August 27, 2026
5 Business Technology Decisions CEOs Should Make Before 2027
Technology decisions used to be something executives could largely delegate to IT.
That's becoming harder to do.
AI is changing how employees work. Businesses are accumulating more software and cloud services. Cyber incidents can interrupt operations. Technology costs are spread across departments. And employees increasingly expect systems to work together seamlessly.
For CEOs, CFOs and other executives, the question isn't simply whether the company has good technology.
It's whether technology is helping the business become more productive, resilient and profitable.
As you prepare for 2027, here are five conversations worth having with your leadership team.
1. Decide How Your Company Will Use AI
Your employees may already be using AI whether your organization has a formal strategy or not.
They may use AI to draft emails, analyze spreadsheets, summarize meetings, research prospects, create presentations or work with documents.
The opportunity is significant.
The risk is allowing adoption to happen without direction.
Leadership should establish some basic boundaries:
- Which AI platforms are approved?
- What company or customer information can employees enter?
- Which tasks should still require human review?
- Where could AI genuinely eliminate repetitive work?
- Who is responsible for evaluating new AI applications?
The objective shouldn't necessarily be to restrict AI.
It should be to capture the productivity benefits without creating unnecessary business risk.
2. Find Out What You're Actually Spending on Technology
Technology spending has become surprisingly decentralized.
Marketing purchases software.
Finance has its own applications.
Sales buys additional platforms.
HR subscribes to services.
Operations adds another system.
Individually, each purchase may make sense. Collectively, companies can end up paying for overlapping applications, unused licenses and technology that no longer provides enough value.
Before approving your next technology budget, ask for a complete inventory.
Look specifically for:
- Unused software licenses
- Applications performing similar functions
- Contracts that haven't been reviewed recently
- Cloud spending that has gradually increased
- Aging systems creating unnecessary support costs
The goal isn't simply cutting expenses.
It's making sure every technology dollar supports a business objective.
3. Calculate the Cost of Technology Friction
Not every technology problem causes an outage.
Sometimes it simply wastes 10 or 15 minutes.
An employee waits for a slow computer.
Someone enters the same information into two systems.
A salesperson can't find the correct customer document.
Employees repeatedly reset passwords.
Accounting manually moves information between applications.
Individually, these problems seem insignificant.
Across dozens or hundreds of employees, they become expensive.
Consider 75 employees losing just 15 minutes each workday to avoidable technology friction.
That's 18.75 hours of productivity lost every day.
Over approximately 250 working days, that's more than 4,600 hours a year.
Leadership teams should start looking at technology problems not only as support issues, but as labor and productivity costs.
Ask employees where technology consistently slows them down.
The answers may reveal some of your highest-return improvement opportunities.
4. Determine How Long the Business Can Operate Without Its Critical Systems
Executives routinely review financial and operational risk.
Technology downtime deserves the same treatment.
If your most important systems became unavailable tomorrow:
Could sales process an order?
Could accounting send invoices?
Could employees access customer information?
Could operations continue?
Could payroll be processed?
And most importantly:
How long could the business operate this way?
Backups are important, but having a backup doesn't automatically mean the company can recover quickly.
Leadership should understand which systems need to be restored first, what the recovery process looks like and how long recovery is realistically expected to take.
That's a business continuity decision—not merely an IT decision.
5. Decide Whether Technology Is Ready for Your Growth Plan
The final question may be the most important:
Can your current technology support where the business is going?
Imagine the company grows 25%.
You acquire another company.
You open another location.
You hire 50 employees.
You introduce AI automation.
You expand into another market.
Would your current systems make that easier—or become an obstacle?
Technology planning should follow business strategy.
Before approving your 2027 technology roadmap, leadership should understand the company's growth objectives and determine what technology investments are necessary to support them.
5 Questions to Bring to Your Next Leadership Meeting
You don't need to become a technology expert to lead these conversations.
Start with five questions:
- How are our employees currently using AI?
- What are we actually spending on technology?
- Where is technology costing employees time?
- How long could we operate without our critical systems?
- Can our current technology support our 2027 growth plan?
If your leadership team can answer those questions confidently, you're in a strong position to plan for next year.
If you can't, that's useful information too.
It gives you a starting point.
Technology Should Follow the Business
The best technology strategy isn't necessarily the one with the newest tools.
It's the one aligned with the company's priorities.
For some organizations, that means automation.
For others, it's reducing unnecessary costs.
It might mean improving employee productivity, strengthening business continuity or preparing infrastructure for growth.
The important thing is that these decisions happen intentionally.
As you prepare for 2027, consider bringing technology into the same strategic conversations as finance, operations, people and growth.
Because technology isn't simply supporting the business anymore.
It's increasingly determining how efficiently the business can operate, how resilient it can be and how quickly it can grow.
Is Your Technology Ready for 2027?
Our Executive Technology Review helps leadership teams evaluate five areas:
Cost. Productivity. AI. Resilience. Growth.
The goal isn't a technical deep dive.
It's to give leadership a clearer picture of whether the company's technology strategy supports where the business is headed.
