to connect the dots in ways business units may overlook.

The business stakes of IT exclusion

Think of your IT team as the nervous system of your company. Business leaders may represent the strategic brain, but without IT, the brain has no functioning network through which to send signals, sense problems or adapt to change.

AI without IT’ s perspective is like giving the brain more ideas without giving the body the ability to execute them.

Both business and IT leaders need to learn new habits

If you’ re a business leader kicking off an AI initiative – or, frankly, any digital initiative – and you don’ t involve IT from the start, you’ re leaving value on the table. It’ s crucial to involve IT not when an idea is fully baked, but when it’ s still dough – before assumptions get locked in and costly detours become inevitable.

This isn’ t just about departments talking to each other. It’ s about co-designing the logic, the flow and the feedback loops from the beginning. Rather than making IT the clean-up crew, make it part of the strategy creation – so there are fewer messes to clean up in the first place.

But this isn’ t only the responsibility of business leaders. IT executives across industries have internalised the pattern of being brought in late, tasked with making magic happen on unrealistic timelines or budgets. Too often they accept it as the cost of doing business.

The cost of sidelining IT in AI adoption is not just inefficiency. It’ s existential risk.

Consider three scenarios:

1. Data fragmentation: Business leaders select a Generative AI tool to accelerate customer service but fail to consult IT about data governance. The result? Sensitive information leaks into training data, creating regulatory and reputational hazards. 2. Shadow IT: Departments independently adopt AI productivity tools. Without IT oversight, licences proliferate, security vulnerabilities open up and integration complexity balloons. Eventually the patchwork collapses under its own weight. 3. Missed innovation: IT teams often know where automation or AI could drive value because they see the bottlenecks in workflows. When their insight is ignored, businesses waste millions reinventing processes that could have been streamlined much earlier.

These aren’ t edge cases. They are already happening across industries today.

Now is the time to strengthen your unifiers

In every organisation, there are individuals who operate as if silos don’ t exist. They naturally work across departments – sometimes without even realising it.

Don’ t let this happen. Stop allowing yourself to be set up to fail by others’ poor planning. Start showing up as a strategic partner at the start. Demand a seat at the table.

When you’ re in these planning meetings, you may need to change your language. The way IT communicates can either reinforce old stereotypes – or reset expectations.

• Don’ t lead with complexity of the tech, lead with the potential for clarity in the outcome

• Don’ t open with infrastructure, start with value

• Don’ t point out problems, offer pathways

Yes, you know the architectural dependencies. But to effectively integrate any new initiative, strategy teams don’ t need lectures. They need translators. They need you to be the bridge between ambition and execution.

They may not have a PhD in data science or know your ERP system inside out, but they inherently understand people. They’ re trusted by both technical and non-technical teams. They can sit in a strategy meeting and cut through jargon with a clarifying question, and they can join IT workshops and ensure the human impact stays in focus.

They are your unifiers, and, in the age of AI, they are more important than ever.

Not because they hold all the answers, but because they know that relationships are where the answers are found. They bring empathy into the equation, and in doing so, they translate, synthesise and connect.

These are the people who ensure AI doesn’ t become another siloed experiment.

26 www. intelligentcxo. com