, “At that moment of an attack, you put the company into the hands of supply chain people and IT people. And those are not groups you would normally, or intuitively, give that kind of confidence and trust to.” Participants in the survey -- both CEOs and CIOs -- urged a greater move toward both shared accountability and responsibility. Not only should both parties face the music when something goes wrong; they should also be equally involved in preparing for and obviating these crises in the first place.  CIO to CEO Pipeline Cisco suggests that some 82% of CEOs anticipate a growing number of CTOs entering their ranks soon.  Indeed, many of the world’s top CEOs don’t come from traditional business backgrounds. Sam Altman, Jeff Bezos, Demis Hassabis, and Mark Zuckerberg rose to their positions through their knowledge of engineering and tech. The trend has been observed for nearly a decade -- Harvard Business Review flagged it in 2018. People with this sort of mindset appear to flourish in modern business, with its ever-growing reliance on technology. They are perfectly positioned to both reap the benefits and manage the multitude of problems that ensue.  The traditional business mindset, while not obsolete, is not as easily adaptable to such a volatile, multi-dimensional ecosystem. CIOs are already more involved in business strategy, with some 55% claiming they have been proactive in this regard according to one report. “A CTO role is a business role compared to being a pure technologist,” Wee says of her own experience. “You’re linking the needs of the business and its customers together with technology advancements -- and the technical teams who can deliver it.” This forward-facing mindset has been a fundamental shift in the C-suite -- CIOs, CTOs, and CISOs are no longer in the background. Their strategic capabilities and ability to forecast coming tech trends are increasingly valuable. And they may ultimately lead those who hold these positions to even more prominent leadership roles. About the AuthorRichard PallardyFreelance WriterRichard Pallardy is a freelance writer based in Chicago. He has written for such publications as Vice, Discover, Science Magazine, and the Encyclopedia Britannica.See more from Richard PallardyReportsMore ReportsNever Miss a Beat: Get a snapshot of the issues affecting the IT industry straight to your inbox.SIGN-UPYou May Also Like