Gartner Says AI Risk is Rising Faster Than AI Value
Analysts Share Three Tactics CIOs Can Use to Deliberately Manage AI Value and Risk During Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo 2026
ORLANDO, Fla., October 19, 2026--Despite the rapid risks introduced by AI, CIOs remain well-positioned to effectively manage AI governance and deliver business value, according to Gartner, Inc., a business and technology insights company.
During the opening keynote of Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo, which is taking place here through Thursday, Gartner analysts told the audience of over 7,500 CIOs and IT executives that value and risk are interconnected, and the challenge for CIOs is to compound value faster than risk.
"People are doing more with AI than ever before, and 58% of leaders said they are seeing some positive value from their AI initiatives, according to a Q2 2026 Gartner survey of over 1,000 functional leaders," said Daryl Plummer, VP, Distinguished Analyst and Gartner Fellow. "While many organizations are seeing pockets of AI success, they are struggling to consistently replicate and scale that value across the enterprise."
At the same time, AI risk continues to accelerate. CIOs and IT leaders report to Gartner that AI risk is growing faster than AI value in their organizations. "However, the value-potential is high. The new CIO imperative is to align value with risk and align safety with governance," said Plummer. "Alignment is the key."
However, only 25% of CIOs align technology and business risk, according to a Q3 2026 Gartner survey of 303 CIOs and IT risk management leaders.
"Alignment doesn't mean everyone gets the same value or the same risk. It provides a consistent way to shape value-risk relationships," said Kristin Moyer, VP, Distinguished Analyst and Gartner Fellow. "For example, a Q2 2026 Gartner survey of over 2,000 CIOs and technology executives found that 71% of organizations expect to deploy agentic AI within the next 12 months, yet only 21% currently have agentic AI governance capabilities in place.
"That imbalance makes it difficult to create value faster than AI creates risk. Managing value and risk is about building the right kinds of momentum while avoiding the wrong kinds of drag."
Gartner recommends that CIOs take three actions to align decision making, AI governance, and accountability with their AI value and risk objectives:
Use the Gartner Value-Risk Flywheel to Align Value with Risk
The Gartner Value-Risk Flywheel visualizes the relationship between compounding value and compounding risk (see Figure 1). It helps organizations analyze what is compounding and why.