AI is expanding beyond text. Models are increasingly able to reason through numbers, speech and physical environments, opening new opportunities for forecasting, automation and simulation. These technologies move AI beyond text and into numerical reasoning, conversation and simulation. Together, they expand how organizations forecast, interact and make decisions.

• Large quantitative models: Gartner predicts that by 2030, large quantitative models will replace large language models in 25% of strategic forecasting and operational modeling tasks, helping organizations improve decision making and forecasting accuracy.

• Speech reasoning models: By 2030, Gartner predicts that more than 70% of enterprise voice interactions will be handled autonomously by speech reasoning models, enabling more advanced voice-based workflows and decision making.

• World models: These models allow machines to simulate future outcomes and understand physical environments before taking action.

As organizations deploy digital workers that generate code, execute tasks and make decisions, governance becomes a foundational requirement. Autonomy at scale requires more than model access; it requires system-level control. These technologies create the control planes needed to safely scale autonomy:

• AI context platforms: Gartner predicts that organizations prioritizing semantics in AI-ready data will improve agentic AI accuracy by up to 80% and reduce costs by up to 60%, making AI context platforms a foundational capability for autonomous systems.

CIOs must also prepare for a future shaped by geopolitical uncertainty, infrastructure constraints and accelerating technology change. Durable agility is the ability to remain flexible as these conditions evolve. Building that resilience requires technologies designed to support long term flexibility, including:

• SovereignTech (SovTech): According to Gartner, by 2030, more than 75% of non-U.S.-based organizations will adopt digital sovereignty strategies, making SovTech a key capability for long-term resilience and continuity.

• Disposable applications: These applications create software portfolios designed to evolve and retire as business needs change.

• Wetware as a service (WaaS): It explores biological computing as a potential response to future compute and energy limitations.

Looking to turn strategy into technical execution?

Explore Gartner's Technical Implementation Strategy for CIOs for actionable guidance for technical teams on how to build resilient, scalable systems and align your tech initiatives with mission-critical goals.