CIO In The Know – The multiple ways AI is maturing and CIOs are shifting gears into other subjects

Starting the last two months of 2024 takes us into a maturing of the AI conversation with both vendors and enterprise alike. Investment in AI continues for both as well.

Enterprises are largely moving from an experimentation phase to finding solid production use cases for AI. At the same time, vendors are shifting how they leverage AI in their products. The two efforts are coming together into use cases that sit in one of two camps: Efficiency or Innovation.

What’s News?

Amazon AI Veteran Joins PwC to Lead Innovation and AI Push

Matt Wood, former Vice President of Artificial Intelligence at Amazon Web Services, has been appointed as PricewaterhouseCoopers' first Commercial Technology and Innovation Officer. This move underscores PwC's commitment to integrating AI into its services and operations. It furthers PwC’s investment in AI.

Implication for CIOs:?Wood’s move to PwC highlights the growing trend of professional services firms investing in AI leadership, experience and knowledge, signaling increased competition.

Companies Look Past Chatbots for AI Payoff

Businesses are shifting focus from basic AI applications, like chatbots, to more complex AI tools that can deliver substantial business value. This transition emphasizes the need for AI solutions that integrate seamlessly with business processes. The move from chatbots to agents to agentic AI is accelerating. I recently wrote about the Agentic Era and the rise of humanistic interactions.

Implication for CIOs:?CIOs should evaluate and implement advanced AI applications that align with strategic objectives, moving beyond simple automation to solutions that drive significant business outcomes.

Nvidia Chief Makes Case for AI-First Companies

Nvidia's CEO, Jensen Huang, advocates for companies to adopt an AI-first approach, utilizing AI across various functions, including chip design and supply chain management. Nvidia is also developing an "AI brain" to enhance its operations. While I support a full-court press to evaluate relevant AI opportunities that accelerate opportunities for employees and customers, I do stop short of an ‘AI-first’ mantra. We saw how this backfired with cloud over the past decade.

Implication for CIOs:?This emphasizes the importance of embedding AI into core business functions. CIOs should consider strategies for integrating AI to optimize operations and maintain competitive advantage. Enterprises will predominantly consume AI technology through embedded functionality in existing applications versus solely via bespoke applications.

AI Agents Can Do More Than Answer Queries, Raising Questions

The development of AI agents capable of performing tasks beyond simple queries introduces new possibilities and challenges. These agents can automate complex processes but also raise concerns about reliability and ethical considerations.?Not to mention raising the ire of regulatory interest.

Implication for CIOs:?CIOs need to stay informed about advancements in AI agent capabilities, evaluating their potential benefits and addressing associated risks to ensure responsible implementation within their organizations. In addition, CIOs need to keep abreast of the current and impending regulatory action around AI.

CIO Water Cooler Talk

There is a precipitous drop in the talk about AI among CIOs. That is not to say that there is no longer interest. Just that it has matured and is not the only challenge facing CIOs today.

Now the conversation around AI has centered into either efficiency or innovation and agents. As we move into the Agentic Era, enterprises are thinking yet again how they can transform their business by leveraging technology.

Among CIOs, two of the words coming into the conversation are cybersecurity (again) and resilience. Cybersecurity is coming back into the conversation, but in terms of how to enhance cybersecurity in a smarter, more advanced and strategic way.

Similarly, in the wake of the Crowdstrike outage and what can be learned, CIOs are spending resources considering how to increase the resilience of their organization and operations. Resilience is the focus.

Beyond AI, cybersecurity and resilience, I’m finding that infrastructure is coming back into vogue within the enterprise. From the edge to the data center, CIOs are reconsidering their enterprise infrastructure strategies to support AI, regulatory requirements, data privacy and cost pressures.

Latest Content

Since the last newsletter, several new posts are up. Here’s the rundown…

I tried something new this week and would love to hear what you think! After attending the SAP SuccessFactors SuccessConnect HCM conference in Lisbon, Portugal I created a video with my quick takeaways: https://www.youtube.com/live/1LHy93m7SFY

Blog Posts:

·????? Lenovo drives business outcomes with new infrastructure and edge devices

·????? Infrastructure is back in vogue for enterprises driven by AI and new outcomes

·????? Welcome to the Agentic Era and the rise of humanistic interactions

·????? Lumen Black Lotus Labs outlines Raptor Train bot network impacting SOHO and IoT devices

·????? Lower inflation opens the door for larger 2025 IT budgets

·????? Lessons learned from the CrowdStrike and Microsoft outage

?Upcoming Events

The past couple of months have been super busy with travel to a number of events with AWS, Salesforce, SAP, Fujitsu, Lenovo, IBM. While some of the content from these events is covered under NDAs and embargos, when possible I will share it publicly.

To follow which events I’m following, AVOA now publishes an enterprise-focused event calendar of upcoming events relevant to CIOs that we are tracking and participating in. July and August each have several private events while September kicks back into full gear.

What’s Your Take?

That is just a quick update with more insights to come as we finish out 2024. Stay tuned!

Now it’s your turn. I’d love to hear from you and your perspective.

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