Acquisitions, CIO Roles, Low-Code, Health Care and SMBs – Digital CxO Podcast EP77

Hello and welcome to this week's digital CXO podcast. I'm Amanda Ani, and with me today is Mike Baard. How are you doing?

I'm doing great. Wonderful. Well, first we're gonna talk about ai.

Of course, that's a big topic everywhere. And Mike, you just recently shared an article about, uh, Pega Systems Inc. Pega Systems Inc.

Has extended the reach of a set of blueprints that leverages generative artificial intelligence to enable teams to collaboratively customize a set of workload templates. Can you share more information? Yeah, well, there's a whole trend going on here 'cause there's also an article from Automation Anywhere talking about something similar where they are combining, um, robotic process automation, RPA, which generative ai, and you can create your own agents and they'll actually learn and train themselves about how a process works.

And then, you know, you can automate that. And the interesting thing about that is subject matter experts and end users can create their own agents within that context to automate a process. So here's what's going on.

That's gonna be really interesting from a digital CXO perspective as it relates to all this AI stuff. This time last year, it was a fight, right? Digital CXOs would show up and they'd wanna change a process and there'd be this whole, uh, you know, let's evaluate the process, then we gotta test it and do all this stuff.

And the IT people had to get involved and it could be a year and a half before you actually managed to do something. With the rise in Gen ai and it's starting to be embedded in all these automation frameworks, um, you can now basically end users can, for better or worse, do a lot of this stuff themselves. And they're basically gonna start automating workflows in ways that digital CXOs probably never imagined, which brings another challenge.

So instead of being at the opposite end of the spectrum where suddenly I can only get one or two initiatives going, and it's a fight to get each of them going, I'm now gonna be, you know, a thousand flowers are gonna bloom because everybody and his brother's gonna be playing around with gen AI tools to drive all kinds of new and different workflows in a ways that might overwhelm an organization, right? You could go from the other end of the spectrum where chaos rains and everybody's doing something different and none of these things are integrated. So I think the important thing for digital C XO is, is kinda have to step up a little bit and say, what is the strategy for all this stuff gonna be and how are we gonna implement it and when are we gonna implement it and where's it gonna make the most amount of sense?

Is another article on the side talking about, you know, the rise of the Chief AI officer and then a hundred percent bought in on that concept. I think that ultimately AI might become more of a feature than a, than a thing. Um, or at least it's a motion.

But, um, clearly there's gonna be a need for digital CXOs to get together with CIOs and CSOs and chief data officers. And, uh, if there is an AI officer, clearly they all have to come together and kind of find a way to build an actual strategy here. 'cause otherwise you're just throwing stuff against the wall and seeing what sticks.

And I can almost guarantee that's gonna be a bad outcome. Well, I think it all comes down to, and we've said this many times, communication skills and proper planning. So having a an excellent plan in place, procedure, procedures in place, and then excellent communication.

Well, um, what's your sense of how good most organizations are at that? They, they seem to be lacking a little bit. We still are dealing with silos.

We still are dealing with, um, honestly a lack of communication in this regard. So I think that's gonna be a key issue, is training on better communication skills. And, and then everybody is just gonna be required to, to wear multiple hats as we're seeing in this day and age.

You gotta be able to step in in and do more things than what you've been doing. Yeah, and it seems to me also, I can't tell if the communications is any worse or better in smaller organizations versus larger organizations. I mean, relatively speaking, we're a smaller organization and we have our own challenges.

Um, I can't imagine, or it's been a while since I worked in a large organization, but you know, in my experience, you know, entire departments don't talk to each other and then one of them goes and does something and everybody in the other department wakes up one morning and goes, what the heck was that? Yeah. And and the other part of this story too is like you said, um, it could, it could go two different ways, you know, as everything speeds up and there's more projects going on all at once, it could be chaos.

So of course communication skills is one. But the other question I'm wondering, and I think a lot of leaders are, is once you have all the efficiency, are you gonna be dropping employees because of all the efficiency? Or are you gonna take advantage of it and have way more going on and then you're gonna need more employees and, and be growing at a very fast rate again, which requires communication skills?

