CIOs under pressure to deliver AI outcomes faster

CIOs are under increasing pressure to generate business value from generative AI, but Salesforce CIO Juan Perez is among those IT leaders who believe such impatience from the C-suite could doom many projects.

“The explosion of AI has really put CIOs in the spotlight and placed the CIOs in the hot seat like never before,” says Perez, fresh off two industry events in which many of his CIO colleagues say they feel they are between a rock and a hard place. “It is really clear to me how CIOs and other tech executives from all kinds of organizations are being challenged as to how they can to move quicker, but also responsibly, with AI.”

The enterprise landscape is littered with Version 1.0 generative AI proof of concept projects that did not materialize into business value and have been dumped. While the industry remains in the early stages of uncovering and implementing AI use cases into business workflows, the blueprint for success remains elusive for many CIOs.

Perez, who has been CIO of Salesforce for over two years, also sits on the board of directors for The Hershey Co. He sees leadership increasingly expressing the need for different business results, and “they are clinging to technologies to drive those business results. Of course, some of that push is coming down to the CIOs,” he observes.

From Perez’s perspective, two major problems with those expectations. First, CIOs — like so many in the IT industry — lack the experience to know what gen AI can actually do. CIOs view gen AI as a technology that is here to stay, and they are excited about innovating with it, but it will take time and extensive experimentation to deliver value from AI responsibly. Top brass, however, wants to see outcomes faster.

Perez says he’s fortunate because his team is learning quickly what works and what doesn’t as they implement AI directly into the company’s CRM offering. Many other enterprises are juggling to innovate and deliver value to the business without industrywide guardrails or proven methods for implementing responsible AI.

“Although we saw a large number of CIOs go all in and implement all kinds of pilots related to AI, in many cases, without a clear business case, without a clear understanding of business processes that were being impacted by AI, in some cases without really understanding the implications of enablement, enabling people to use the technology and training people using and maximizing value in the technology,” Perez says, noting that in a study of 150 enterprise CIOs with more than 1,000 employees conducted by Salesforce only 11% of CIOs said they are fully implementing AI technologies in their business.

What’s the plan?

That same survey found that 84% of CIOs believe AI will be as significant to their businesses as the Internet, yet implementing proper security measures and data quality are cited often as hurdles slowing adoption.  

But there is another major worry rising, as CIOs seek to move deliberately — rather than hastily — toward their AI objectives. And that is “shadow AI.”

“Some CIOs are being careful that they don’t see the proliferation of what I like to call shadow AI to the point that AI will be unmanageable in the enterprise and can harm the business,” Perez says, adding that he is also concerned some CIOs will get left behind in an era of constant experimentation and innovation. “I think it’s really important that CIOs find the right balance.”

What’s the solution?

More CIOs should be “taking their time to set their organizations for AI success,” Perez says. “We need to treat AI like we’ve treated other technologies and ensure they have appropriate investments in data, infrastructure, and security — and that we manage AI with responsibility.”

Secondly, Salesforce’s CIO advises other IT leaders to ensure they are aligning with the right partners. CIOs must also be the enterprise’s “chief educators” about AI, he says. Setting priorities will also be crucial for maximizing business value, he adds.

Salesforce has implemented AI agents in its SaaS offering, and the technology is currently supporting customer experience applications. New AI services will be delivered by Salesforce by the end of October.

Agentic AI is advancing fast, and Perez is under the gun to ensure the company’s AI capabilities provide solutions for its customer, increasing business value — and “that the AI we put in the hands of our users is not going to cause harm to the organization,” he says.

Improving customer service is one AI use case getting a lot of attention. Others that are rapidly emerging include more AI services for supporting finance, HR, and sales processes, with strong potential to “manage and support IT operations” across the enterprise, he adds.

But much of the business value the C-suite is clamoring for cannot be rushed. For CIOs, the challenges ahead are staggering, but creating a comprehensive enterprise architecture with AI assessments, as well as security and data assessments, will be critical to innovation.  

“I believe AI will have a positive impact in lowering and managing costs, which in turn helps organizations create value,” Perez says. “There are a lot of misconceptions as to what is the appropriate use of generative AI and misunderstanding as to the areas in which you can create the most value from AI.”

But sticking one head in the sand is no longer an option, Perez emphasizes. “This is a technology that is not going to come and go like many others we’ve seen. It’s not a technology that will just fly by and not have meaningful impact in the way we do work.”