The role of the CIO is expanding to encompass the creation and rollout of customer experience technology, The Wall Street Journal reported April 27.
Creating digital front doors, enabling virtual conferences and rolling out consumer apps are all initiatives that are becoming more routine for CIOs. This shift toward more consumer-centric technology may be indicative of a wider trend, altering the role of the CIO.
Google Cloud Chief Executive Thomas Kurian said he predicts that within the next five to eight years all industries will dramatically change their approach to their relationships with customers, creating a far more digitized and online experience. This will affect the role of the CIO, which he says has "changed materially."
"A lot of CIOs are being pushed to broaden their remit," Chuck Gray, partner at management-advisory firm Egon Zehnder, told the Journal. "It may have started in consumer-facing industries, but you can now see the trend everywhere."