EDITOR ’ S QUESTION
The role of the CIO has been through a series of challenges the last few years , starting with the intense demands on IT to facilitate remote work during the pandemic , continuing to postpandemic budget decreases , attempts to right-size IT use and leading us to the current AI hype cycle . While generative AI ( GenAI ) has only been publicly available for a year and a half , adoption was extremely fast . According to Flexera ’ s State of the Cloud Report , a quarter of survey respondents stated they were already using GenAI from public cloud providers extensively . An additional 38 % of respondents were experimenting with it in their organizations ; only 14 % of survey respondents were not using GenAI at all .
While some organizations are already seeing competitive advantages from early AI adoption by improving employee productivity , CIOs are now left trying to reconcile the costs . Budget decreases in 2022 and 2023 have left CIOs with little room for AI investment , but this work cannot happen within a vacuum .
The role of the CIO is now more collaborative , with a significant interplay between IT and finance . The role of FinOps has become integral to mitigating cloud costs , and the collaboration between engineering , finance and business teams at the heart of the FinOps framework is also being replicated in the c-suite . As 71 % of survey respondents say their organization is heavily reliant on cloud , it is no surprise that managing cloud spend is the top priority , which requires collaborative efforts from the top-down . teamwork . CIOs can bridge various operational functions including revenue , sales , marketing and product operations to enable faster innovation while still maintaining cost efficiency and mitigating sprawl , on top of maintaining security positions .
Now that the rush to implement AI is subsiding , a more thoughtful strategy can be implemented to right-size the tech stacks that keep every business functioning . CIOs need to optimize in order to innovate and reduce wasted spend to further invest in GenAI and other innovative technology . Continuous improvements , leveraging collaboration , are at the core of technology optimization , rely on the right tooling and a strong ITAM and FinOps practice . p
This cautious approach must also filter to how GenAI is being implemented ; managing spend is key , but in order to manage spend , you must ensure the technology is being used in the most strategic ways . This again goes back to the importance of collaboration ; strategic planning needs to align for the entire organization and organizations need their CIOs to collaborate with various stakeholder groups to foster a culture of
In order to manage spend , you must ensure the technology is being used in the most strategic ways .
BECKY TREVINO , CHIEF PRODUCT OFFICER , FLEXERA
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