The Future of Tech Is Still About People

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Frank Iannella, CIO at Heineken, emphasizes that while AI is transforming business operations and technology careers, success increasingly depends on understanding business problems, adaptability, and leadership rather than technical skills alone. He highlights the importance of responsible AI adoption with strong data governance and the need for technology professionals to develop broad skills in collaboration and organizational understanding to lead effectively in a changing industry.

https://ischool.syracuse.edu/the-future-of-tech-is-still-about-people/

AI Is Making Software Cheap to Build. Is Your Organization Ready for What Comes Next?

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AI is significantly reducing the cost and time required to build software, enabling even small teams to develop complex custom applications rapidly. This shift challenges traditional enterprise IT governance and software portfolio management, as decentralized, AI-assisted development increases the number of untracked tools and elevates risks related to compliance, control, and ownership. CIOs and CTOs must prepare for a future of software abundance by focusing less on scarcity of development resources and more on managing, governing, and retiring the growing volume of AI-generated software assets within their organizations.

https://www.cio.com/article/4231346/ai-is-making-software-cheap-to-build-is-your-organization-ready-for-what-comes-next.html

89% of CIOs Say They’re Now More Responsible for Workforce Redesign Than Core IT Infrastructure

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A survey reveals that 89% of CIOs now see themselves as more responsible for workforce redesign than for managing core IT infrastructure. This shift underscores the expanding role of CIOs in driving organizational change and adapting workforce strategies alongside technology management.

https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/89-of-cios-say-theyre-now-more-responsible-for-workforce-redesign-than-core-it-infrastructure-302900900.html

Want Employees to Embrace AI? Stop Selling It as a Productivity Tool

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Stanford researchers found that employees are more likely to embrace AI when it is introduced as a tool to enrich their jobs rather than merely boost productivity. Successful AI adoption depends on managers framing AI use to enhance meaningful work, providing time and training for exploration, and aligning performance metrics to reflect new job responsibilities. Without these supports, AI initiatives risk employee disengagement and reduced motivation to learn new skills.

https://hai.stanford.edu/news/want-employees-to-embrace-ai-stop-selling-it-as-a-productivity-tool

IT Modernization: Still a Make-or-Break Project for CIOs

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CIOs continue to view IT modernization and application portfolio rationalization as critical, complex initiatives essential for controlling costs and enabling innovation, especially in the evolving AI era. Leaders emphasize a business-driven approach that balances reducing complexity with meeting current and future organizational needs, often re-evaluating SaaS tools and considering custom AI-enabled solutions. Despite challenges like cost and data migration, ongoing modernization efforts remain indispensable for creating agile, future-ready IT environments that support better efficiency, risk reduction, and alignment with business goals.

https://www.cio.com/article/4225171/it-modernization-still-a-make-or-break-project-for-cios.html

‘The Collision: What AI Does to Us’

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MIT Sloan professor Eric So’s new book, “The Collision: What AI Does to Us,” explores how artificial intelligence is reshaping human cognition by tempting people to outsource thinking, leading to cognitive atrophy and diminished capacity for sustained focus and judgment. So advises employees to preserve their unique thinking skills, managers to reward both productivity and reasoning, executives to focus on talent development rather than cost-cutting, and educators to teach AI as a tool rather than ban it, emphasizing that AI should amplify human capabilities without replacing critical thinking.

https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/collision-what-ai-does-to-us

A ‘Safe-to-Fail’ Culture Can Help IT Teams Achieve Great Things

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Building a safe-to-fail culture in IT teams involves removing fear of failure by providing employees with time, resources, and clear boundaries to experiment with new technologies in secure environments. Organizations should design controlled experiments focused on specific business problems, incorporate safeguards to limit potential damage, and recognize learning outcomes to drive practical business results. This approach promotes innovation while managing risks through disciplined testing, transparency, and predefined operational and security rules.

https://www.computerworld.com/article/4223580/how-to-build-a-safe-to-fail-culture-for-it-teams-and-why-you-should.html

Why the CIO Role Is Increasingly More About Business Than Technology

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David Shive, long-tenured federal CIO and vice chair of the Federal CIO Council, explains that the CIO role has evolved to focus more on business practices alongside technology management, especially amid advancements like AI. This shift reflects the need for CIOs to integrate IT with organizational strategy to drive mission outcomes and operational effectiveness in government agencies.

https://fedscoop.com/radio/why-it-management-inside-the-government-has-become-as-much-about-good-business-practices-as-the-technology-itself/

The CIO’s New Mandate: Rearchitecting Enterprise Work

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The article argues that CIOs must lead a shift from simply managing enterprise applications to redesigning enterprise work itself, leveraging AI agents to orchestrate work outcomes rather than just automating tasks within discrete systems. This new discipline, called Enterprise Work Architecture (EWA), involves mapping business outcomes to work activities, defining authority and execution across humans and AI, and measuring economic impact, enabling more efficient, secure, and transparent operations across integrated applications. The transformation requires CIOs to collaborate across business functions to reimagine how work flows through technology and human judgment, focusing on outcomes rather than individual applications.

https://www.cio.com/article/4230816/the-cios-new-mandate-rearchitecting-enterprise-work.html

Should the CISO Role Be Split in Two?

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As the CISO role expands from technical security oversight to encompass business risk management, governance, and strategic leadership, industry experts debate whether it should be split into separate business-focused and technical-focused positions. While some organizations have introduced deputy CISOs to manage operational tasks, the consensus among professionals like Todd Fitzgerald and Tim Brown is that a single CISO with clearly defined responsibilities is preferable, supported by appropriate teams to handle technical and governance functions. The evolving role increasingly requires CISOs to act as business leaders responsible for cyber risk at the enterprise level, raising the importance of executive authority, board engagement, and personal liability considerations.

https://www.csoonline.com/article/4230243/should-the-ciso-role-be-split-in-two.html

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