Why AI is burning out IT leaders — and what CIOs say helps

As boards push for AI wins, CIOs are learning that trying to shoulder every responsibility themselves is a fast path to burnout. 

Nina Tatsiy, CIO at Quadient, confronted that reality after taking the top technology role last year at the business automation software provider. 

“I realized when I started the job, I was working 20 hours a day … because I wanted to do it all, including AI,” Tatsiy told InformationWeek. “It’s, of course, not sustainable.”

Burnout in IT leadership is not new. The CISO role, for example, has long carried that risk; according to Proofpoint’s 2025 Voice of the CISO report, 63% of the responding CISOs said they experienced or observed burnout within the previous year.

As CIOs grapple with the demands of AI adoption and AI’s rapid evolution, they may face similar risks. 

CIOs under pressure 

CIOs tend to be passionate about new technology, but AI — arguably the closest that technology has come to mimicking human intelligence — brings a unique set of challenges: 

IBM’s 2026 Tech Leader Study elucidates the pressure that CIOs face as they strive to lead AI from pilot projects to enterprise-wide production. Just 11% of the 2,000 C-suite technology leaders surveyed said that they are prepared for the AI agent deployment planned over the next year. Plus, 77% of organizations surveyed reported that governance is lagging. Despite not having full control over systems, two-thirds of technology leaders said they are responsible for the outcomes of those systems. 

And then there is the financial element of CIO leadership. AI spending is ballooning, yet 84% of technology leaders surveyed by IBM said they have not fully operationalized AI financial management, and 85% said they do not have full visibility into real-time spending on AI. 

The path to burnout

In the race to embrace AI, CIOs may be pushing themselves and their teams hard, but Jean-Philippe Avelange, CIO at managed network services provider Expereo, chalks up the risk to a challenge that extends beyond workload issues. 

“There’s a lot of work that can be done — but that’s not what burns out an IT department or CIOs,” he said. “It’s the mismatch with the expectations.”

If the gap between what boards and C-suites expect from CIOs and reality cannot be bridged, the risk of burnout is high, he said. 

He said CIO burnout has a multiplier effect across the organization. Burnt-out employees worried about their jobs being reshaped — or eliminated — by AI can make it difficult for the organization to realize the benefits of the technology. 

“FOBO — the fear of becoming obsolete — is now part of the workplace jargon,” said Stacey Cadigan, partner at Information Services Group, noting that the anxiety threatens to erode the gains organizations are looking to achieve with AI.

“The anticipated productivity improvements might be impossible to achieve if the workforce is disengaged, shaken and depleted by the transition to AI,” she said.

A path to success instead of AI oblivion

According to Tatsiy, CIOs should embrace the reality that they cannot fix every issue that arises as their organizations work to make the most out of AI.

“You could not learn it all, and you should not learn it all. You have to … preserve your skills as a human managing this space,” she said.

Soft skills: “Creativity, understanding people and understanding business objectives is far more important for the CIOs I think, than understanding every nitty-gritty [detail] of the technology out there,” Tatsiy said. 

New team structures and upskilling: In order to meet the new demands on IT, Tatsiy recommended CIOs focus on upskilling current team members and making strategic hires, noting that CIOs “definitely have to change the shape and structure of the team to accommodate this shift in technology and the ways of working.”

Manage expectations: As CIOs build their teams and figure out how to be those agents of change within their enterprises, they will need to find ways to communicate with other executives and their boards about the strategic decisions they make. 

“CIOs need to manage expectations rather than trying to run behind trying to deliver and to please everyone,” Avelange said. 

Everyone needs a pressure relief valve

As all-consuming as AI can be, “all work, all the time” is unsustainable. If CIOs are going to avoid burning out now or later, they need to carve out time for other aspects of their lives. 

“I need to find that one hour a day when I’m not thinking about work, which is very hard,” Tatsiy said. “Exercise or go for a walk … otherwise, you will not be really useful to yourself or your family or work.”

CIOs can better manage the risk of burnout by surrounding themselves with the right people and prioritizing their time, but they also need structural support from their enterprises. 

“The organizations that really are going to reduce some of the leadership fatigue and most effectively be able to address some of the burnout are the ones that will really invest in redesigning their AI governance,” Cadigan said. Shared accountability for AI outcomes and early reviews of operating models can be more effective than constantly putting pressure on CIOs alone.