CIO 100 Award winners spotlight IT’s power to transform
Executive Take
These aren't pilots anymore. Each winner shows AI or automation tied to a hard dollar number, which is the bar boards will now expect from every IT investment.
Executive Summary
CIO.com profiles 10 of the 2026 CIO 100 Award winners. Examples include ABB's ABBY agent platform used by 63,000 staff, Dow's Carbon Footprint Ledger generating hundreds of millions in low-carbon sales, J&J's AI tools saving over $62 million, and PITT Ohio's email AI cutting handling costs 70%.
Why It Matters
Technology and AI leaders get a rare look at real deployment numbers, not vendor promises. HR leaders should note ABB and SMU both won by managing employee fear of AI before rolling it out.
Bizquad Perspective
The real lesson isn't the AI tech stack, it's that every winning team paired the deployment with a change-management plan for skeptical employees first.