3 Ways CIOs Can Achieve Strong AI Outcomes

Use AI to improve employee productivity, streamline business processes and deliver game-changing improvements to business models — at a reasonable cost.

• Leverage GenAI to boost productivity. Employee buy-in is a prerequisite for increasing productivity. This is only possible if a critical mass of employees use the technology regularly. (Keep in mind that not all employees benefit equally from using GenAI.)

• Take a portfolio approach to managing GenAI benefits. Direct some GenAI initiatives at employee augmentation; some at classic ROI improvements; and some at business model innovation centered on GenAI.

• Expect volatile AI costs. In the near term, the cost of AI is as big of a risk as hallucinations or security vulnerabilities. Understanding the cost components of AI is critical to understanding your AI bill. So is knowing how to reduce these costs and negotiate with vendors.

It’s one thing to build a technology environment that supports AI, but amid decentralized AI and data, achieving the right technology outcomes can prove challenging.

• Harness all types of data from everywhere. GenAI uses structured and unstructured data from throughout the organization. This includes sensitive data and personally identifiable information, so prioritize managing data access rights for unstructured data.

• Use AI from everywhere. CIOs report that their AI capabilities fall into three categories:

  • Embedded — in enterprise applications

  • Built — centrally owned AI capabilities that software engineering and data and analytics teams build

  • Bring your own (BYO) ─ packaged AI software and capabilities that organizations procure and use

• Build an AI sandwich with a TRiSM (trust, risk and security management) layer. The TRiSM layer is the “special sauce” that provides governance and oversight. All AI, regardless of source, must go through the TRiSM layer.

Employee reactions to AI are all over the map. AI may represent a welcome tool or a threat to an employee’s livelihood. CIOs must address the behavioral repercussions of these sentiments.

• Adapt your approach to change management to focus on employee behaviors.

• Avoid negative outcomes by intentionally assigning ownership for behavioral outcomes. 

• Proactively collaborate with employees to redesign their roles. Co-create the AI employee experience with the people who are most directly impacted.

When redesigning roles, emphasize using AI to remove drudgery from your employees’ lives. This will yield more than just higher productivity — it can improve employee engagement, product quality and customer experience. If you fail to address behavioral outcomes, AI may end up doing the creative work that employees enjoy, leaving humans with the drudgery.

Each CIO’s pace in the AI race depends on their organization’s ambitions for AI.

AI-steady pace. If your AI ambitions are modest and your industry has not yet been disrupted by AI, go at a measured pace. This suits risk-averse organizations and small and midsize organizations with limited resources to spend on AI. Most CIOs are already moving at this pace. 

AI-accelerated pace. If you have bigger AI ambitions, are part of a large organization or innovative enterprise seeking a competitive edge with AI, or your industry is being reinvented by AI, go at a faster pace. 

Learn more about actions to take based on your AI pace: Scaling AI: Strategies for AI-Steady and AI-Accelerated Organizations.