I think the answer to that is yes, but I don't think there's an actual plan, right? I think a lot of people are gonna wind up kind of sorta, um, eliminating processes and automating them and then kind of turning people loose and, and then on top of that they're gonna be, wow, we have all these other new opportunities we can do and they're gonna go look for people that have those skills or have some AI capability to go execute. That may not be the same people, but to your point, unfortunately, and I wish it was a better story, I don't think enough organizations are really thinking hard about we need to kind of take our existing people and upskill them.

They're kind of more like, uh, it's haphazard, right? They're kind of working through a process and then they're going, we can automate this and it's gonna be great and this would be fabulous, and they'll drop to the bottom line and awesome. And not like therefore going also saying, well, what else can we do that's be, that's coming second or later.

And so you wind up with this kind of two step motion where we'll be more efficient and we'll probably reduce some jobs and then on the other end we will eventually add more jobs because we will, uh, create a better understanding of how to use this stuff and scale and interesting. But I'm just afraid it's, it's not gonna be a clean process. It's gonna be disruptive.

And I don't know any other way to get through that because organizationally, most of these companies are not set up to do anything other than that, Right? And I guess we, we've seen that with other revolutions. A any sort of innovative technology can be disruptive at the beginning as people wrap their minds around it.

Yeah, I, you know, one guy had a great line, and I think I've heard it multiple times now, but essentially AI is not gonna take your job and somebody who knows how to use AI is gonna take your job because they're gonna roll it up into their job and then it's gonna become something, you know, that's a feature of somebody else's job. So clearly if you wanna hold on to your job, you need to start figuring out how to make this AI thing work. Um, that said, coming back full circle, if you just start throwing AI at everything, you know, you're probably gonna anger somebody down the road who's gonna go, you know, how come you went and did this 'cause you just broke a thousand other things that were connected to that.

'cause all these processes have dependencies with each other. And that's the one thing I think digital C XOs have come to understand over the years is that nothing exists in isolation and it's very hard to like push one thing forward without having this kinda cascading impact through the rest of the organization. Sometimes that's good.

A lot of times it's not. Yeah, and I think it comes down to, it's also not just about ai. There are many other technological tools out there.

So I think it's more about having the ability to adapt and, and embrace change. And if you don't have an adaptive mindset and the ability to embrace change, that's when you're gonna struggle. There you have it.

I'm not sure I have any great words of wisdom about how to go about all this. I mean, it, it's really to your earlier communication, this thing, it's, there's gonna be a lot of, uh, you need this, it is cultural as much as it is technical and organizations have to decide, well, how much empathy are we gonna have? And I think that that may be the thing in shortest supply of all is just understanding that, uh, even with ai, you know, some great idea, not everybody's gonna embrace it equally well unless they understand it and kind of and figure that out within the context of where their proverbial cheese is.

Absolutely. So moving on. This is a, um, article by Nathan Eddy, Eddie Nathan, Eddie, um, and it's about the adoption of AI becoming a central focus for business globally with 91% of tech leaders considering ai, an important business priority, 69% already implementing or using it at scale.

This is the result of an xperia survey conducted by IDC, which found that AI readiness is closely tied to company size growth, prospect and maturity, which is creating a divide between leaders and laggards. What are your thoughts? There has always been a divide between leaders and laggards as far as I can remember.

And leaders are leaders because, well, a, we have the foresight and the ability to kind of invest in things and laggards or laggards 'cause they don't, um, I'm not sure that the technology at hand changes that equation. I mean, I've been looking at these same surveys for, you know, decades and they're all the same and have been the same for as long as I can remember. I think, um, what's interesting here is that, um, you know, AI comes in multiple forms these days, right?

So do I think most organizations are using ai? Yes. Are they using predictive ai, all a machine learning algorithms to kind of take a guess at what something might be and working that into some sort of e-commerce application or whatever?

Absolutely. Do I think that they're using generative AI in a way that is more than just, you know, employees playing around with how to write a better email? No.

