Check out highlights from the 2024 Metis Strategy Summit | Read more

The Year of Generative AI: ChatGPT Prompted a 2023 ‘Gold Rush’

Back to All Insights

Introduction

The California Gold Rush launched in 1848 when a sawmill operator stumbled upon a literal goldmine while building Sutter’s Mill in Sacramento, California. Nearly two centuries later, a figurative gold rush kicked off as individuals and companies across the globe sought to capitalize on generative artificial intelligence (GenAI).

Looking back at Technovation podcast interviews from 2023, AI and adjacent technologies were easily the most talked about trends. Mentions of ChatGPT and GenAI soared through the rankings, going from a non-existent topic in 2022 to the second most frequently discussed trend on the podcast a year later.

The focus on GenAI brought with it a growing focus on AI more broadly, as well as cybersecurity, chatbots, and robotic process automation. It also spurred conversations about the possibilities of quantum computing and new opportunities to leverage data coming from a range of IoT sensors.

Technologies like blockchain and the metaverse took a backseat to AI this year, but many executives hypothesize that widespread adoption may yet be on the horizon.

Companies dive into generative AI 

When generative AI became widely accessible to companies at the end of 2022, the possibilities seemed endless, spurring conversations about how it could reshape work. 

Cisco Sanchez, SVP & CIO of Qualcomm, said he noticed an “anxiousness” within his organization to leverage that technology and show what was possible. Through the company’s Imagine platform, his team identified a number of use cases such as internal documentation search, image creation, and more. 

Document summarization piqued the interest of DocuSign CIO Shanthi Iyer, who said GenAI could help clients quickly get answers to questions about their contracts, including which parties were involved, start and end dates, fiscal terms, and even potential risks.

GenAI’s rise also renewed conversations around voice assistants and chatbots. Tracy Kerrins, CIO of Wells Fargo, announced that the company completed 100% consumer rollout of a new virtual agent named “Fargo” that can be accessed through the company’s mobile app. The assistant “helps improve [the customer’s] banking experience and give them the information they may not have even known they needed when they need it,” Kerrins said. Powered by Google’s AI Dialogue Flow solution, “Fargo” is seen internally as the company’s first step toward adopting GenAI and paving the way for its expansion.

Those keeping a close eye on technology trends surely saw GenAI on the horizon, but few could have predicted the speed of its adoption. It’s safe to say that going into 2024, the topic of GenAI will remain strong, with new insights on where it makes sense to deploy the technology, what value it poses to the overall business, and what risk factors need to be considered to drive a successful AI strategy. 

A renewed focus on data quality and value delivery 

To take advantage of the opportunities presented by AI and GenAI, organizations noted the need for a sound data strategy and quality data management practices to act as a foundation. Kristie Grinnell, CIO of DXC Technology, emphasized the need for strong data fundamentals in the age of AI. “Is this data I can count on, take action on, make a decision on?,” asked Grinnell, “Because then, I’m going to run analytics over it to start predicting things for the future.” Without reliable data, she warned, companies could face “disastrous” results.

Filippo Catalano, CIDO of Reckitt, echoed this sentiment as well, describing GenAI as a “lens” on top of the data already collected. “You need to have your data analytics strategy in place,” said Catalano, “Frankly, if you don’t have good data practices… you will not be able to generate competitive advantage.” 

Mentions of the Internet of Things and sensor-based technology have steadily declined in mentions over the last few years of podcast interviews. However, this doesn’t appear to be due to declining interest. Rather, sensors are now ubiquitous in many companies, collecting and feeding data back to the IT organization. To many executives, the more pressing topic wasn’t the implementation of sensors themselves, but the data coming from them and the value this data can deliver. 

Johnson Controls CIO Vijay Sankaran remains steadfast in the use of IoT sensors in the real estate sector. The data his team collects has a wide range of applications, including mapping facilities to optimize the usage of physical space and improve employee experience. Similarly, at commercial lightning supplier Signify, CDIO Tony Thomas leverages the data about how customers use its smart light bulbs to help the company figure out how to evolve its product and service offerings.

