Board executives are keen to leverage generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). According to Logicalis' 10th Annual CIO Report, this demand is putting tremendous pressure on CIOs and IT professionals.
Logicalis Group CTO Toby Alcock said his firm's research shows CIOs are in a tough spot. The remaining companies have heard about the productivity and cost benefits of GenAI, but don't necessarily understand the challenges of adopting the emerging technology.
Also: Global technology spending expected to continue to rise due to AI demand
“There's so much hype around AI and the promise of what it will do,” Alcock told ZDNET. “Business people look at this silver bullet called generative AI and think it can do anything. But when you look inside a vendor's product, you realize that this potential has nothing to do with AI. It happens often.”
CIOs who want to manage the demand for AI need to openly discuss five key areas with their business colleagues.
1. Be clear about what is achievable
Effectively integrating AI into your business will be a top priority for CIOs in 2024. In his survey of 1,000 CIOs around the world, Alcock found that 89% of IT leaders want to implement AI in their organizations in his 2024 year, and 85% expect AI He said he was allocating a budget for development.
“If you look at the broad range of markets, industries and customers we survey, this is a big bet, and the overwhelming majority are all betting on this technology,” Alcock said. “CIOs want to prove they are leading the way with the latest buzzwords and technologies in AI.”
Also: Generative AI alone won’t improve customer experience
However, Alcock warned CIOs to manage demand effectively.
“Success is being realistic about where the opportunities lie in AI. When you talk to your customers, it becomes clear what is possible,” he said. “Beat the hype and deliver tangible business value quickly. Get the evidence to target further investments in AI.”
2. Developing AI skills
CIOs also need to ensure their businesses have the skills to take full advantage of this new technology. The good news is that the study found that 87% of digital leaders already have an established AI workstream. But Alcock noted that finding good talent in this nascent market is difficult.
“Everyone is trying to figure out how they can start investing in skills,” he says. “But unfortunately, trying to hire data scientists and AI skills is very different from the core business of running infrastructure and keeping the business running, which most CIOs are accustomed to.”
Also: Generative AI is the technology IT departments are under the most pressure to leverage
Alcock added that talented data scientists have different ways of working and their skills don't come cheap. “We pay a lot of money for data scientists, and our customers also spend a lot of money in this area,” he said.
Demand is so high that retaining in-house AI talent can be cost-prohibitive. Alcock encouraged CIOs to look beyond the enterprise firewall and consider working with partners such as vendors, consultants and startups that already have data talent.
Keep the costs of these efforts down by focusing on clear organizational goals. “I think the key comes back to business outcomes, and how AI can help drive efficiency, create differentiation, improve security, and address sustainability initiatives,” he said. said. “If you’re just deploying AI for a purpose, but can’t measure the actual return on investment, you’re probably going to fail.”
3. Address AI governance
Almost three-quarters (72%) of CIOs are concerned about AI regulatory challenges. CIOs need to find ways to help companies balance excitement about AI with governance challenges, including ethics, bias, and upcoming regulations.
“We're in the Wild West,” Alcock said. “There is no accepted way to manage AI, and AI is a rapidly evolving field, so policies written on paper may no longer be relevant by the time they are used by enterprises. there is.”
The study found that despite the rapid pace of market change, 86% of CIOs have initiated a formal AI policy within their organizations. These efforts will help companies figure out governance as national and global regulations are established.
Alcock noted that CIOs setting policies need to be keenly aware of how data is used and align it with business use cases for AI. “Risk profiling comes down to understanding key data,” he said. “What will this project bring to my business? What data will I need to protect? And how will I avoid exposing that data?”
4. Confronting cyber challenges
Ever-growing cyber threats increase data risk. Although 83% of companies surveyed were hacked in 2023, only 43% of CIOs felt adequately prepared for new breaches. Alcock said AI presents new challenges for CIOs, saying, “People are weaponizing AI and using targeted and automated attacks against businesses.”
Being unprepared for further attacks means CIOs need to change the way their IT and security teams operate.
Related article: Advances in generative AI will force companies to think big and act fast
“A zero trust model that assumes you're always going to be compromised is the right solution,” Alcock said. “That model is about knowing how to act, not when, and being prepared to recover quickly and cleanly when the next breach occurs.”
Alcock encouraged CIOs to consider new AI-enabled tools as part of their zero trust approach.
“It's about using AI to fight AI. It's about exploring how AI can help us identify threats instantly and reduce downtime without hiring hundreds of people.” Stated. “Generative AI will continue to evolve. There's a lot of money being put into AI and security, and the point where they come in is the sweet spot for any entrepreneur.”
5. Stay connected to your business
According to a study by Logicalis, 75% of CIOs believe that connectivity infrastructure is a barrier to implementing data-driven initiatives. By focusing on underlying IT, CIOs lose focus on how to best leverage emerging technologies such as generative AI, machine learning, and the Internet of Things.
“Our data shows that CIOs are still spending a significant amount of their time running systems and keeping the lights on,” Alcock said. Managing multiple tools, vendors, and apps across different environments is difficult. The best way for CIOs to meet this challenge is to be proactive.
Related article: Generative AI in commerce: 5 ways industries are changing the way they do business
“That's probably the biggest takeaway from our report this year,” Alcock said. “CIOs are now expected to have intelligent conversations at board level about security and compliance, economics, environment, sustainability, reliability, and user experience. It’s a broad discussion, so CIOs must continue to improve their engagement and engagement skills, with a focus on effective relationships with stakeholders.”