And just don't see them kind of like really operationalizing generative AI yet because their data's a mess. And if I don't have the right data then I mean, what I exposed to a gen AI model is garbage in, garbage out and the whole process is broken. So I think, um, you know, a lot of organizations will say, yes, we're using generative ai, but that's not the same thing as to say that we've operationalized it, which is a completely different level of skill and I think requires, you know, the expertise of a digital CXO to get in there and say, this is what we can actually do with this thing that uh, we'll consistently be applying scale.

And that consistent thing is probably the most important word, right? Because remember this whole gen AI thing, just like predictive is a little on the probabilistic side, which means then it's a best guess. So if you've got a process that has to be, uh, 100% done the same way over and over again with the exact same high level quality of outcome, double dig another look at gen AI because that's not what it's about.

Well, and I think we're also, uh, if we go back to the conversation we just had, this isn't, uh, just an AI thing either. AI is not the only tool out there and I think, you know, companies, uh, as far as their embracing of technology in general can put them behind or foreign and it all comes down to the way they're gonna use it and a plan and, and what their, um, end goal is. Yeah.

And I think you have to decide as a company what kind of company you are. Are you a technology company that happens to make something that's a fundamentally different philosophy than a company that just says, you know, we make something and we happen to use some IT stuff to support it. That's not quite the same thing at all.

I think more and more companies are gonna be technology companies that happen to do something else in a space, but they know they think like technology companies and that means everything from, you know, we're using software engineering and best practices to deliver better experiences through software consistently versus, you know, we're just waiting on the next rev of, uh, you know, some SAP software somewhere that's gonna update our supply chain. Yeah. So next, this is a really neat article by a contributing writer Simon about quantum.

So he says, in the quantum realm, diverse hardware modalities coexist each with unique attributes and de developmental stages. This variety has led to a siloed environment where each player in the quantum computing arena has its hardware or software ecosystem at this early yet burgeoning stage of the quantum sector, a hardware-centric view, while understandable could limit the broader application and innovation potential of quantum computing, he goes on to talk about the importance of software design in companies and what are your thoughts about that and quantum, All right, well, new technology, same old problem. Every time there's a new technology, we all get very hardware centric because, well, it's easier to, uh, build something when you're right there with that piece of hardware and it's kind of like writing code and assembler back in the day.

And then over time we got higher levels of abstraction so we could write more software more efficiently. The same thing's gonna play out with Quantum, right? Eventually there'll be tools and compilers or whatever you want to call 'em that are make it easier to build quantum applications that can run across multiple hardware platforms.

Last time I checked there were already a lot of quantum hardware platforms. Do any of them work? No idea.

Um, you know, how many bits do you have? Who knows? Uh, are the bits actually, uh, you know, part of my application is over there and it's over here and we're running it simultaneously and we're gonna do some sort of magical thing that connects these things.

We'll wait and see. But um, you know, so I'm not thinking that we're gonna be using quantum computing outside of some rare instances, um, anytime soon. And half the use cases that I've seen so far still run better around traditional infrastructure and the traditional infrastructure's getting better all the time too.

So, uh, I think quantum computing is gonna be important, but you know, what year is this? Um, you know, I think we're still measuring this in years, so I'm not like putting quantum computing into my digital business process transformation strategy anytime soon. Yeah, I think, you know, most business leaders are thinking about the, the potential for quantum, but from everything I'm hearing, we're a long way out from, you know, quantum is still in the very beginning stages and um, you know, once it's fully developed, there's a lot of use cases for it that could be amazing.

But we are nowhere near there yet. I look forward to it though. Mm-Hmm.

Okay, so next work life balance. This is something important to everyone, um, important for our health and our careers, and this is an article on digital CXO. It says The digital revolution has fundamentally transformed various industries, significantly impacting lifestyle sectors through the adoption of innovative digital engagement tools.

