While those in high-ranking tech positions at companies have seen their roles shift in the last few years, the rest of the workplace is catching up. The CIO is no longer seen as a company’s “tech person,” a recent report from Forbes Research found. The person who runs technology is the one that other leaders most want to collaborate with—42% of respondents saying they want to work with the CIO, and close to the same amount want to collaborate with the CTO.

More than four out of five CIOs told Forbes Research they consider themselves unifiers, reaching across different departments to advocate for innovation. CIOs are interested in adding to their enterprise tech stack, capability and security—more than half are hoping to transition to automated digital workflows in the next two years—but they’re also doing more in the company as a whole.

Upskilling employees is a top CIO priority for growth, the report found. More than a third say they are prioritizing training, a 12% increase from 2024. Considering the wider implementation of AI in enterprises, the focus on more training makes sense. Workers need to know how to take advantage of AI systems to make the workplace more efficient, and oftentimes make their jobs less tedious. AI training also helps ensure employees know about cybersecurity risks with these systems. And more knowledge of what AI can do could help employees think of new uses for the technology that executives might not have considered.

A large proportion of CIOs—44%—also say they’re aligning their initiatives with sustainability to ensure their organization is more agile and resilient. More CIOs are prioritizing sustainability than any other C-suite role, and it makes sense. AI uses more electricity than traditional technology, so CIOs need to find ways to get their company the power it needs without driving costs too high. But resilience is also of critical importance: The necessary power needs to be there to keep the company running, no matter what happens with utilities or the economy at large.

Managing a company’s AI transition is also an important CIO duty, and at this point, everyone in the workforce likely realizes AI is more than just something cool, and is actually a solution to improving the workplace. I talked to FICO CIO Mike Trkay about how companies can find the most value out of their AI deployments. An excerpt from our conversation is later in this newsletter.

The bulk of President Donald Trump’s sweeping new global tariffs are effective as of today, so it makes some sense that on Wednesday, Apple announced a new $100 billion investment in the U.S. to enhance its domestic manufacturing capacity and capabilities. The new investment, which is on top of the $500 billion commitment CEO Tim Cook announced earlier this year, would expand the company’s American Manufacturing Program, which is dedicated to bringing more of the tech giant’s supply chain and advanced manufacturing to the U.S.

The investment, however, is not just for Apple. Much of the money will go to expanding and broadening partnerships with U.S. companies to manufacture the precision components of Apple products. According to Apple, the investments that it’s making over the next four years include an advanced smartphone glass production line with Corning in Kentucky, a new multi-year agreement with Texas laser maker Coherent, and partnerships for chip and semiconductor manufacturing with GlobalWafers America, TSMC, Texas Instruments, Applied Materials, Samsung, Amkor, Broadcom and GlobalFoundries.

Apple isn’t the only company looking more to U.S.-made chips and semiconductors. As Trump appeared with Cook on Wednesday to announce the new........

© Forbes