CIOs expect artificial intelligence to be involved in some form in the exectuion of all IT work by 2030, with a least a quarter of IT work expected to be handled entirely by AI, without humans at all.

According to a survey of 700 CIOs conducted by Gartner, the expectation is that the remaining three-quarters of IT work will be done by humans augmented by AI. During the opening keynote at Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo during the week of November 17, the firm's VP analyst Gabriela Vogel also predicted that AI's impact on jobs globally will be neutral through 2026, and that the technology will create more jobs than it destroys by 2028.

“AI is not about job loss — it’s about workforce transformation," Vogel said, adding that companies should already be looking at ways to upskill existing IT employees to use AI to support them in their day-to-day work.

Despite Vogel's optimism regarding AI's potential impacts on job losses, others have pointed out that the technology has already led to cuts across the tech sector in 2025. Speaking at Amazon Business's Reshape conference in Seattle, Washington, economist Rebecca Patterson noted that companies like Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet and Amazon have made sizable layoffs in order to offset billions of dollars worth of investments in AI infrastructure. In the U.S., widespread AI adoption helped fuel a 175% year-over-year increase in job cuts in October, according to data from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Managing AI budgets has also proven difficult for CIOs, Gartner noted, with the technology often leading to hidden expenses down the line, stemming from costs tied to transitioning, training and change management. To wit, 73% of CIOs told Gartner that their organizations are either breaking even or losing money on their AI investments.