How AI Is Changing Business, Employees, and Teams: What CIOs Must Know
- Ling Zhang
- Aug 20, 2025
- 4 min read
The CIO's Playbook: Understanding AI’s Impacts and Leading Smarter
Artificial intelligence is no longer just a tech initiative — it’s a force reshaping the entire business ecosystem. From shifting human behavior to redefining the role of IT, AI is transforming not just how we do business, but how we think, work, and make decisions. Yet among all the changes AI brings, the most misunderstood — and most important — is its impact on people.
As organizations rush to implement AI, CIOs must realize that their responsibilities now go beyond technology. They must also take ownership of business and behavioral outcomes.
Let’s explore how AI is changing three critical domains: business models, employee experience, and the IT function itself — and what CIOs should do about it.
1. AI Is Redefining Business Performance Metrics
Traditionally, businesses have measured performance through ROI — Return on Investment. But with AI, a new metric is emerging: RoE — Return on Employees.
AI isn’t just about replacing humans or improving efficiency — it’s about amplifying human potential. When employees use AI tools effectively, they’re not just faster. They’re more creative, more strategic, and more fulfilled. AI can become a daily tool that improves not just productivity, but employee satisfaction and happiness.
Forward-thinking organizations are focusing on:
Everyday AI augmentation — using AI to remove friction from day-to-day tasks
Employee experience design — shaping roles that allow humans and AI to collaborate seamlessly
Human-centered outcomes — measuring how AI enhances meaning, purpose, and well-being at work
In this new landscape, CIOs must partner with CHROs and COOs to ensure AI systems are not just profitable — but also human-friendly.
2. AI Is Shaping Human Behavior — In Ways We Don’t Fully Understand
One of the most disruptive — and least discussed — effects of AI is its subtle influence on human behavior.
Here’s the danger: When AI becomes embedded in decision-making, it can lead to accidental decision delegation. People stop asking questions, stop thinking critically, and start deferring to the machine. This can create a false sense of certainty — and diminish human agency.
Organizations are already seeing:
Over-reliance on AI recommendations
Reduced accountability in decision chains
Behavioral drift, where people’s actions shift based on machine logic rather than human values
To counter this, CIOs must lead a cultural and behavioral shift. That means:
Training people how to think with AI, not just how to use it
Encouraging healthy skepticism, not blind trust
Defining what a good relationship with an AI agent looks like — clear roles, rules, and escalation paths
Behavioral outcomes must be treated with the same seriousness as business and tech outcomes.
3. AI Demands a New Kind of IT Leadership
AI is not just another tool to deploy — it’s a learning system that requires human oversight, feedback loops, and governance. This means IT’s role must evolve.
CIOs must reimagine their function to:
Target responsibilities across the organization to support AI learning and adaptation
Build interdisciplinary teams that blend data science, design, ethics, and behavioral science
Establish new KPIs, not just for system performance, but for employee experience, decision quality, and AI impact
Most importantly, IT must stop thinking of AI as a product — and start thinking of it as a relationship. Like any relationship, it must be nurtured, defined, and continually refined.
Three AI Behavior Challenges to Address Now
There are three core challenges every CIO must address when it comes to AI behavior:
Task Behavior – How AI changes the way we complete our daily responsibilities.
Work Behavior – How AI changes our role, our workflow, and how we collaborate.
Life Behavior – How AI influences our identity, purpose, and relationship with work itself.
AI touches not just what we do, but who we become. Ignoring this means missing the deeper transformation — and the deeper risks.
Lead the Human Side of AI
CIOs stand at a crossroads. They can continue to optimize for systems and savings — or they can rise to lead one of the most important cultural shifts in modern business.
You are no longer just a technology leader. You are a behavioral architect. A workplace designer. A human experience strategist.
Because in the age of AI, the organizations that thrive won’t just be the most automated — they’ll be the most aware. Aware of how humans and machines behave together. And intentional about how to shape that behavior toward the best possible future.
Stay tuned for the next blog, and subscribe to the blog and our newsletter to receive the latest insights directly in your inbox. Together, let’s make 2025 a year of innovation and success for your organization.
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