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Gartner Keynote Bites into AI ‘Sandwich’
Analysts open Gartner event with a discussion about how different businesses and organizations are implementing artificial intelligence and urge proper pacing.
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Gartner analysts Mary Mesaglio (left) and Hung LeHong delivered the opening keynote at Gartner’s IT Symposium/Xpo 2024.Photo by Shane Snider
ORLANDO, Fla. -- During their opening keynote Monday at the Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo 2024, analysts Mary Mesaglio and Hung LeHong described the key ingredients to building a successful AI stack and how businesses and organizations should pace themselves.
“Because of the relentless innovation happening in the tech vendor race, CIOs feel like they are always living the hype, which the reality of their AI outcomes race -- how tough it is to get value -- makes it feel like they are also in the trough,” Mesaglio said.
The conference was expected to attract more than 8,000 CIOs and senior IT leaders. With an arms race to adopt AI and GenAI strategies, the analysts tried to add some clarity for business leaders who may have varying degrees of need.
They also talked about the different races going on to adopt GenAI. It’s important to understand, they said, that the vendor race happening should be separated from their own race to implement AI technologies. CIOs are bearing most of the burden of rapid AI innovation expectations: A Gartner survey showed 57% of CIOs were tasked with creating an AI strategy.
“And even with all this GenAI fatigue of the last year, you’re still under pressure from the CEOs to execute,” Mesaglio said. That pressure can cause leaders to lose sight of the AI needs for their specific business and outcome needs.
AI Steady vs. AI Accelerated
LeHong added, “However, CIOs can set the pace in their outcomes race. If you have modest AI ambitions, in an industry that isn’t being remastered by AI yet, you can afford to go at a more measured pace. This is an AI-steady pace. For those organizations with bigger AI ambitions, or in an industry that’s being reinvented by AI, the pace will be faster. This is an AI-accelerated pace.”
No matter which paths a business chooses, the goal should be the same: delivering value and outcomes, LeHong said.
But generating business value has been difficult for many businesses. A 2024 Gartner survey of over 5,000 digital workers in the US, UK, India, Australia and China found employees said they saved an average of 3.6 hours per week by using GenAI. While those savings can help cut costs, the gains vary from business to business.
“Here’s the real challenge with AI productivity,” said LeHong. “Productivity gains from GenAI are not equally distributed. Gains vary by employee, not just because of their personal interest and levels of adoptions, but according to complexity of job and level of experience.”
Hung LeHong (photo by Shane Snider)
Building an AI ‘Sandwich’
The analysts shared a visualization of a successful AI strategy or “stack” that looked like a sandwich, with structured and unstructured data and all the types of AI used making up the top and bottom slices of bread. The middle of the sandwich consists of an organization’s trust, risk, and security management (TRiSM) technologies that create security.
“As CIO, your job is to design a tech sandwich that can handle the messiness of AI, but still keeps you open to new opportunities,” said Mesaglio. “AI-steady organizations (10 AI initiatives or fewer) will govern their tech sandwiches using human teams and committees. AI-accelerated organizations will add TRiSM technologies -- a set of technologies designed to create trust, monitor risk, and manage security for safe AI at scale.”
Being Mindful of AI’s Human Impact
The analysts noted that employees’ feelings about AI can range from positive to negative -- with some employees feeling threatened or resentful. Those negative feelings can impact work performance.
In a Gartner survey, only 20% of CIOs said they are being proactive about protecting the employee’s well-being when it comes to the potential negative impacts of GenAI.
“Most enterprises aren’t curious enough about how AI makes their employees feel. This matters because AI can lead to all sorts of unintended behavioral outcomes,” said Mesaglio. “The critical point is that if you use change management to manage this, be intentional about who owns which behavioral outcomes. Organizations must manage behavioral outcomes with the same rigor as technology and business outcomes.”
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