Sheila Jordan, chief digital technology officer at Honeywell, says she’s been working in tech long enough to remember the days when leaders would fret about whether or not they should allow their employees to bring mobile phones to work.
But when it comes to artificial intelligence, there’s little pause for Jordan and Honeywell, which sells products and services that support automation, aviation, and the energy transition. “I’m going full steam ahead,” says Jordan, who is steering more than 20 generative AI projects that will launch by the end of the year. “This is really going to change how we work, live, and play.”
Last week, Fortune sat down with a diverse group of tech leaders from industries spanning manufacturing to health care, at a special dinner in Boston hosted in collaboration with AMD (AMD is a sponsor of this newsletter). These executives had a wide-ranging set of perspectives, with some debate about if humans were still a barrier that impeded the implementation of AI. However, they were quick to agree that generative AI is still in the first inning and that the technology continues to advance at a remarkable speed.
Tech leaders say they are still thinking through big decisions including what data to feed into large language models, the right guardrails to protect proprietary data, and training a workforce eager to learn more. But some of the biggest internal debates involve deciding on the appropriate AI strategy. When should AI be used, and just as important, when it should not be deployed?
“I’m not sure every organization is nimble enough yet to get the value,” says Srini Krishnamurthy, chief strategy and information officer at Rhode Island-based insurer FM Global. “It is one thing to play with it, use it, get familiar, and explore use cases that can create long-term sustainable value. The current reality does not yet fully live up to the hype, where we can all say we are truly better off now than we were two months ago.”
Brook Colangelo, chief information officer of analytical instruments and software provider Waters Corporation, says leaders may be fretting over whether their workforce is ready, a similar moment of hesitancy to when mobile and other older technologies emerged. “At a certain point, I have faith in humankind,” says Colangelo. “As we build more applications and solve more problems, and we provide the governance and structure, our users will use it.”
The comments echo something that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said last month during the company’s most recent earnings call. The adoption of AI within business “requires not just technology, but, in fact, companies to go do the hard work of culturally changing how they adopt technology,” Nadella said.
Honeywell’s Jordan had a similar take at Fortune’s CIO dinner, saying that it’s the responsibility of employers like Honeywell to empower their workforce with opportunities to learn about using generative AI—as long as the right guardrails are in place. “The consumers will learn this faster than we will deploy this in the enterprise,” says Jordan. “We need to get ready for that.”
At Connecticut-based insurance company Hartford, the plan is to make AI a core competency for employees across the organization, and not just for those in highly technical roles. The idea says chief data science officer Paul Drennan is for AI to serve as a sidekick that can supercharge any employee.
Drennan says he likes the idea of a “franchise” approach to AI at Hartford. AI cannot be centrally managed by a short list of gatekeepers, he claims, and his vision is to empower business leaders across the organization to determine how large language models can best provide value and be deployed quickly and safely.
Beyond the challenges of ensuring people can harmoniously work with AI to improve business outcomes, the tech leaders at the dinner expressed concern about the splintering AI regulations that are emerging across the globe and ensuring the quality of data used to train AI is both sound and safeguarded from outside exposure. They also see the value of AI to boost productivity but can lift top-line sales too.
Timothy Coleman, chief technology officer at Eli Lilly, says the pharmaceutical firm leverages AI where there is a “fit for purpose.” Some examples he shared include using generative AI to safely store and provide insights on data from wearable smart devices used in clinical trials, as well as a conversational AI chatbot that answers IT-related questions posed by employees.
“We are very bullish [on AI],” says Coleman. “We are actually seeing that value come through.”
P.S. We’ll be talking about this topic and many more at Fortune’s annual, invite-only Brainstorm Tech summit in July. Interested in attending? Register here.
