Mike Trkay, Chief Customer Officer and Chief Information Officer at FICO.
Long before “disruption” entered the business lexicon, a quiet truth was taking shape in corporate America: The surest road to the corner office ran straight through the sales floor.
For decades, that floor stayed off-limits to technology leaders, who did their work behind the scenes while others carried the customer relationship.
Today, a growing number of CIOs are being pulled onto that floor, whether they sought it out or not. According to a 2025 Deloitte survey, 80% of tech executives “say their roles have significantly expanded to meet business objectives.” The survey also found that “65% of CIOs now report directly to the CEO,” showing how the customer relationship is becoming their proving ground for the executive suite.
That shift is putting real pressure on the “silicon ceiling,” the invisible barrier that has kept technology leaders boxed in as support functions unable to progress to their desired next step as COO, CEO or another seat at the table. Even CTOs whose product was the software itself often hit this ceiling, staying behind the scenes focused on features and functions rather than customer relationships.
How The Tech Exec’s Road Is Evolving
Software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and modern digital platform businesses have changed that dynamic. In these environments, uptime and adoption are measured as revenue metrics.
That shift means software revenue now comes from renewal and adoption, not a one-time sale, which depend on customers actually succeeding with the technology day after day.
CIOs now own delivering that software and ensuring customers succeed with it, which puts them directly in front of the customer to guide long-term strategy, navigate complex escalations and ensure platform adoption.
That responsibility is growing as enterprises integrate AI into how they operate. Gartner forecasts that 2026 worldwide AI spending will increase 47% year-over-year to $2.59 trillion. However, as most CIOs know, deploying that AI is the easy half. Making sure enterprise clients drive adoption and measure ROI from it is the harder half, and it’s where tech-forward customer leadership earns its seat.
Four Executive Skills The Customer Relationship Builds
As a CIO who also carries the chief customer officer (CCO) title, I’ve watched this shift happen from the inside. Growing reliance on SaaS and PaaS is dismantling the barriers that have kept CIOs from rising further.
The customer responsibilities filling that gap are building competencies executive roles demand:
P&L And Revenue Ownership
CIOs manage large budgets but rarely generate direct revenue. Owning the customer relationship comes with P&L responsibility measured through net recurring revenue (NRR), the number that keeps a software business stable.
While upfront acquisition metrics like annual contract value (ACV) often capture headlines, NRR reflects the true health and expansion of the business and demands rigorous commercial discipline and high-stakes negotiation.
Owning P&L, in any form, is table stakes for the next step up.
Value Creation
The traditional CIO mandate was keeping IT running as a secure utility. Customer ownership adds a second lens: making sure customers are getting real value from what they’re already using.
That shift from operator to value creator is one every functional leader must make on the way to broader executive scope.
Cross-Suite Communication
CIOs are used to technical shorthand internally.
Moving closer to the customer means regularly meeting the customer’s full C-suite, plus your own board and investors, and learning to read each room while speaking in terms that resonate.
Comfort With Ambiguity
IT runs on logic and process. Customer relationships don’t. Managing unpredictability against the shifting backdrop of solution delivery develops new executive muscle.
The Path Beyond The Ceiling
Tech leaders in SaaS and PaaS businesses are customer-facing by necessity now. When customers need support in value realization or moving from AI potential to measurable outcomes, these leaders are the ones who can bridge the technical and commercial sides of that conversation.
The industry has started to notice, with some companies working “technical” directly into customer-facing executive titles.
That connective tissue between technical depth and customer relationships has always been the foundation of long-term success for any technology provider. Capability was never the barrier. The bridge was missing, and now CIOs are building it themselves.
Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?