What CIOs Are Most Looking to Replace with AI Today

The question every B2B exec should be asking right now is not whether CIOs are looking to replace software with AI. They are. The question is which software, and how fast.

Redpoint surveyed 141 CIOs in March 2026 and asked a direct question: in which software categories have you seriously considered replacing your current vendor in the last year? The answers tell you where the real displacement pressure is building, and where incumbents are safer than the headlines suggest.

The Category Rankings: Where CIOs Are Actually Looking to Switch

Here is the full list, ranked by the percentage of CIOs who have seriously considered replacing their vendor in that category over the last twelve months:

• Customer Service Management: 26%
• Finance Ops: 21%
• Project Management: 20%
• Salesforce Automation: 19%
• HRIS: 17%
• Integration and Automation: 17%
• Business Intelligence: 14%
• Cybersecurity: 13%
• DevOps: 8%
• Collaboration: 7%
• ERP: 6%
• ITSM: 5%
• Procurement: 5%
• General Productivity: 2%

Customer service management is the most vulnerable category by a meaningful margin. One in four CIOs has seriously considered replacing their customer service vendor in the last year. This tracks with what is happening in the market — AI-native customer support tools like Sierra, Decagon, and Fin/Intercom are winning real enterprise contracts against established players. A separate Gartner survey found that 91% are under pressure to implement AI in 2026.

The surprise on this list is how high Finance Ops sits at 21%. Historically, finance software is sticky. But 21% of CIOs have seriously considered replacing their finance operations vendor. That is a signal worth paying attention to.

Project Management at 20% is less surprising. The core value proposition of most project management tools — tracking who is doing what and when — is precisely the coordination problem that AI agents solve natively. This may explain what has happened to Atlassian and Monday.com in 2026, as both stocks have been hit hard.

General Productivity at 2% is the number that should give pause to anyone declaring that Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace is about to get disrupted. The switching costs are too high, and incumbent AI features like Copilot give buyers a reason to stay.

The Three Numbers That Frame the Whole Picture

• 54% of CIOs are actively pursuing vendor consolidation. They are running active programs to reduce the number of vendors they work with.
• 45% of AI budgets are replacing existing software budgets. AI spending is not incremental; it is coming directly from existing software line items.
• Only 3% of CIOs expect AI to lead to more vendors. The market is converging, and the era of buying best-of-breed point solutions is ending.

What Makes a Category Vulnerable vs. Protected

High-risk categories share a common characteristic: their core value is coordination and workflow visibility. These are problems AI agents handle well. Protected categories share a different characteristic: deep integration with financial, compliance, or workforce data that took years to accumulate. You do not replace your ERP because you saw an impressive agent demo.

While 61% of CIOs prefer investing in AI features from vendors they already use, the pressure to consolidate means incumbents must deliver real AI value or risk being cut entirely.