The Future of Work – Leading Through Complexity

Today’s CIOs are navigating a defining moment in the future of work. They must accelerate AI adoption, meet heightened security and privacy expectations, address component shortages and improve employee experience — all at once. As operationalizing AI becomes increasingly important to CIOs across our communities, how do IT leaders reduce friction and enhance productivity with emerging technologies at scale? 

CIOs in our Atlanta Community came together recently for a Town Hall to discuss how to address the gap between business performance and employee fulfillment through technology decisions, as well as how to leverage tools, workspaces and skills to drive business outcomes.

George Brasher, SVP and Managing Director - North America at HP Inc., moderated the discussion, while Atlanta CIO community members Hari Peruri, CIO at AGCO Corporation, Sandeep Angra, CITO at Unifi, and Ravi Gokyada, SVP, Technology at Blick Art Materials, led the peer discussion groups. 

George set up the discussion by sharing that CIOs face unprecedented leadership challenges as they navigate the accelerating pace of AI adoption, rising organizational complexity, and the need to enhance human performance. These challenges compound to increase the demands on IT leaders’ management capabilities. In addition, George noted the strong link between employee engagement and business performance, with technology influencing both areas. The overarching goal with technology is to empower employees with the right tools to help them perform at their best. 
 

Key Takeaways from the Discussion

• Aligning Technology Decisions with Business Performance and Employee Fulfillment

CIOs are navigating a complex landscape of digital transformation, with numerous new platforms and systems in play. However, they often lack direct measures of how technology decisions impact employees as most engagement metrics are HR-driven and rarely focus specifically on IT. While large-scale projects are typically measured by ROI and efficiency due to board-level oversight, there’s a growing recognition that AI and other technologies may boost efficiency without necessarily improving effectiveness, highlighting the need for more qualitative feedback from employees.

Change management approaches also vary by project size, with dedicated teams for major initiatives and limited resources for smaller ones. One CIO noted that smaller “shoestring projects” essentially get added to someone’s plate and may only have one person driving them. Ultimately, the discussion emphasized that employees should be treated as customers when selecting and implementing technology, aiming to both enhance business performance and reduce friction. One IT leader summed it up this way: “It’s about enabling your employees, just like enabling your customers.”
 

• Driving Business Outcomes Through Tools, Workspaces, and Skills 

CIOs also discussed how to reduce friction when introducing new technologies, and many agreed that you need to focus on performance, but also on ensuring a smooth implementation process by educating and empowering internal champions who can drive adoption across the organization. One CIO shared: “You need to have champions in your organization for adoption – or the adoption of new technologies will fail.”

Without these advocates, even the best technologies may fail to gain traction, especially in complex environments with multiple stakeholders. Ultimately, successful adoption hinges on technology benefiting everyone involved by making processes more efficient and user-friendly. In addition, CIOs noted that every technology or tool conversation now must consider AI to be complete.
 

• Streamlining Productivity and Security with Scalable Emerging Technologies

CIOs shared that their organizations are rapidly deploying a variety of AI tools. One said that without a strong data and AI foundation, users can quickly become frustrated. Others noted that the risk of shadow AI – unapproved or unmanaged AI use – remains high. To address this, IT leaders recognize the need for clear guardrails and centralized oversight of AI tools, as well as effective change management strategies. As one CIO stated, “Organizations have different change thresholds, and we are adding new tools on top of it.”

Measuring ROI for these tools is still evolving, and there is no single approach that fits all tools. Training remains a constraint on time and resources, and CIOs report that some of their organizations are limiting the number of approved tools as a result. This careful approach helps ensure that technology adoption is both scalable and aligned with business needs. As one CIO also pointed out, “We need to connect all the use cases to the real business impact.”

Overall, CIOs in the discussion groups explored how technology decisions can bridge the gap between business performance and employee fulfillment, leverage tools and skills to drive outcomes, and reduce friction while boosting security and productivity with emerging technologies at scale. The discussion also emphasized the importance of scaling AI responsibly and assessing associated risks. 
 

To collaborate with other CIOs on accelerating AI adoption and improving employee experience, apply to join a CIO community. If you are already a member of your local Gartner CIO Community, sign in to the app to find upcoming opportunities to get together with your peers.
 

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