Confusion abounds in today’s technology world. In this moment of AI-amplified centrifugal chaos, organizations need the unifying — and synthesizing — focus of understandable and achievable technology visions.
Sixty-five years ago, technology vision (singular) was frequently winnowed down to “What did you buy?” IT strategists of days-long-gone were little more than glorified purchasing agents. I fear too many organizations have regressed, replacing energy-expanding and consensus-creating cartographies of what comes next — and rock-ribbed commitments to outcomes we can accomplish together — with soulless lists of AI investments.
It’s time for CIOs to get back on their vision horse. Our industry needs to rediscover its aspiration to be great. CIOs need to courageously encourage users to demand great IT.
The tech future for many workers today is a blank space on the map. Tech vision for many involves reacting to whatever happened in the past 12 hours. Ask employees for their description of the world three to five years from now. What responses do you get?
Large cap and midmarket companies are laboring under a vision deficit. CIOs need to do something about this.
IT must once again become the place where the future is made, where visions are synthesized.
A harmony of visions
Back in the day, establishing and achieving a vision required aligning the competing interests of executives, managers, workers and IT professionals. Herding these categories of cats was challenging — but not impossible.
Today there are more categories of cats and each have multiple personalities. Organizations have hundreds of “realities” they need to synchronize based on the lived-experience, age, passions, and perspectives of executives, managers, and associates. Enter the challenge of crafting poly-visions.
Visioning is much more than the bumper sticker crafting exercise — i.e., “Be Simple,” “Be the Cheapest,” “Never Down,” or “AI-First” — it is erroneously misrepresented as being. Vision must shape behavior and guide investments. Successful organizations manage a portfolio of harmonized visions. CIOs need to build healthy interdependencies between the various visions driving the enterprise forward.
Internal to IT one needs at least five visions (See “Chapter 2: The Five Pillars of IT” in Cheryl Smith’s The Day Before IT Transformation):
- Infrastructure and operations
- Telecommunications and networks
- Information security and privacy
- Data management
- IT governance
These visions, albeit often separate within IT’s portfolio, must be harmonized for IT to unleash value for the organization, as it should.
But technology functions and silos are not the only areas where CIOs will need to impart vision.
A vision for the future workplace — and workforce
Economic historians tell us that throughout history the highest-return long-term investments are often in human capital. A critical vision needs to be crafted detailing what the enterprise is doing to make the future of individual employees better.
CIOs need to craft a vision for Gen Zers, those born between 1997 and 2012 (13 to 28 years old) — the seed corn of the future labor force. In a recent survey of Gen Zers, The New York Times found this cohort — approximately 20% of the US population — generally less than optimistic about the present workplace. In the words of one respondent, “We’ve been let down.”
When Gen Zers were asked to describe the situation right now in terms of a weather report, responses like “thunderstorm,” “tornado,” and “CAT 5 hurricane” predominated.
An organization that can authentically position itself as a place Gen Zers want to work — a place where people are connected, protected, and respected — will do well in the coming talent wars.
And then there is AI …
CIOs need to craft a vision for artificial intelligence. In 2000, 80% of venture investments went to internet companies. Recently, it is estimated that 64% of VC money is going to AI startups.
CIOs need to get everyone on the same page with AI. A survey of 800 employees and 800 C-suite executives conducted December 2024 detailed wildly various perceptions of AI “realities”:
- 47% of employees vs. 73% of executives believe their AI approach is controlled and highly strategic
- 45% of employees vs. 75% of executives feel success in AI adoption
- 57% of employees vs. 89% of executives report having an AI strategy
- 33% of employees vs. 64% of executives report their company has a high level of AI literacy
Without a coherent AI vision, May Habib, CEO at AI startup Writer says, asking employees to embrace AI is like “asking a turkey to vote for Thanksgiving.”
Any AI vision has to celebrate human agency, making sure that AI works for us and with us rather than just on us.
See also:
- Time for CIOs to ratify an IT constitution
- 3 key stakeholder questions for delivering technical change
- IT’s renaissance risks losing steam
