A new report from the IBM Institute for Business Value finds that chief information officers need to understand that the technology landscape has fundamentally changed in recent years — and the new era of artificial intelligence requires honing new skills and core competencies.
“IT as a standalone function is dead,” IBM researchers wrote. “Technology To be business.”
In the new era of generative AI – a rapidly evolving landscape of ubiquitous digital tools – healthcare technology leaders need to be agile, adaptive, decisive, and proactive in engaging with their CEOs and CFOs to help drive competitive advantage for their organizations.
The report – which polled more than 2,500 CIOs, CTOs, and CDOs across industries worldwide – identified half a dozen potential “blind spots” that need to be addressed for modern IT leaders in the AI era.
For example, IBM research found that CEOs consider “innovative products and services” to be their top priority over the next few years. But only 43% of IT leaders surveyed said their organizations were effective at delivering differentiated products and services, and 53% said their executives considered technology “only moderately important to innovative products and services,” according to the report. “This disconnect between technology and business suggests a major shift is needed.”
Among other statistics:
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While nearly 75% of CEOs are excited about emerging technology and its ability to drive innovation, 43% of CIOs and IT executives report that their concerns about technology infrastructure have increased over the past six months due to next-generation AI.”
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Meanwhile, nearly 67% of CFOs say their leadership has the data needed to take advantage of new technologies. But IT professionals have a different view. “Only 29% of technology leaders strongly agree that their enterprise data meets the quality, accessibility, and security standards that support the effective scaling of AI.”
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More than half (58%) of IT leaders say they are struggling to find the right talent to fill key positions.
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Less than 50% of those executives said they are fully implementing responsible AI practices like explainability, transparency, and fairness.
“Despite the growth and emergence of enterprise technology roles, ‘technology’ is still not consistently part of the strategic decision-making process for businesses,” IBM researchers said in the report.
“The absence or ineffective engagement of technology leaders has led to blind spots within organizations, making it difficult for organizations to grasp today’s opportunities in artificial intelligence in all its forms – traditional AI, next-generation AI, machine learning and automation,” IBM researchers said.
THE BIGGER TREND
Healthcare IT News has been following the evolution of the CIO job for over a decade.
Back in 2014, we noticed that the former “IT professional” had now become “a skilled strategist at the executive level, with more demands than ever on the role.”
And that was before AI and cloud-based automation penetrated and transformed every corner of the healthcare system.
Since then, other profiles have shown that the mission and responsibilities of the CIO in healthcare are “shifting rapidly toward innovation, transformation, and revenue generation.”
We’re also tracking the emergence of new C-suite roles, such as chief information officer and — starting with a new series of articles launching this week — chief AI officer.
ON THE RECORD
“Technology CxOs must have the courage to expose the six blind spots that are preventing their organizations from achieving an AI advantage,” IBM researchers said. “To overcome the barriers, CTOs must lead honest, compelling conversations about their organizations’ readiness to deliver disruptive innovation and business outcomes.
Mike Miliard is executive editor of Healthcare IT News
Email the author: [email protected]
Healthcare IT News is a publication of HIMSS.
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