CIOs are grappling with how to leverage It's an AI, but it mostly asks the wrong questions. It's not about “AI strategy”. It's about business strategy using AI.
By focusing AI on obvious business problems, Samsara saw virtual agent support chat volumes reduced by 59%, IT Help Assistant automatically resolved 27% of tickets during a pilot, engineers accepted approximately 40% of code suggestions from AI Code Assist, and teams were able to ship faster and tackle more difficult tasks.
My conclusion is that if we treat AI as a separate endeavor, we end up chasing tools. Treating this as leverage for business KPIs creates impact.
VC mindset: investing in AI
My philosophy on AI investing mirrors the way venture capital firms manage their portfolios. While all investments should aim for success, organizations should adopt a portfolio mindset. Only 10% of AI pilots expect to deliver high profits. This key insight is what drives VC firms and what drives AI funnels.
This means maintaining an active and full funnel of AI investments. By working diligently to narrow this funnel through rapid pilots and experimentation, companies can move quickly and fail quickly with small, restrained experiments to find the few applications that are truly innovative.
This approach is critical given the vast number of AI solutions available. A typical vendor evaluation process might involve vetting three or four major solutions. In the AI field, that number can swell into the thousands. Applying a VC mindset allows you to efficiently triage and prioritize, focusing resources where they have the greatest potential business impact.
Augmenting AI with change management
Investing is only half the battle. The most sophisticated AI tools are worthless if employees don't use them effectively. Success requires robustness AI change management program It builds new organizational capabilities.
1. Driving adoption: Top-down and bottom-up engines
True organizational change requires a coordinated effort from the C-suite to the front lines. this is, top down and bottom up Mandatory introduction of AI.
- Top-down commitment: This starts with CEOs and executives making AI a core business priority. At Samsara, two of our four internal priorities are clearly AI-related, with one focused on internal efficiency and one focused on product innovation. This operational mission is supported by leaders such as the CEO and reinforced through partnerships with the CFO to ensure that AI efforts are treated as a strategic imperative rather than a discretionary project.
- Bottom-up application: While CIO organizations are natural early adopters, the people in the best position to apply AI are the people who face business problems every day. Supply chain, finance, sales, operations. These colleagues have a first-hand, nuanced understanding of where AI tools can create the most value. And by empowering those teams to identify and lead implementation, we can close this gap.
2. Expand literacy with the AI Champions Network
To connect top-level vision with bottom-up execution, companies must actively cultivate AI literacy. At Samsara, we have implemented a two-pronged approach to ensure we scale AI skills and use across our business.
- AI Champion Network: Our AI Champions are the bridge to realizing your AI ambitions. We identify individuals across all sectors with a deep understanding of technology – natural thought leaders – and appoint them as AI Champions. We give them a concrete roadmap on how to use AI in their specific job roles, making them evangelists who drive enablement and comfort within their teams.
- General education: We use channels like daily Slack digests to provide short 5- to 10-minute lessons to provide general AI education and demystify technology to all employees.
3. See AI as a partnership, not a replacement
Every company's philosophy regarding AI needs to be clear. AI will not replace the people who employ it. These tools should position your staff as partners in improving teams and outcomes, freeing them up to engage in higher-value work.
As mentioned above, for R&D and BizTech teams; AI code generator tool. Our team accepts more than average 40% of pre-built code suggestedaccelerating development cycles and allowing you to focus on complex, innovative challenges.
In terms of service, AI chat agent I drove Reduce chat ticket volume by 59% Customer support frees up staff to focus on complex issues. Similarly, within us, Help assistant powered by generative AI IT Help Desk Solved 27% of tickets are untouched During the pilot period, IT staff is freed up to focus on strategic work.
The evolving role of the CIO
In this new era, the CIO's job is to remain extremely agile. It must reflect a company's need for external innovation and a corresponding internal modernization drive.
The path to AI success is not paved by technology alone; Strategic discipline and cultural change. The new CIO's mission is simple. “Remain extremely agile.” Reflects a company's need for external innovation with an equal drive for internal modernization. The path to AI success is not paved by technology alone, but by strategic discipline and cultural change. Stop chasing the latest platform and start asking: What is the core business problem that needs to be solved? Anchor your investments in quantifiable business value, take a venture-style portfolio approach to experimentation, and actively empower your people. AI partnernot its victim. This shift from technology purchaser to strategic portfolio manager is key to lasting competitive advantage.
About the author
steven Mr. Franchetti is the next CIO. samsara. He oversees all aspects of the company's information technology, including business applications, data and analytics, information security, IT service management, and all core IT services.
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