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Could The Future CEO Be The CIO?
The role of the CEO has been mutating for decades. Now, in an AI-charged world, it is, once again, falling under the microscope. The KPMG 2025 Africa CEO Outlook Report paints a world where tech is no longer the supporting cast but is the protagonist of the show. CEOs must now be tech-literate, mastering a language once the preserve of the CIO. The survey’s message is clear: the African CEO of tomorrow must think, act, and decide like a CIO. “African CEOs consider broader digital and technological literacy as the top leadership capability that is becoming essential in today’s fast-changing and unpredictable environment,” says the report.
It is a stunning sentence. One that is buried in the middle of the report, but is revolutionary in itself. Qualities once reserved for the CIO, such as a fair grasp of the new digital realm, playing well with others in the pool of technology, are now critical for the CEO role.
Tola Adeyemi, CEO and Senior Partner at KPMG West Africa, underscores this. “Today’s CEO is expected to be more than just a strategic thinker. They must also embrace digital and AI literacy, lead cultural transformation, and demonstrate agility in decision-making under pressure”
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And this is no longer aspirational either. Strategy demands tech be operational with 84 per cent of CEOs admitting they are “grappling with pressures and challenges” that shape every short-term decision. The top three decisions are not actually that surprising to the CIO: integration of AI into the organisation, regulatory pressure, and cybersecurity. What we are witnessing as the most pressing CEO headaches is, in essence, a fundamental evolution.
From The Strategic To The Systemic
The 2025 Outlook surveyed more than 130 CEOs across East, West and Southern Africa. The numbers reveal the tech mindset taking hold. 45 per cent of African CEOs are investing in cybersecurity and digital risk resilience. 41 per cent are embedding AI into operations and workflow. 34 per cent are spending on new technologies for business expansion.
These aren’t side projects either. CEOs are deconstructing leadership itself: agility, decision-making under pressure, and understanding AI now top their personal development priorities.
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This is the part where the CEO and CIO leadership fuse to rewrite the future of the organisation.
Even more interesting is how CEOs remain bullish. “79 per cent are optimistic about their own organisations’ prospects and are strongly backing a combination of investment in AI (61 per cent) and retaining and retraining of high-potential talent (62 per cent) to sustain and fuel future growth.”
This potent blend of AI and talent is the new corporate engine. AI is not being treated as a long-term gamble. It is, instead, a short-term instrument of efficiency. As the report notes, “Africa CEOs increasingly see AI not as a tool for future growth, but as an immediate lever for operational efficiency, better decision-making, and long-term resilience.” The numbers reinforce this. 14 per cent of CEOs plan to allocate more than 20 per cent of their annual budget to AI over the next year, nearly matching the 26 per cent global average.
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There is some constraint to this confidence. “96 per cent of African CEOs indicate that data readiness presents a challenge when it comes to implementing AI within their organisations.” Still, infrastructure gaps like limited connectivity, high hardware costs, and unreliable power may complicate progress, but they have not slowed ambition. 34 per cent of CEOs are investing directly in technology and solution innovation to counter those limitations.
Over the past decade, CIOs have extricated technology from the back office straight into the boardroom. Perhaps this is why CEOs list cybersecurity among their top three investment areas. That is significant, linked as it were to leadership capability. CEOs now see cyber resilience as their personal responsibility. 84 per cent say they feel “more responsible for ensuring the long-term prosperity of their organisations.”
The CEO–CIO Hive Mind
The African CEO’s growing tech literacy isn’t just a personal skillset. It is also a business model with leaders transforming into “communicators, innovators, and champions of change.” This shift has not gone unnoticed by the CEO. Almost all of them (97 per cent to be precise), acknowledge their roles are changing, “with new expectations, increased complexity, and additional demands,” reading like a job description merging strategy and systems.
Are you
- Digitally and technologically literate?
- Fluent in AI governance?
- Cyber resilient in your leadership?
- Capable of human capital transformation (read AI upskilling)?
- Practising ethical and sustainable innovation?
This combination moves the CEO from strategist to technologist. Someone who no longer simply approves digital budgets but is instead a leader who can interpret the logic behind them. The future CEO, it seems, must read data dashboards the way previous generations read balance sheets.