The pragmatic CIO: Leadership in the digital-first, AI-enabled enterprise

The pragmatic CIO’s playbook

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What is the role of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) in the face of trade wars, economic pressures and heightened business clamour for AI? Creating short and long-term value requires technology leaders to balance innovation with pragmatism.

‘Managing expectations’ has become a core skill for today’s CIO. Changing market pressures, budget constraints and a rapidly developing geopolitical environment have put the C-suite on high alert, but not so much so that they abandon all hope of transformation. Indeed, boardrooms, now more so than ever, recognise the opportunity – and risk – of disruption.

For most boardrooms, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become an integral part of business transformation initiatives, supporting organisations in growing top-line revenue and bottom-line profit.

In the last 18 months alone, the focus for technology leaders has been on leveraging generative AI for digital assistants and to automate basic support functions - but now exploring agentic AI systems which can help to augment the human workforce, drive internal efficiencies at scale and a deliver a clear return-of-investment (ROI). 

During this panel discussion at BoxWorks London, hosted by HotTopics as part of the Infinite Intelligence community, technology leaders explored how to lead with innovation and pragmatism in mind, influence with autonomy and drive transformation in today’s digital-first, AI-powered enterprise.

Incremental AI evolution or revolution?

The board conversation on AI has changed in recent months. Whereas once the talk was of early pilots and experimentation, the onus now is on crafting ways to leverage the technology to deliver tangible, scalable business results. 

Buzzwords are not enough - particularly if businesses want to secure their share of the estimated $15.7 trillion AI could contribute to the global economy by 2030, according to research from PwC.

Rich Corbridge, formerly director general at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and now Chief Information Officer at property investment firm SEGRO, explained how, while initial attitudes to AI concerned rapidly adopting proofs-of-concept (PoC), they are now primarily focused on creating genuine value for the organisation. 

The boardroom, he says, is now asking if AI can help in making the organisation go ‘faster’ and ‘harder’.

“Our organisation, a major owner of logistics across the UK and Europe, is focused on ensuring every investment delivers clear value,” Corbridge said. 

“By aligning with the business on desired outcomes and pain points, the 'business change' we were proposing became smoother. It meant we were facilitating a desire for change – rather than imposing IT solutions.”

This is not to say that change has to come top-down. Instead, there is validity around ‘letting a groundswell’ of business interest and experimentation’ in AI, says Box CIO Ravi Malick, and formalising this through internal champions, committees or councils.

“We're doing things like champion networks, where I meet every month with the business leaders, and we're kind of really understanding what's happening and encouraging that from the people bottom-up,” said Laura Kendrick, CIO, Elior.

Despite this, the pace of change on AI is highly contextual, depending on an organisation's maturity, reporting structures and existing investments. 

The risk appetite on AI varies markedly from business to business, depending on whether a company is in a position to lean in and invest further in AI, or if a more measured, deliberative approach is required. 

“Based on the various industries we work with, we’ve seen financial services, including banking and insurance firms, ‘doubling down' on AI,” explained Malick.

“They see tremendous opportunities and, coincidentally, possess the capital to invest. For them, it's a necessary step to continue delivering value to stakeholders and clients, who are increasingly demanding AI-driven solutions. Some industries are proactively leaning in, while others are being reactively pulled into [AI] adoption.”

Going beyond AI cost-cutting

While many business leaders see the potential AI has for driving new efficiencies, getting the greatest value requires viewing the technology in ways that stretch beyond any immediate benefit. The real long-term opportunity lies in a complete reinvention of business models, processes and the workplace, rather than a quick and easy way of cutting headcount.

Despite this, it remains challenging to adopt a long-term view of AI when the market is evolving at such speed. It is the role of technology leaders to future-proof their organisations through new technologies and processes, as well as upskilling their workforce to be able to effectively use these tools.

“We need to ensure that questions about how AI will change roles are part of the interview process, preparing the organisation for what's ahead,” explained Jawaz Illavia, formerly CIO at PZ Cussons.

Such pragmatism should also be applied to your best-laid strategies. “Don’t be wedded to your [technology] roadmap”, cautioned Illavia.

“The key is to remain focused on the value your business needs and the opportunities presented by new solutions,” Corbridge added. “The north star should remain constant, even though your path to it may shift.”

Standards, governance and security

Moving on to discuss a lack of AI standards and universal governance, the panellists stressed the importance of having a strong data architecture which underpins the organisation’s adoption of AI. 

Businesses must focus on consolidating, managing, securing and maintaining their critical enterprise data on a single platform to ensure their architecture can scale with rapid AI evolution. 

“Your chosen data platform should allow you to leverage the best-of-breed AI models, whether that's a single model, your own, or a combination of both, and seamlessly integrate them back into your existing tech stack,” explained Malick.

“This is the core of our conversations with customers who share the same concerns about standards and hedging against disparate AI tools,” said Malick. “Those who focus on this robust data architecture are gaining a significant headstart. It's challenging – but worth doing.”

Thoughts then moved onto ways of democratising AI and the risk of decentralised shadow IT. There's a growing fear of teams adopting AI tools without IT control or oversight, leading to potential security risks and unexpected costs. For businesses, the right balance between facilitating innovation while managing risk must be found - and that is the deft skill of the CIO.

Key strategies for unlocking AI’s value

After sharing a number of insights on the ways technology leaders can build future-proof IT that enables growth and resilience, while incorporating scalable AI that delivers real business value, here are a few takeaways from the panellists:

• Create a clear AI strategy: Focus on metrics, outcomes and enterprise value
• Avoid rigid governance models: Empower your organisation to adopt and experiment with AI
• Pursue flexible pragmatism: Follow your north star, but be prepared to pivot along the way
• Future-proof through upskilling: Collaborate with HR and other departments to ensure future-ready AI talent is attracted and hired
• Drive value at the executive level: Keep people, process and technology front of mind
  

Summary: The CIO's seat at the table

To maintain influence and avoid becoming mere ‘order-takers’, CIOs should use their influence to orchestrate value creation around AI. 

Their role is undoubtedly shifting, however. Increasingly, they should view themselves as business ‘orchestrators’, facilitating safe and responsible innovation. 

When balancing short-term pragmatism with long-term aspirations, focusing on architecture is key. While this can be a technical conversation, it's important for CIOs to remember too that change is as much about people and process as it is about technology.

“Value must be at the core of everything we do,” added Malick. “At the end of the day, whatever technology we’re employing and whatever the next step on your AI journey, our aim should always be to drive business value.”

Infinite Intelligence

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