These tools are not only altering traditional practices but offering new modes of interaction and service delivery. Various tools are then shared software, um, tools as well like Slack, Microsoft teams, online health and wellness platforms like Northern Edge and then things like Low-code and no-code platforms are discussed as well as many other tools. So what are your thoughts as far as work-life balance when it comes to this remote and digital world?

I don't know if there's a balance. I think, you know, I was reading this article and then I thought about it and I'm just like, some time ago I crossed over some line and the line used to be kinda like there was work and you know, I mean you kinda like stitched a couple of personal things in during the day and I picked up your dry cleaning or whatever, um, and then you went home and then there was family life and that was kind of separate. And yet truth be told, you know, a lot of us are thinking about work when we're with family and sometimes we're thinking about family when we're at work.

It's just part of the nature of the thing and I feel like it's all starting to blur together. Um, you know, there are days when you know, you know, it's the weekend and, but my wife's gotta go do something and my kids are off doing something, you know, and I know, so I got the ball game on and I might be clicking through some email. I mean, you know, is that part of the work life balance?

I don't know, is it mentally healthy? I don't know. But you know, I'm still here and I'm still cranking away.

So, uh, I think other people maybe that doesn't fit them, you know, my wife likes life a little cleaner. She likes, you know, work during the day and family life and you know, after dinner and it's all separate in her world. I think each person has to strike their own balance.

I agree. It, it's all about the individual person and and, and what they prefer. You know, I know plenty of people who wanna work, you know, eight to five and then they leave the office and they come home and they don't wanna think about work anymore.

That's done. They click it off and then I would say that it's a lot harder the people that I speak with that work online, um, such as ourselves, when you work online and you're connected all the time, uh, when you're on your phone for personal, it just blends itself in there. The work just blends in and you find yourself, you know, answering all the work emails too and then clicking to Slack for messages and you can't help but respond.

Or at least I find that I have difficulty in not just going ahead and like responding and it just all blends together. So, yeah. Um, I I I didn't count how many emails you answered when you were allegedly on vacation a couple of weeks ago, but I noticed there was a few.

Um, the other side of that coin too is, um, so it's difficult to relax when you've got something that's sitting at work that's kind of, you know, eaten at the back of your mind. So if it is the weekend and you take 15 minutes to go resolve that issue, doesn't that make the rest of the weekend better? Because now you're not thinking about that thing.

Agreed. Exactly. Whereas some people would say, do not work, set it all aside, don't do it for me.

I'm that way. If I feel like something's looming over my head, I'd rather go spend an hour or, you know, get it knocked out and then feel relaxed the rest of the weekend. Right.

But now we have our friends in Europe who are like basically saying, you know, you can't send an email to somebody outside of the normal work hours because, you know, and that's impinging upon them and I'm always like, well, don't look at the email until you're ready. I don't Get it. Right.

Exactly. I, I find myself in, you know, I do try to respect the boundaries of other people and understanding that, you know, some people may not wanna think about work workouts either those hours. So I think about when I'm sending my emails or my Slack messages and I always say, this is just so I don't forget.

And you look at it when you're back to work, Right. Which hopefully they're not looking at it until they're actually back to work. Exactly, yeah.

So, so it it's hard to find that, that balance for sure. But I think it's whatever make, you know, individuals are different. Whatever makes them most comfortable.

Some people are comfortable, like for me, I couldn't imagine coming back to 500 emails after a vacation, so I'd rather keep up with them. So, you know, other people want that brief. I, I hear you and I understand, and I, and I've seen both sides of it, but um, hey, if I wind up being wrong and you know, come visit me in the loony house, Well meanwhile read that article if you want some great tools, suggestions for tools or software platforms that could help make your work life balance a little bit easier.

Meanwhile, that brings us to the end of our list. So do you have any final thoughts? No, uh, the good news is no matter what's happening with ai, there's always gonna be digital transformation, which means there's always gonna be digital CXOs.

So, uh, the fun part, it's easier to rock and roll than ever the bad part. It's easier to rock and roll than ever. Alright, well that's a great way to end this segment.

Have a great week everyone, and go check out those articles. If you wanna read the full article. They're all on digital CXO.

Thank you and have a great day.