Top Down: Why AI Initiatives need CIO support

According to a recent presentation at a Gartner event in Cape Town, South Africa, vital new digital initiatives – such as AI initiatives will ultimately depend on the CIO, in partnership with the chief of human resources, to help lead the cultural change that must accompany technology evolutions.

Mindsets and practices shape culture, and technology is only an amplifier of that culture, according to Daniel Sanchez Reina, a senior research director at advisory from Gartner. In other words, technology by itself rarely changes an organization. However, technology is now often the backbone of how work gets done and reinforces the company culture, which is why he believes culture change is becoming an increasing responsibility of IT.

Technology is now often the backbone of how work gets done.
_{Daniel Sanchez Reina , Senior research director, Gartner}

The good news, according to a recent Gartner CIO Agenda Survey, is that artificial intelligence, while only coming in sixth for new or increased spending in 2019, was identified as the number one game-changing technology area by chief executives around the globe. The report states that EMEA CIOs are “setting the example” when it comes to harvesting the results of digital initiatives. Their specific strength, Gartner believes, is taking new initiatives to scale more successfully than their counterparts in North America, Latin America, or the Asia/Pacific region. They did so through better collaboration with the business and by reducing silos and internal complexity, the survey concluded.

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