Barriers and benefits: How CIOs are navigating the AI whirlwind

Perhaps no statistic shows just how much pressure CIOs are under to enable artificial intelligence (AI) than this: AI is now tied with cybersecurity as the top priority for CIOs, according to a recent Lenovo survey. 

However, though AI deployment is an urgent issue, most CIOs don’t believe their organizations are ready. Less than half of CIOs say they possess the required technical skills, only 4 in 10 believe they have the required security infrastructure, and just one-third think their organizations possess the right computing infrastructure. Just as concerning, less than a quarter of CIOs say their organizations have an adequate corporate policy around ethical use.

Despite these concerns, CIOs are bullish on the value of AI, though only half say the most important gains will include cost reductions. Instead, productivity gains (83%) are far and away the top expected benefit, followed by increased competitiveness (77%). That said, though CIOs have a clear vision of what their organizations will gain from AI, it’s clear that they are worried about their ability to demonstrate ROI. Just over 6 in 10 say that demonstrating ROI from any technology is very or extremely challenging. And while almost 4 in 10 say they’re already seeing value from their AI investments, a slightly larger percentage (42%) say they don’t expect to see ROI for at least two years. 

“Today’s CIOs are working in a tornado of innovation. After years of IT expanding into non-traditional responsibilities, we’re now seeing how AI is forcing CIOs back to their core mandate,” said Ken Wong, President of Lenovo’s Solutions and Services Group. “This is driven by the clear promise of AI adoption combined with the pressure that IT leaders face to prove the value of these investments and deliver measurable business outcomes.”

CIOs know exactly which barriers lie in the way to AI success, and the amount of time it takes to bring AI vision to life is at the top of the list. Other barriers include security, inherent AI biases, and intellectual property concerns around the data on which AI is trained. But beyond these immediate challenges, there are also significant unknowns that could further confound AI success.

For instance, while the vast majority (90%) of CIOs say they have the talent they need to scale AI in their organizations, they’re not certain they’ll be able to continue meeting the talent challenge. About 9 in 10 warn that, as AI technologies become more advanced and pervasive, the need for highly skilled people will also grow. 

Financial resources are also a concern. Essentially all (96%) CIOs expect their AI budgets to grow over the next 12 months, but just 20% say their IT budgets will grow by more than 10%. What’s more, 48% have deprioritized cloud and digital transformation to focus on AI. If other key areas go hungry to feed AI, that does not bode well for the overall future health of IT.

Finally, CIOs are concerned about how their organizations will meet the challenge of responsible AI use. More than 9 out of 10 CIOs say that as AI grows in power, the responsibility to inform and explain how people in the company are using it also grows. CIOs and the rest of the C-suite should already be creating a strategy to ensure transparency in AI use and policies to govern ethical use.

“There’s a clear opportunity for us to help businesses make sense of AI, accelerate its scale, and advise on how the impact of these investments can be effectively measured,” added Wong. “Our customers are already leveraging AI to advance sustainability, security, and digital transformation efforts. We can help them deliver further outcomes by developing cohesive deployment strategies that address CIOs’ challenges.”

The AI challenge is huge, and the barriers to success are large. A trusted advisor like Lenovo can help organizations make sense of AI. Lenovo’s AI Services Practice has been designed to help clients assess their preparedness for AI and determine how they can best fill the gaps.

Learn more in the full report from Lenovo or find out more about Lenovo’s smarter technology solutions.