Leading Digital Disruption: The Mindset Evolution Required of CIOs and All of Us

It's hard to discuss digital disruption without all conversations leading back to AI. And headlines like this one should be grabbing your attention: Fintech company Block lays off 4,000 of its 10,000 staff, citing gains from AI.

Is AI a passing fad? No, the tech world has a history of overhyping, but AI is the real deal. An unprecedented amount of experimentation and development in AI is making rapid leaps into full implementation. AI is likely to affect most of what we do. It can write code, analyze investment options, evaluate processes, and do all of it very quickly.

Should we be afraid of AI? With technologies of the past, experts assured us there was nothing to worry about. But with AI, even experts have expressed some degree of concern. The negative impact due to accidental or intentional misuse could be significant. Even at the most basic level, AI results can be unpredictable, difficult to reproduce, hard to trace, and contain hallucinations.

So, we must pay attention and insist that players act responsibly to protect us all. The AI-based solutions most of us will use have controls and typically combine AI with human involvement. AI is akin to the role robotics played in transforming manufacturing, except radically faster and cheaper.

Get moving! Don't dither on picking the best AI platform as it will likely keep shifting for quite some time. CIOs and other tech leaders can help organizations make this important pivot by continuous learning, speaking with many vendors, peers, and expert resources, being a thought leader, and remaining a calm voice of reason.

Be open to new approaches, encourage others to adopt AI-based tools, set achievable expectations, and do purposeful experimentation. Look outside your own industry for inspiration and good ideas.

Institute cross-functional AI Governance that encourages experimentation and adoption while providing education, guidance, and guard rails. Accept that decision making will be imperfect but can be adjusted in the future. Decide which tools to block and which to allow, which business experiments get approval and funding, and what level of proprietary data can be exposed.

Be a champion of an open but disciplined approach within your organization. Avoid emergence of "shadow IT." Take a deeper role in vendor agreements across your entire enterprise, especially where they involve AI, proprietary data, and other technologies.

For those who are not in traditional tech roles, here are some pivots to help better prepare yourselves and your teams for these changing times.

Technical Breadth: Many repeatable tasks and singular skills won't survive so broadening ourselves is a good investment. It's no longer acceptable to make technology the sole burden of the IT department. Everyone must improve technical competency. At a minimum, try GenAI tools. Ask ChatGPT or Google Gemini or MS Copilot to help you write a thank you note, meeting agenda, or contract.

Depth of Expertise: We need expertise in multiple business, technical, and professional disciplines to increase our value beyond roles that AI or other technologies can easily supplant. It is important to be a trusted Subject Matter Expert.

Essential Skills: It's still important to have fundamental skills that cut across industries and organizations. Core individual skills such as good communications, good interpersonal skills, and the ability to think creatively. Leadership skills such as the ability to make decisions, take calculated risks, delegate, and most importantly, deliver the right results. Change management skills are essential to survive and flourish in an environment where emerging technologies and rapid changes are the norm.

There is a global "arms race" to gain advantages via AI, so it is a reality. Those leaders who embrace and manage essential AI-related pivots are more likely to come out on top.

As you acquire AI skills, use them to make you better as a leader. Integrate them into your research, strategizing, planning, and communications. Encourage your teams to use them to make creativity come alive, not just to drive efficiencies. And expand your decision making to consider the challenges, opportunities, and potential impact of human–AI collaborations.