Report: CIOs Moving Decisively to Adopt Generative AI

  • By Kate Lucariello
  • 08/14/23

Education, corporate, and government chief information officers globally are decisively adopting generative AI as a major part of their tech strategy. That was the conclusion reached in the recent MIT Technology Review Insights report, "The Great Acceleration: CIO Perspectives on Generative AI."

The report, in partnership with Databricks, was compiled from interviews conducted with senior executives and experts in April and May 2023. Executives interviewed were from major corporations, among them DuPont Water & Protection, Shell, and Adobe; universities MIT and the University of California, Berkeley; and government agencies such as the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. It also draws from interviews conducted in 2022 with 600 senior data and technology executives. In the 2022, 78% of surveyed executives said that scaling AI successfully was a top priority.

Key findings in the current report are that:

  • Generative AI and LLMs are going beyond pilot projects and being integrated into organizational operations. AI is in demand, and wide access to it is becoming "democratized."
  • Organizations want to use open source technology to develop their own LLMs in order to protect their data and IPs from security risks. They also want LLMs customized to their operations and under their control, rather than "one size fits all" solutions.
  • Executives are not buying into "doom and gloom" AI threat scenarios. Instead, they see AI as a helper that will free up workers to devote their energies to create more business thrive.
  • Organization CIOs must create "unified and consistent governance frameworks," i.e., ethical and responsible practices to maximize the benefits of AI and minimize risks.

In the executive summary, the report cites a McKinsey Global Institute estimate that "generative AI will add between $2.6 and $4.4 trillion in annual value to the global economy … [and] that AI will automate half of all work between 2040 and 2060."

The MIT report notes that of those interviewed:

  • 78% said that scaling AI and ML for business use is a top priority;
  • 68% said that unifying a data platform for analytics and AI is a crucial data strategy;
  • 72% favor a multi-cloud approach as a flexible AI/ML foundation; and
  • 72% said that data problems are the most likely to jeopardize AI and ML goals.

To download and read the full report, visit this page.

About the Author

Kate Lucariello is a former newspaper editor, EAST Lab high school teacher and college English teacher.

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