When I attended the MIT Sloan CIO Symposium in May, it struck me that as I listened to CIOs talk about the latest technology—in this case, generative AI—I saw one at the same symposium around 2010. And remembered the time when talk was everything. About the cloud
It was remarkable how similar the concerns about AI were to those I heard about the new cloud all those years ago: companies responsible for governance (check), security (check) and new technology (check). Worried about usage.
But 2010 was at the very edge of IT consumerism where workers were looking for the same kind of experience they had at work at home. Soon, they'll resort to “shadow IT” to find solutions themselves when IT says no, and in those days there was no default. It was so easy for employees to go off on their own until things went into full lockdown.
Today, CIOs recognize that if they simply say no to generative AI, employees will probably find a way to use these tools anyway. There are many legitimate concerns when it comes to this technology — such as fraud or who owns IP — but there are also concerns about security, compliance and control, especially around data, which demand large amounts of data. Organizations do and do.
But the CIOs who spoke at the conference were far more realistic than they were 15 years ago, even if they had similar concerns.
“You know, everything is out there and democratized,” said Mathematica CIO Akira Bell, speaking on a panel called “Sustaining Competitive Advantage in the Age of AI.”
“I think someone else already said this morning, 'You know, we can't control this moment.' We can't and don't want to be 'agents of the non' to tell everyone what they can and can't do, but what we can do is make sure people take that responsibility. Understand what the actors and users of these tools have.
Bell said that today, instead of saying no, it's pushing for responsible use of technology and looking for ways to enhance its customers' experience with AI. “So one is about governance, making sure that our data is ready to be used, making sure that our employees understand what best practices are in place as they continue to use it. Is.”
He said the other part is really thinking about how they use generative AI to enhance their core capabilities, and how they use it to build or enhance existing service offerings from clients to their customers. or how to use to change
You also have to look at the safety component, so all of those things matter, Bell said. His or her organization can offer guidance on how to use these tools in a way that aligns with company values without blocking access.
Angelica Trezzo, CIO at GE Vernova, a new spinout from GE focused on alternative energy, is taking a deliberate approach to implementing generative AI. “We have multiple pilots in various stages of maturity. We probably, like many others, don't fully understand the full potential, so the cost and benefit aren't always perfectly aligned,” Tritzo told TechCrunch. . “We're finding our way with all the pieces of technology, how much to partner with others versus what we need to do ourselves.” But the process is helping him learn what works and what doesn't and help employees know how to move forward.
Chris Bedi, CDIO (Chief Digital Information Officer) at ServiceNow, said things will change in the coming years as employees start demanding access to AI tools. “From a talent perspective, as organizations try to retain talent, that's a hot topic. It doesn't matter what the job is, people want their job talent to be retained. “I think it would be unimaginable to ask your company's employees to do their jobs without GenAI,” Bedi told TechCrunch and will ask why you would want to do them manually.
To that end, Bedi says his company is committed to teaching its employees about AI and how to build an AI-literate workforce because people won't necessarily understand that without guidance. How to make the best use of technology.
“We've created some learning paths, so everyone in the company has had to take their own AI 101,” he said. “We chose him and [levels] 201 and 301 because we know the future is AI, and so we have to get our entire workforce comfortable with it,” he said.
All of this suggests that while concerns may be the same as they were in the last wave of technological change, IT executives may have learned some lessons along the way. They now understand that you can't turn it off. Instead they have to find ways to help employees use generative AI tools safely and effectively because if they don't, employees will probably start using them anyway.