FEATURE
WHO CALLS THE SHOTS FOR AI ADOPTION? A WAKE-UP CALL FOR BUSINESS AND IT LEADERS
Barbara Wittmann, Founder of Digital Wisdom Collective and CEO of IT Zeitgeist, says boardrooms should stop asking who calls the shots on AI and instead think about bringing the right people together early and often.
The conversation about how to use Artificial Intelligence is happening everywhere: in boardrooms, strategy meetings, budgeting sessions and industry conferences. Executives debate where to place bets, consultants publish roadmaps and boards ask pressing questions about where AI can drive efficiency, create new business models or reduce risks. But one place is surprisingly quiet on the subject: IT teams.
This silence is telling. It reflects how decisions around AI are very often made by business strategy executives or steering committees. Which makes sense – to a point. After all, adoption of any new tool, including AI, should be approached with real business needs in mind, not shiny tech for the sake of it. It should be rooted in practical application, not theoretical possibility. If strategy and business units are leading the charge, good – that signals that the organisation is trying to anchor AI in purpose rather than hype.
But let’ s not get carried away.
In too many companies, this mindset has led to a retrograde and dangerous belief: IT only exists to implement and maintain tech – to manage servers, store data and clean up the messes and bugs that inevitably emerge. This view diminishes IT to the role of a custodial service when in reality, the discipline has evolved into a powerful driver of innovation, resilience and value creation.
The days of IT teams as mere custodians are over. The question is: have business leaders noticed?
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