Yesterday’s inaugural CIO Innovators Summit focused on one clear message: we’re working in one of the most transformative times ever in business.

The message came through loud and clear in the Valleyside chats with GE Energy’s Trey Keisler and Coca-Cola Enterprises’ SVP and CIO Esat Sezer — who even managed to break a little news at the conference. 

CIOs are being tapped to become not only Chief Information Officers but Chief Innovation Officers more and more. This new class of CIO is charged not only with finding ways to make every business process more efficient and more valuable, but also with finding new tools and ways to drive growth. In the field service industry, it means finding ways to automate and streamline a technician’s day, but it also means thinking about wearables, 3D printing, and the Internet of Things. Today’s experiment is rapidly becoming tomorrow’s best practice faster than ever before.

As Esat Sezer said in his interview with CNBC’s Ari Levy, technologies such as cloud, mobile, and big data are now crucial to businesses. The best CIOs are turning their attention toward the latest transformative technology that will help them differentiate and drive value for their customers.