CIO In The Know – Shifting the conversation from AI to cybersecurity and quantum

Welcome to the latest edition of the CIO In The Know newsletter. Insights that move CIOs forward.

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As we reach the midpoint of August, change is in the air. Typically, July and August are lulls for many. Between kids on summer vacation and warmer weather, our minds tend to wander beyond the confines of our office. However, it seems that for technology professionals, someone is keeping their foot on the gas.

This week signals the end of summer vacations and kids going back to school. At the same time, it signals a start for CIOs to plan out the second half of the year. I touched on CIO planning for the second half of the year in the July 10^th CIO In The Know newsletter.

Now that we are closing out summer and thinking about the fall, the real work is starting to hit.

This week, I had several conversations with CIOs and board members about how they are thinking about the rest of the year and what is top of mind. Many times, I get an inside peek at looking down the road…and around the corner. At times, it is good. Other times, it’s a bit concerning. Overall, it’s very insightful!

Here’s a snapshot into this week’s discussions…

In Discussion: What is on the minds of CIOs?

My conversations ranged from how AI will impact the workforce to market dynamics and metrics to cybersecurity to quantum. Let’s dig in…

How will AI impact the workforce?

In the beginning, the common talk track suggested that AI will directly replace people. The contact center was the first to get the nod. The reality is proving that there are many nuances to consider. The tl;dr is that AI will not replace people. Sure, there may be very specific spaces that it does replace some roles. 

The focus has largely changed from how AI will replace people to how AI will augment people. Interestingly, the way leaders communicate with workers regarding AI is a big indicator so drive success with AI. I touched on the two success paths for AI I was seeing back in January back here. This is a big opportunity for vendors in the HCM space like SAP Successfactors and Workday. But also an opportunity for learning systems the likes of Cornerstone.

Market dynamics are impacting AI

By now many are starting to see the AI circular economy and its impact on products, funding, supply constraints and cost increases. It is messy. Thankfully, boards and CIOs are starting to move away from conversations centered around FOMO and bringing more mature conversations to the mix.

This is a good thing and indication that, more broadly, CIOs and boards need to rethink how they approach conversations about AI. For vendors, this means that it is less about AI as a tool and more about the business outcome it will help enable.

Measuring AI success

From boards to the c-suite, I’m seeing a significant effort focused on the ROI of AI. Of course, there are tools and methodologies from FinOps and TBM, but it goes more deeply.

With CIOs specifically, I’m seeing them shift their thinking away from insignificant metrics toward something that focuses on business outcomes. I talked about this specific to customer experience in last week’s newsletter.

For CIOs, tracking lines of code developed, tokens consumed, amount of time spent with tool ‘xyz’ doesn’t mean much. It is like tracking uptime of a system. Each of these metrics lack context. Business context.

When someone asks ‘What does that mean?’ they are really asking for a direct correlation to a business impact. In many cases, you can’t. Or you can, but with a lot of assumptions involved.

Plus, it’s becoming clearer that these metrics might be focusing on the wrong thing and sending our focus in the wrong direction. Spending more tokens or writing more lines of code can lead to inefficiency and misalignment.

Examples of alternative metrics are focused on efficiency, time saved or cost saved. Additionally, it could mean opening new doors and new sources of revenue. The point is that metrics are headed to focus more on business outcomes versus activity metrics. A good litmus test is: How does ‘xyz’ metric directly impact one of the core financial statements?

Cybersecurity is ramping up and we are only getting started

With the advent of Mythos and newer AI models dramatically driving up the number of vulnerabilities found in systems, CISOs (and CIOs) are facing increased pressure to protect the enterprise.

Everyone is feeling the pressure. The board. The c-suite. The CIO. And the CISO. In fact, a recent Korn Ferry study suggested that more than half of CSOs may quit their profession entirely. That should be a wakeup call for everyone!

Last week I talked about the significant disconnects between how we patch systems today and the compressing timeline. The demand in time between vulnerability and patch is quickly getting to minutes, not days. According to Palo Alto Networks, they are starting to see vulnerabilities in the wild even before they are privately shared with the vendor. That means that the timeline drops to negative and makes zero-day a luxury.

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to see some new, clever innovations from both Cisco and Palo Alto Networks who are both heavily leaning into network insights and using AI to address these challenges. More details on those to come.

But suffice it to say that we need to dramatically rethink how we approach cybersecurity.

Quantum on the rise…sort of.

Speaking of rethinking… The more I learn about quantum, the more concerned I get for the enterprise in being woefully unprepared. I shared my thoughts on why CIOs need to plan for post quantum cryptography (PQC) back in May. There is more than just PQC to consider.

Unfortunately, quantum still isn’t seeing a significant uptick in conversations among CIOs. I think this is both a risk…but also an opportunity. PQC is just one aspect, but a big one for enterprises. Certificate management, cryptography algorithms, architecture and automation are all coming fast.

What’s News

I just recorded new episodes of the CIO In The Know podcast with leading CIOs. You won’t want to miss these.

Stay tuned and make sure to subscribe and listen to prior episodes if you have not already. There are an incredible number of insights in each episode to leverage.

Now It’s Your Turn!

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