Emerging technologies are catching IT leaders off guard. It is therefore not surprising that some people grit their teeth. Shadow AIor unauthorized use of generative AI and related services.
CIOs remember when cloud computing disrupted the industry more than a decade ago. They remember line-of-business executives using corporate credit cards for startup cloud applications.
Yet once IT leaders realized how much employees valued these tools, they decided to do it. They obtained enterprise licenses, integrated the technologies into their existing IT systems, and trained their employees. IT managers have increased productivity while maintaining security.
With today’s proliferation of genAI services democratizing AIIT leaders are preparing for the growth of shadow AI.
Still, IT leaders should embrace and expand rather than hinder employee genAI experiences.
This would serve two desirable purposes: helping employees achieve greater productivity and even increasing customer experience.
GenAI can be the bridge between IT and business
GenAI could help boost profits by up to $4.4 trillion by increasing productivity in customer operations, sales and marketing, software engineering and research and development, according to McKinsey Digital.1
With the rise of genAI, IT departments must learn what employees prefer to use, train them to use them responsibly, and put safeguards in place. This could help IT gain the goodwill of the business, which it may disagree with even today.
Consider that while more than half of IT decision-makers want a stronger relationship with their business peers, 81% of business decision-makers exclude their IT peers from strategic decision-making, according to a new study. Dell Research.2 Lack of trust is usually the biggest sticking point.
Yet IT leaders can learn from their past experiences with shadow IT to build a bridge between employees and genAI that cultivates trust and unleashes innovation. These tips can show the way.
Establish your genAI posture
The first instinct of some IT managers is to create or at least master each technological solution. Instead, IT managers should learn and understand how employees use genAI to help them in their jobs.
IT leaders should then work with management to build consensus on how to use genAI to accelerate the business, while balancing these efforts with risk mitigation, such as McKinsey noted.
Leaders will communicate this message to the rank and file early and often.
Adopting a Product Management Mindset
When it’s time to engage with a vendor or build a solution, IT leaders can position themselves as innovators by executing with a product management mindset that aligns agile development practices with business business objectives.
“CIOs can use this approach to ensure their technology solutions directly contribute to organizational goals,” said Yousuf Khan, CIO turned investor.
Improve your skills then wash, rinse and repeat
GenAI is new enough that most employees don’t yet know how to use it and most companies don’t help them. Only 6% of companies have trained more than 25% of their workforce in genAI tools, according to a study. Boston Consulting Group Executive Survey.3
Organizations must tailor education, training, and tools for employees in technical and non-technical roles.
Accenture plans to train 250,000 employees on how to use genAI services responsibly, Accenture CEO Julie Sweet said at the recent World Economic Forum. “It’s a basic digital literacy of running a business and being good at it,” Sweet said.
The stakes are high for such literacy. According to IDC Search ordered by Dell.4
Practicing responsible AI and sound governance
From a risk perspective, genAI is like jurassic park-chaotic. GenAI services are black boxes; no one knows how they arrive at their conclusions. They can hallucinate and spew false information. Understandable or inaccurate content can put companies’ reputations at risk, or worse.
This makes risk mitigation essential. Most companies will monitor and assess AI risks and apply mitigation strategies where necessary over the next 12 to 24 months, Accenture’s Sweet predicted.
This timeline seems long. Organizations adopting genAI should institute governance And security models today, ideally by adopting a Zero Trust approach, to ensure the security of the organization.
One more thing
Returning to the classic command-and-control position is instinctive for IT managers, but genAI is too simple to use and easily accessible for most employees.
Instead, IT leaders should work with their peers on responsible use, adopt and/or create safe and approved technologies, and educate and communicate to the rank and file how to use them.
Trusted partners can help by providing the hardware, software and services needed to support organizations. bring AI to their data in a way that respects IT governance while democratizing employee access to genAI services.
Learn more about dell.com/ai.
1 The Economic Potential of Generative AI: The Next Productivity Frontier, McKinsey Digital, June 2023 2 Building Your Innovation Muscle, Dell Technologies, Feb. 2024. 3 From Potential to Profit with GenAI, BCG, Jan. 2024 4 Workforce Upskilling for the AI Era, IDC, Jan. 2024