John Kell
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NEWS PACKETS
Unemployment rate drops for U.S. IT workers. Tech companies, including Microsoft and Salesforce, added about 4,280 workers in April, according to trade group CompTIA, which reported that the total unemployment rate for U.S. information-technology workers dropped to 2.8% in April from 3% in March. The Wall Street Journal reports that the hiring may be related to investments toward future growth, not necessarily a sign every tech firm is ramping up resources to support AI. “Companies are continuing to look at how to reduce costs,” says Victor Janulaitis, CEO of consulting firm Janco Associates. “The general statistics are that the employment picture for IT professionals has not improved all that much.”
Cloud vendors get a big lift from generative AI. Gen AI and the huge amount of data that’s required to build the underlying models helped cloud revenue soar 21%, or $13.5 billion, to $76 billion in the first quarter of 2024, reports TechCrunch citing Synergy Research. The ‘Big 3’ cloud infrastructure providers—Amazon Web Services, Microsoft’s Azure, and Google Cloud—are all enjoying big double-digit revenue growth. And while the cloud business may not experience the heady growth of 2021 and 2022, Synergy forecasts the market will double in size over the next four years.
Rocket Cos. creates a new CTO role to unify AI push. Rocket Cos., whose portfolio includes Rocket Mortgage and Rocket Money, has announced that former Thomson Reuters executive Shawn Malhotra will step into the newly created CTO role to oversee the company’s AI efforts. The move comes one month after Rocket’s CIO departed and reflects a shift in strategy on technology. Previously, each division at Rocket Cos. had its own technology leadership. But now, Malhotra will oversee tech across the company’s portfolio.
ADOPTION CURVE
Younger engineers are more likely to say that sustainability is “extremely” important to them: 52% for Gen Z/millennials versus just 40% for Gen X and Baby Boomers according to a survey of 1,000 engineers and executives published by TE Connectivity. They are also more likely than older engineers to say the company they work for is proactive on sustainability and that their environmentally friendly commitments appear genuine.
“The youngest generation of our job seekers are passionate about sustainability,” says TE Connectivity chief human resources officer Malavika Sagar. “If you don’t communicate that well during the recruitment process, your top candidates may choose to go elsewhere.”
JOBS RADAR
Hiring:
- Direct Relief, a Santa Barbara, Calif., medical aid nonprofit, is seeking a CIO, VP of data & analytics. Posted salary range: $275K to $325K/year.
- Merkle, a New York, N.Y., consulting and marketing company, is seeking a CTO, Americas. Posted salary range: $235.5K to $380.1K/year.
Hired:
- Quest Diagnostics has named Murali Balakumar to the roles of senior vice president and chief information and digital officer. Balakumar will be responsible for leading the medical services company’s IT, data informatics, and digital solutions.
- Nepsis appointed Amanda Butler as the firm's first CTO, helping lead the development of the investment management firm's Nepsis app, manage technology vendor partnerships, and work with the design team on product development.
- Portillo’s appointed Keith Correia as CIO, joining the fast-casual chain from Steak ‘n Shake. As Portillo’s first CIO, Correia will oversee the expansion of the restaurant company’s IT platform and guide the team’s efforts to modernize and improve efficiencies.
- Sportradar Group AG has announced that Behshad Behzadi has been named CTO and chief artificial intelligence officer, effective May 1. He will report directly to CEO Carsten Koerl and will drive the usage and adoption of AI.
- Resolution Games appointed Johan Gästrin as CTO. Gästrin previously served as the head of technology at Resolution Games and has 25 years of experience in games and product development for companies including King and H&M.
- Aktia has named Oskari Kurki as EVP and CIO, assuming the duties at the Finnish asset manager in August. He will be responsible for all IT operations and the implementation of the IT strategy at Aktia, where he will report to the CEO.
- Gulfstream Aerospace, a subsidiary of General Dynamics, announced the appointment of Anthony Newlin as SVP and CIO, effective May 31. A veteran of Gulfstream since 2016, he succeeds Sheryl Bunton, who is retiring after steering the aircraft maker’s global IT organization since 2015.
