AI AIn’t SaiNTS, and CIOs Know Best
🤖💼 Because someone has to babysit the bots.
🎬 Intro: When AI Meets ROI (and the CFO Starts Sweating)
According to Forrester’s 2025 Technology & Innovation Summit, enterprise AI is about to get a reality check.
Sure, AI can summarize Shakespeare, drive cars, and write breakup songs — but ask it to deliver business value, and suddenly it’s all 🤖💭 “still learning.”
Forrester’s verdict? Enterprises will push back nearly a quarter of their AI spending to 2027 because too many projects are drowning in their own code. In plain English: AI’s getting expensive, results are lagging, and the CFO’s now asking, “What did we pay for again?”
⚙️ Surprise #1: Humans Still Don’t Know How to Use AI
AI is so advanced that humans are… confused.
Wouldn’t it be great if we could hire AI to teach us how to use AI? 🧠🪞
Forrester found that CIOs and IT leaders are being dragged into AI chaos — and they’ll spend 2026 bailing out business units that thought ChatGPT could replace strategy.
“We thought the AI could manage our workflows.”
– Every middle manager, Q1 2026
💰 Surprise #2: ROI Still Matters (Sorry, AI Dreamers)
AI projects are no longer “fun experiments.” CFOs are officially in the room.
And when the CFO shows up, phrases like “synergy,” “moonshot,” and “pilot phase” turn into “Where’s the ROI?”
As Forrester notes, expect CEOs to pull CFOs into every AI deal — not because they love tech, but because they really love math.
“You say it’s trained on 100 billion parameters?
Great. Now train it to justify 100 million in spending.”
– CFO, mid-sigh
🧩 Surprise #3: From ERP to EAIP — Enterprise AI Planning
Remember ERP? (Enterprise Resource Planning.)
Meet its louder, moodier cousin: EAIP — Enterprise AI Planning.
Forrester predicts that AI fragmentation will force enterprises to build composable agent architectures — fancy talk for “too many bots, not enough babysitters.”
CIOs will have to orchestrate dozens of micro-AI tools working across departments. Think:
🧠 One AI managing customers.
💸 One AI forecasting revenue.
📞 One AI scheduling the other AIs’ therapy sessions.
🧑💻 Surprise #4: Turns Out AI Still Needs… IT
Who knew? AI runs on technology.
Forrester predicts that 25% of CIOs will be called in to rescue failed AI projects that started in marketing, finance, or HR.
(It’s always marketing.)
With 39% of AI decision-makers saying the CIO now leads AI strategy — and that number set to double — the message is clear:
🧠 AI isn’t magic. It’s infrastructure.
🏗️ Surprise #5: Governance Isn’t a Buzzword — It’s Insurance
AI failures are coming, and they’ll be expensive.
Forrester VP Mark Moccia warns that CEOs “can’t wait for a high-profile AI ethics or policy failure to force action.”
Translation: Don’t wait for your chatbot to accidentally offend a senator before creating a governance plan. 🫣
CIOs must now design systems that ensure data integrity, auditability, and (most importantly) plausible deniability.
🧾 Surprise #6: Teamwork Just Got Weird
Your future “team” may look like this:
👩💻 Human employee
🤖 AI agent
👨🔧 Gig worker in another time zone
🧠 AI agent managing the gig worker
📊 CFO calculating all of their cost centers
Forrester predicts that one-third of CIOs will formalize gig worker + AI agent protocols by 2026. In other words, “hybrid workforce” just got a new meaning — and a new HR headache.
💡 The 5 (Actually 8) Commandments of AI Survival
1️⃣ Think enterprise-wide. Multi-agent AI needs a single brain — not 12 scattered spreadsheets.
2️⃣ If you can’t measure ROI, it’s not AI. It’s art. 🎨
3️⃣ Real-time data = real AI results. Delays kill automation.
4️⃣ Collaboration is oxygen. Humans, bots, gig workers — all need a shared playbook.
5️⃣ Keep your humor handy. AI chaos is coming. 😂
6️⃣ CIOs and CFOs must learn each other’s language (Rosetta Stone, anyone?).
7️⃣ Only 20% of CFOs think IT spending delivers business value. The other 80% think it’s just cloud costs and coffee. ☁️☕
8️⃣ Governance before glory — rescue plans before the fires start. 🔥
📏 The 30% Rule in AI
About 30% of most complex roles can be automated today.
The rest requires — you guessed it — humans with judgment, context, and caffeine.
“AI can make you faster. It just can’t make you right.”
— Every CIO, probably
🧭 10 AI Strategy Questions Every CIO Should Be Able to Answer
(Adapted from CIO.com)
-
What are we actually trying to accomplish — and does AI belong here?
-
How does this align with business goals?
-
What’s the ROI?
-
Is our AI strategy company-wide or departmental chaos?
-
Do we have the data and governance to go beyond the sandbox?
-
Can our results stand up to an audit — or a lawsuit?
-
Who’s managing risk and ethics?
-
Can AI decisions be explained in English?
-
How tolerant are we of failure?
-
Are we having honest conversations about expectations?
🚀 Funanc1al Take
AI won’t replace CIOs — it’ll make them indispensable.
The winners? The ones who blend governance with guts, humor with humility, and tech with translation.
AI ain’t a saint. It’s a tool — and sometimes, a toddler with access to your wallet. 💳🤯
⚡️ Quick Take / TL;DR
-
AI’s promise is real, but the execution gap is massive.
-
CIOs will become the new corporate heroes (or firefighters).
-
CFOs will demand proof that AI equals ROI.
-
Multi-agent chaos is coming — governance is your seatbelt.
-
Laugh, learn, and prepare for version 2.0 of “We didn’t test it in production.”
❓ FAQs
Q: Are companies really delaying AI spending?
Yep. Forrester says 25% of enterprise AI spend is being pushed to 2027.
Q: Why are AI projects failing?
Because people confuse installing AI with understanding AI.
Q: Who’s responsible when AI messes up?
Ask the CIO. They’ll be the one holding the extinguisher. Although the CFO and the CEO will also have to bear some of the brunt — with the share price to match. 📉🔥
Q: Should CFOs and CIOs collaborate?
Absolutely — because “innovation without accountability” is just PowerPoint.
🔗 Suggested External Links
-
Forrester’s “Prepare for AI Failures” — ComputerWeekly
👉 “AI is smart. Humans, not so much. But hey, awareness is the first step.” -
CIO.com: 10 AI Strategy Questions Every CIO Must Answer
👉 “A handy checklist to test if your AI strategy is visionary — or vaporware.”
🧾⚠️📢 Fun Disclaimer: 🧾⚠️📢
AI may automate tasks, but it won’t automate responsibility.
If your chatbot starts offering investment advice or scheduling “mandatory naps,” consult your CIO immediately.
This article contains traces of optimism and biodegradable humor. 🌱
We love science and technology — but most of all we love to smile and meme.
We sell jokes and opinions — and yes, we’re billing your sense of humor. 🎪💸💥
Invest at your own risk. Love at any pace. Laugh at every turn. 😄
🧭 Want More Like This?
👉 Head over to our Tech & Innovation Hub or our News & Perspectives with a Different Lens hub
👉 Browse our Funanc1al Wellness Hub for body insights with a wink and a plank
👉 Explore our Foodies Travel Hub for even more fun!
👉 Check our satirical finance series: “We the Spenders” (Coming soon)
👉 Or explore our Funanc1al Political Humor Roundup (Due anytime, if you dare to go deep)
👀 Want to stay relevant (and entertained)?
Visit Funanc1al.com — because we cover serious ideas with unserious emoji.