As a CIO, what do you see as your most critical responsibility when leading AI-driven talent transformation initiatives?

The most critical responsibility is bridging the gap between technology and human potential. This means ensuring AI augments not replaces skills, fostering a culture of continuous learning, and aligning AI initiatives with workforce development. Prioritize upskilling teams to collaborate with AI, embedding ethical and transparent AI practices, and measuring success by both innovation and employee engagement. Leadership here isn’t just about tools, it’s about empowering people to thrive in an AI-augmented future.

As a CIO, the most critical responsibility in AI-driven talent transformation is creating an environment where people feel empowered, supported, and equipped to grow. Technology only succeeds when the talent behind it feels confident and aligned, so investing in clear communication, upskilling, and a culture of continuous learning makes all the difference.

In my role, it’s important that I encourage my team members to do self-learning and give them an opportunity to showcase what they’ve learned in their roles, and how AI can help them, as well as what use cases they see from their self-learning that we can apply to their roles and the business.

We have an IP company that invests in construction tech startups. In my role, I work closely with our CSO to make sure these companies have the right governance and data management, along with cybersecurity. Many are new and don’t have their SOC 2 yet, so we help them with incident response plans and mentor them. This helps us innovate quicker and speeds up the cycle. That’s one of my main tasks right now.

It goes back to culture and leading by example. Our executive leadership team has been really good about this. They use the tools, play with them, experiment on their own time. It’s hard to wrap your head around what these tools can do without getting into them yourself. Our CEO and COO aren’t technical, but they ask us challenging questions about what they can do at home and why we can’t do it internally. Being poked and prodded and challenged helps us see opportunities. The higher you get in leadership, the less you’re in the weeds, but this flips it around. I didn’t really get into this much until about a year ago, and I realized reading white papers wasn’t enough. There was so much hype it was hard to distinguish between hype and reality, especially with every vendor selling AI. Now, the reality is there are real things with huge results, and if there’s not a sense of urgency, you’re getting left behind.