The 2023 Gartner CIO and Technology Executive Survey noted that even before ChatGPT, one-third of CIOs say their organization had already deployed artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, and 15% more believe they will deploy AI within the next year.
John Hillery
But deciding how best to proceed means factoring AI into business value, risk, talent and investment priorities.
John Hillery, managing vice president in peer and practitioner research for the Gartner CIO Research Group, recommends CIOs create a succinct AI strategy document that synthesizes their vision and potential benefits, audits and mitigates risks, captures KPIs, and outlines best practices for value creation.
Hemanta Banerjee, vice president of public cloud data services at Rackspace Technology believes there are different levels of adoption, across the region.
"Asia is not a homogeneous market. Countries like Singapore, Korea, and Australia, which has advanced in terms of analytics and AI usage. Countries like Indonesia, and Vietnam have leapfrogged, and they are going into the cloud straightaway and leveraging new technologies such as open AI," he elaborated.
Misconceptions about what AI can and cannot do
In a Gartner peer community platform, a data scientist & analytics manager commented that "Without Human Intelligence there is no Artificial Intelligence". AI is a powerful tool, but it is not a replacement for humans. AI can automate many tasks, but it cannot replicate the creativity, problem-solving, and empathy that humans possess. These abilities are essential for many jobs, and it is unlikely that AI will be able to fully replace humans in these roles."
The unfortunate reality is that the entertainment industry has gone wild with its imagination when it comes to what artificial intelligence – in its current forms – can and cannot do. It helps a little that vendors and consultants are toning down the rhetoric on the possibilities.
So how does one deal with a technology whose possibilities remain at the whim of the imagination? Banerjee suggests treating any AI initiative like any other IP project.
"Teams need to be agile and change what success means along the way and do more experiments," he continued. He posits that AI will automate everything, and it will replace jobs, but AI cannot replace human judgment.
"In the generative AI world, there are three terms used," Banerjee continued. "Copilot is where AI will suggest, and humans decide. In autopilot, the AI will take certain decisions, and then hand it off to the pilot to the human to complete the action. Autonomous is where AI will take all the decisions on behalf of the human and there is no human intervention. Typically, successful projects are achieved using the copilot approach."
Starting your AI journey
"Focus on internal use cases so risks are lowered, and firms can experiment, iterate, and learn how accurate it can be," suggested Banerjee. "Use the copilot approach and have AI assists individuals in making faster decisions."
He also recommends consulting with AI experts and working with solution providers that specialise in AI. These can advise on how to put governance structures and how to make sure that the data platform that is feeding into the AI is robust.
He also suggested starting with a small focus product to demonstrate quick wins, understand the ROI and expand the usage of AI across organisations.
Hemanta Banerjee
"Business and technology need to partner as part of the scrum team delivering on these focus engagements. When engaging customers, always start with an ideation workshop to work with the line of business stakeholders. Brainstorm on different digital transformation initiatives, then identify which ones could benefit from AI."
Hemanta Banerjee
Click on the PodChat player and hear Banerjee share his perspective on AI design and integration considerations for CIOs.
What do business and technology leaders and users in Asia know about artificial intelligence, as applied to the business setting, and how it's being done today?
Name three misconceptions, versus realities, that organisations will come to see quickly enough as they start to consider deploying AI.
Where would be a good starting point in terms of understanding what the real value of AI is to the business?
At what point do I introduce AI or it makes sense to introduce AI?
How does one then consider integrating something like AI into the current business workflow, while at the same time minimising disruption to how things are done in the organisation?
To what extent is it reasonable to have a fail-fast philosophy in terms of experimenting with new technologies?
What are the next steps in the discovery process of what AI can do for my business?
Allan is Group Editor-in-Chief for CXOCIETY writing for FutureIoT, FutureCIO and FutureCFO. He supports content marketing engagements for CXOCIETY clients, as well as moderates senior-level discussions and speaks at events.
Previous Roles
He served as Group Editor-in-Chief for Questex Asia concurrent to the Regional Content and Strategy Director role.
He was the Director of Technology Practice at Hill+Knowlton in Hong Kong and Director of Client Services at EBA Communications.
He also served as Marketing Director for Asia at Hitachi Data Systems and served as Country Sales Manager for HDS’ Philippines. Other sales roles include Encore Computer and First International Computer.
He was a Senior Industry Analyst at Dataquest (Gartner Group) covering IT Professional Services for Asia-Pacific.
He moved to Hong Kong as a Network Specialist and later MIS Manager at Imagineering/Tech Pacific.
He holds a Bachelor of Science in Electronics and Communications Engineering degree and is a certified PICK programmer.
