Thoughtworks’ survey of 3,200 CIOs finds no dominant model for enterprise AI leadership with Australian CIOs reporting a distributed approach to AI decision-making and budgets
New global research from Thoughtworks, a global technology consultancy, found that 87% of Australian Chief Information Officers (CIOs) believe they are now more responsible for redesigning workforce workflows and labour models than managing core IT infrastructure, compared with 89% globally.
The study, based on a survey of 3,200 CIOs across 10 countries, highlights the growing responsibility of technology leaders as AI becomes more widely adopted across organisations.
In Australia, approximately 90% of CIOs say AI adoption is happening faster than governance structures can adapt, while 35% feel personally accountable for workforce disruption caused by AI adoption, despite not being able to fully influence the outcome.
“AI governance is also a workforce design issue,” said Rachel Laycock, Chief Technology Officer at Thoughtworks. “As AI changes how work gets done, organizations need to rethink roles, workflows and decision rights so people know where human judgment is still essential and where AI can take on more of the work. Training matters, but it’s only one part of building an organization that can use AI effectively at scale.”
The research also found that AI decision-making is spread across organisations. In Australia, central IT or technology leadership is the most frequently cited source of influence over AI decisions (20%), followed by the CEO (16%) and executive leadership team (14%). Budget ownership is similarly divided between IT, individual business units and executive leadership.
Despite this shared decision-making, 89% of Australian CIOs believe central IT would ultimately be held responsible for security breaches or compliance failures caused by AI tools purchased independently by business units.
The survey also found that 71% of Australian organisations have already hired a Chief AI Officer (CAIO), with a further 22% looking to do so. However, 29% report friction or unclear boundaries between the CIO and CAIO roles.
To address these challenges, Australian organisations are planning to embed dedicated technology leads within business units (55%), establish formal AI governance and operating models (48%) and standardise software and digital transformation across business units (38%).
“Authority over AI is distributed, but accountability hasn’t always moved with it,” said Mike Sutcliff, CEO of Thoughtworks. “The answer isn’t to pull every decision back into central IT or put one executive in charge and assume the problem is solved. Organizations need clearer decision rights, and people need the skills and information to make good decisions as AI becomes part of how the business runs.”
The full report, Thoughtworks Global CIO Survey 2026: Who governs enterprise AI?, explores how organisations are approaching enterprise AI governance, leadership, workforce capability and the changing role of the CIO.
