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Autonomous AI agents surge as enterprises balance speed and control
Agentic AI Moves from Assist to Action, AI ROI Splits Executives and Engineers, CIOs Reframe Control and Value
Zack Tembi
March 24, 2026
Agentic AI Moves from Assist to Action, AI ROI Splits Executives and Engineers, CIOs Reframe Control and Value
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Welcome to this week’s edition of CIOsurge!
This week:
Autonomous AI agents are moving from copilots to operators, giving enterprises speed and efficiency but also creating a much larger execution and security surface.
AI ROI is increasingly defined in two different ways, with executives pushing for immediate efficiency gains while engineers prioritize innovation and long-term advantage.
CIOs now have to do both jobs at once: put guardrails around agentic AI as if it were new infrastructure, while also aligning the business and engineering teams on what success actually means.
Let’s make this week a game-changer.
Stay sharp. Stay ahead.
Autonomous AI agents surge as enterprises balance speed and control
Adoption of autonomous agentic AI is accelerating as tools like Claude Cowork and OpenClaw enable end-to-end task execution. While enterprises see major efficiency gains, risks around security, prompt injection, and unpredictable actions remain unresolved. Experts warn that without proper context, governance, and monitoring, these systems can scale errors as quickly as they deliver value.
We’re moving from AI that assists to AI that acts, and that shift changes everything. When agents can execute across systems, the risk surface expands dramatically. It’s no longer about bad outputs. It’s about unintended actions at machine speed across your environment.
The opportunity is real, but so is the exposure. CIOs need to treat agentic AI like a new class of infrastructure. That means permissions, observability, and guardrails come first. At the same time, teams need space to experiment. The organizations that win here will be the ones that balance control with learning before these systems scale beyond visibility.
- Zack Tembi
AI ROI divide emerges between executives and engineers
A TE Connectivity report finds growing misalignment on AI value, with 71% of executives prioritizing efficiency and cost savings, while engineers focus more on innovation and competitive advantage. As AI adoption exceeds 80%, inconsistent ROI definitions are creating confusion and risk narrowing investments to short-term gains over long-term impact.
This is a classic disconnect between the business and the builders. Leadership is under pressure to show returns now, while engineering sees AI as a long-term capability play. When those definitions don’t align, you end up funding the wrong projects or killing the right ones too early.
The role of the CIO here is translation and alignment. We need shared metrics that capture both efficiency gains and strategic upside, or we risk optimizing for short-term wins at the expense of real transformation. AI ROI cannot be one-dimensional if the outcomes we expect are not.
- Zack Tembi
🗞️ At A Glance
💡 CIO Spotlights
Merlin Group brings on former CISA CIO Bob Costello to lead AI and digital strategy
Bob Costello, former CIO of CISA, joins Merlin Group as Chief Digital & Information Officer to drive enterprise AI and digital architecture.
Costello brings over 20 years of DHS leadership, with a track record in large-scale IT modernization and cybersecurity operations.
He will help scale digital capabilities across Merlin’s portfolio, bridging mission tech companies with government and critical infrastructure needs.
Capacity hires Shatabdi Sharma as CIO to scale data-driven logistics
Shatabdi Sharma joins Capacity as CIO, leading global tech strategy with a focus on data, cloud infrastructure, and AI-driven automation.
Sharma brings deep supply chain and retail experience from PVH, where she modernized end-to-end operations across global systems.
She will prioritize unified data, stronger analytics, and secure, scalable systems to support next-phase growth in fulfillment.
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