Global CIOs geared up to scale AI but organizations aren’t as ready
24 Abril 2024 - 10:00PM
Business Wire
- Lenovo’s third annual global CIO report reveals AI as IT’s most
urgent priority, matched only by cybersecurity.
- However, speed to adoption and security stand as largest
barriers to scaling AI.
AI is the CIO’s top priority, according to findings of Lenovo’s
third annual global CIO report. Inside the Tornado: How AI is
Reshaping Corporate IT Today, reveals that while CIOs need to adopt
and scale AI urgently, their ambitions are threatened by speed,
security, and other organizational functions lagging in AI
readiness.
In a stark contrast to previous years, CIOs are tabling
non-traditional responsibilities to sharpen their focus on core IT
functions. Slightly more than half (51%) of CIOs feel AI/ML is an
urgent priority to address, matched only by cybersecurity. This
urgency is directly correlated to the pressure that CIOs are under
to drive business impact, rather than operational maintenance and
preservation. 84% of CIOs revealed they are being evaluated on
business outcome metrics more than ever before.
“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 are optimistic about AI’s impact—80% feel that
breakthroughs and developments in AI will have a significant impact
on their business. At the same time, CIOs see speed to adoption and
security as the most significant barriers to scale AI. Large
swathes of their organizations are not AI-ready, which is directly
affecting IT’s ability to scale AI quickly. In particular, they
called out: new product lines (78%), corporate policy / ethical use
(76%), supply chain (74%), IT’s technical skills (51%).
What has remained consistent with previous years is IT’s ongoing
challenge to measure impact. Sixty-one percent of CIOs said they
find it very or extremely challenging to demonstrate return on
investment (ROI) with tech investments. While 96% of CIOs
anticipate increased investment over the next 12 months, 42% of
respondents admit they do not expect to see positive ROI from AI
investments for at least two to three years.
AI as a net-positive for sustainability
Sustainability remains a major component of the CIO role, but
this is somewhat complicated by the fact that 38% of respondents
admit that sustainability is being de-prioritized as a result of
the resources being pulled toward AI adoption. Ultimately, CIOs see
AI as a net-positive for sustainability—78% say that leveraging AI
will make it easier to meet their organization’s IT sustainability
goals.
Questions about human capital and financial resources
remain
While CIOs share an optimistic account of IT’s own AI-readiness,
continued AI investment could create additional human and financial
resource gaps. 89% of CIOs warn that with the continued scaling of
AI technologies, the role of human capital will become even more
important. With expected budget constraints, increasing headcount
to match these AI ambitions could prove challenging.
Similarly, while 96% of CIOs say they expect increased AI
investments over the coming year, only 20% expect overall IT
budgets to grow by more than 10%. CIOs concede that AI exploration
and adoption is pulling resources and attention away from other key
IT areas including cloud adoption/digital transformation (48%),
sustainability (38%), and employee compensation (38%).
“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 Lenovo Global Study of CIOs is available at
https://www.lenovo.com/ai-reshaping-it.
About Lenovo
Lenovo is a US$62 billion revenue global technology powerhouse,
ranked #217 in the Fortune Global 500, employing 77,000 people
around the world, and serving millions of customers every day in
180 markets. Focused on a bold vision to deliver Smarter Technology
for All, Lenovo has built on its success as the world’s largest PC
company by further expanding into growth areas that fuel the
advancement of ‘New IT’ technologies (client, edge, cloud, network,
and intelligence) including server, storage, mobile, software,
solutions, and services. This transformation together with Lenovo’s
world-changing innovation is building a more inclusive,
trustworthy, and smarter future for everyone, everywhere. Lenovo is
listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange under Lenovo Group Limited
(HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY). To find out more visit
https://www.lenovo.com, and read about the latest news via our
StoryHub.
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Zeno Group for Lenovo: lenovossg@zenogroup.com