What team compositions and skill sets do you think are essential for AI-enabled IT organizations? What roles or functions are critical to have as you build AI capabilities?
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Everyone should be expected to maximize their use and embrace of AI in the workplace. In a few years, AI proficiency will be as important as using a computer or email. Organizations that don’t nudge people in this direction are doing them a disservice. While mandating AI use can be controversial, I advise people to go all in and make time to work with it, even when it feels uncomfortable. The number of career opportunities that do not involve AI proficiency will decline.
AI is just technology/tool. Still need to understand the business context. Essential to understand the use case/scenario, the RoI/value model, and then map back to the tech enablers.
At the university, we divide AI into three buckets: process automation for improved efficiencies, insight generation for problem-solving, and human augmentation. For example, using ambient technologies to assist physicians during patient meetings allows them to focus on the patient rather than note-taking. Each AI instance requires us to consider how and for what benefit we apply AI.
Not every problem needs an AI solution. Often, it’s a data or process problem. The distinction between efficiency and revenue generation is important. If technology functions can leverage AI efficiently, third-party providers may struggle to survive as organizations become more empowered to deliver sophisticated solutions themselves.
I’ve been thinking a lot about using AI as a time saver. With that in mind, does it still make sense to outsource IT capabilities to lower-cost markets? As AI accelerates processes, is there now a greater opportunity to bring these capabilities and processes back to local teams, rather than relying on large offshore groups? I’m curious if you have any thoughts on how this shift might affect the role of third parties and consulting companies?
That's an interesting question because we are having similar conversations. I’ve heard the concept of "cyber shoring" as opposed to traditional offshoring. While the term itself may not be ideal, the underlying question is an important one to ask. As far as I can see, many of the advantages associated with global capability centers or offshoring could potentially disappear, making this an important question for organizations to ask themselves right now.
AI-enabled IT teams need a balanced mix of engineering, data, and governance skills. Core roles include data engineers, ML engineers, and platform architects, paired with domain experts, security, and risk leaders. Equally critical are product owners and change leaders who ensure models are explainable, compliant, and embedded into real business workflows.