FEATURE
Leaders, regardless of department, need to ask themselves:
• Who are the trusted bridge-builders in your organisation?
• Are they being given permission, recognition and support?
• Are they being pulled into key initiatives early enough?
Invest in these unifiers. As AI reshapes the workplace, their ability to create alignment is no longer a‘ nice to have’. It’ s what success depends on.
Alignment isn’ t a buzzword, it’ s a litmus test
There’ s a lot of lip service in companies around business-IT alignment, but AI will reveal whether your approach is sincere, aspirational or nothing more than a hollow buzzword.
AI amplifies the systems, culture and structure you already have.
• If you have broken processes, AI will scale them faster
• If your data is misaligned, AI will make decisions on faulty logic
• If your departments don’ t talk, your AI efforts will mirror that fragmentation
If you’ re determining how to integrate AI into your business, this is a singular opportunity to objectively assess your foundation – and coursecorrect if you need to. territory, but ownership as in responsibility, initiative and partnership. And this co-ownership depends on shaking off your blinders and building new habits.
The future doesn’ t belong to the department that moves the fastest. It belongs to those willing to slow down long enough to build something meaningful – together. AI can be the spark but let human alignment be the fuel.
Practical next steps for leaders
How can leaders, both business and IT, operationalise these ideas? Consider these steps:
1. Create joint AI councils: Establish crossfunctional groups where IT and business leaders co-develop AI use cases, evaluate vendors and measure outcomes. 2. Embed IT in early strategy: Make it policy that no AI initiative proceeds beyond the ideation stage without IT review. 3. Develop AI translators: Train professionals in both technical and business literacy. These roles are as critical as data scientists. 4. Redefine success metrics: Align KPIs so both IT and business units are measured on shared outcomes rather than isolated departmental wins. 5. Invest in data readiness: Treat data quality, governance and accessibility as foundational. Without it, AI will falter. 6. Recognise the human factor: Technology adoption isn’ t only about systems – it’ s about trust, ethics and employee impact. Ensure HR, legal and change-management voices are included.
Final word
Where are the fractures? Where’ s the silence? What needs to be rebuilt? How can you leverage everyone’ s strength in that rebuilding?
Alignment isn’ t an abstract leadership virtue. It’ s the litmus test for whether AI becomes an accelerant of value – or a magnifier of dysfunction.
It’ s not about control. It’ s about collaboration
The question isn’ t“ Who will own our AI implementation?”
The question is“ Who will co-own the future of our business?”
The future of AI – and thus the future of your organisation – depends on shared ownership between business and IT. Not ownership as in
AI adoption is not a technology project – it is an organisational transformation. Framing it as a tool that belongs exclusively to business strategy or exclusively to IT misses the point. It belongs to both, equally.
If you’ re a business leader, understand that your boldest ideas will fall flat without IT’ s ability to translate them into reality. If you’ re an IT leader, recognise that your technical mastery only matters if you can communicate in the language of business outcomes.
The wake-up call is simple: stop asking who calls the shots. Start asking how you build the table where the right people sit together, early and often.
The future of AI isn’ t about control – it’ s about co-creation. x www. intelligentcxo. com
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