When I attended the MIT Sloan CIO Symposium in May, listening to CIOs talk about cutting-edge technologies, this time generative AI, reminded me of a time when the same symposium back in 2010 was all about the cloud.
It was notable how similar the concerns about AI were to those we heard about in the early days of the cloud years ago: companies were concerned about governance (check), security (check), and responsible use of new technologies (check).
But 2010 was the decade on the brink of the consumerization of IT, when workers were looking for the same kind of experience they had at work from home. Soon, they were turning to “shadow IT” to find solutions on their own when IT refused, and rejection was the norm back then. Unless everything was completely shut down, it was easy enough for employees to walk away on their own.
Today’s CIOs know that if they simply say “no” to generative AI, their employees will likely find a way to use the tool anyway. While there are legitimate concerns about who owns the technology or who owns the IP, there are also concerns about security, compliance, and control, especially around the data that large organizations demand and need.
But while CIOs attending this conference had similar concerns, their voices were far more realistic than they were 15 years ago.
“Everything has been democratized and open,” said Akira Bell, CIO of Mathematica, during a panel titled “Sustaining Competitive Advantage in the Age of AI.”
“I think someone else said this morning, 'We can't control this moment.' We can't and don't want to be the 'agent of no' and tell everyone what they can and can't do. But what we can do is make sure people understand their responsibilities as actors and users of these tools.”
Bell said today that instead of rejecting it, he is pushing for responsible use of the technology and looking at ways AI can improve customer experiences. “So one of the things is governance, making sure that the data is available, making sure that employees understand what the best practices are as they use it.”
The second task, she said, is to think about how we can use generative AI to enhance our core competencies and how we can use it to create, extend or change our existing service offerings on behalf of our customers.
Bell said security components should also be looked at, so all of this is important. Her organization can provide guidance on how to use these tools in a way that aligns with the company’s values without blocking access.
Angelica Trizzo, CIO of GE Vernova, a new spinoff from GE, is taking a deliberate approach to implementing generative AI. “We have a number of pilots at different stages of maturity, and the costs and benefits don’t always line up perfectly because we, like many others, don’t fully understand the potential,” Trizzo told TechCrunch. “We’re figuring out how to do all the pieces of technology, how much we need to collaborate with others, and what we need to do ourselves.” But the process helps her learn what works and what doesn’t, and how to proceed while also helping employees get up to speed.
Chris Bedi, chief digital information officer at ServiceNow, says that’s going to change in the coming years as employees start demanding access to AI tools. “From a talent perspective, when organizations are trying to retain talent, it’s a hot topic, and regardless of the job function, people want their talent to stay. I don’t think it’s possible for a company to ask its employees to do their jobs without GenAI,” Bedi told TechCrunch. Plus, he believes talent will start demanding it and question why they want to do things manually.
To achieve that goal, Bedi said the company is committed to educating its employees about AI and how to create an AI-savvy workforce, because without guidance, people won’t necessarily understand how to best use the technology.
“We created a couple of learning paths, so everyone in the company had to take AI 101,” he said. “We created those, and we made it optional to take 201 and 301. We need to make sure that our entire workforce is comfortable with it, because we know that the future is AI.”
All of this may be the same concerns as in the last wave of technological change, but IT executives have probably learned a few lessons along the way. They now understand that they can’t just lock it down. Instead, they need to figure out how to help their employees use generative AI tools safely and effectively. Otherwise, they’ll start using them anyway.