At ConocoPhillips, real-time sensor data is giving the company more visibility into its drill sites than ever before, allowing it to more closely monitor equipment and learn about potential issues before they happen. Using IoT sensors to get real-time data “is allowing us to do deep analytics, machine learning, AI, and monitoring opportunities that we were never able to do before,” said CDIO Pragati Mathur

Heading into 2024, data remains at the top of the CIO agenda as organizations seek new ways to collect, analyze, and act upon information to drive value. 

Cybersecurity and data privacy are top of mind with concerns surrounding AI 

With data being as valuable as it is, securing it is non-negotiable. The ever-present need to build consumer trust and protect enterprise data ensures that cybersecurity is a trend that will persist and evolve. “Cybersecurity is never a business by itself,” said Gili Raanan, Co-Founder of Cyberstarts. “If technology changes and you’ve got artificial and generative AI,” said Raanan, “you probably need generative AI security.”

The inevitable cyber risks and ethical questions surrounding GenAI’s implementation were not lost on executives. Rajan Kumar, CIO of Intuit, has been on a journey to mature his organization’s data strategy that powers the services offered to clients. While collecting the necessary data is one area of focus, just as important is doing so with “the right guardrails around the security and privacy.”

Alina Parast, CIO of ChampionX, reiterated the need for cybersecurity before leveraging any AI capability. “We need to find a safe and secure home for our data before we apply AI,” she said. Parast applied internal security procedures and protections integrated into the Microsoft platforms she uses to ensure any application of AI doesn’t place data at risk. Parast also explained how cybersecurity practices extended beyond IT to become part of an overall mindset. “We want people to internalize that cybersecurity is something that doesn’t just belong to a small team in the corner,” she said, “but [that] it’s everybody’s responsibility.” To drive home this mindset, she developed an internal cybersecurity training program framed as a murder mystery mini-series, providing a fun alternative to routine corporate training modules.

Juan Perez, CIO of software-as-a-service platform Salesforce, said cybersecurity has been imperative to any initiative he undertook throughout his career. When describing his top five pillars as a CIO, Perez began and ended his list with the need to protect and secure the enterprise. “None of the other [pillars] matter if, at the end of the day, we’re not prioritizing the security of our environments and the security of the information that we have to guard so closely so that we protect the business’s interests.”

AI prompts conversations on new computing needs 

As companies run bigger and faster models, the demand for compute has picked up. “You have to get the ROI out of [GenAI], and there’s a lot of compute power that is required,” said Vish Narendra, CIO of Graphic Packaging. 

One such avenue is quantum computing. Douglas Lindemann, CIO of ArcBest Technologies, has a team dedicated to researching quantum. This research has informed Lindemann’s perspective on the role that quantum can play as enterprises continue their AI journeys. Through his team’s research, he was able to apply some of the learnings to ‘quantum-inspired optimization’ (QIO) that runs on classical computers to “make more efficient algorithms that can respond and provide responses in a quicker time” and “provide better, quicker model responses with some of our AI.”

Monica Caldas, CIO of Liberty Mutual, says quantum computing could change the way data is recorded and calculations are done. “I just think about the ability of the speed and the processing power that that will bring,” she said. As quantum capabilities advance, “how will that change how we do algorithms? How will that change how we process?”

Vanguard CIO Nitin Tandon agreed, citing the intersection of quantum and AI/ML tools was a trend he was particularly excited about. “We are talking about NVIDIA and GPUs today, but think about if we had qubits, GPUs and CPUs that you can harvest in whatever ratio you want to drive really powerful AI/ML engines.” However, like AI, the advent of quantum poses its share of risks. “It also has huge security implications, which we’re also cognizant of and working on.” 

Other trends on CIOs’ minds 

Continuing the path to cloud maturity 

Cloud computing technology has been a trend often mentioned on Technovation, as many companies began their cloud journeys years ago. With strategies in place and transformations in progress, the conversation now is focused on how the cloud has and can continue to enable new processes. 

Executives still see value in blockchain, mostly in financial services

Blockchain seemed poised to be a game-changing technology, but adoption has proved slower than many anticipated. Shubham Mehrish, Global VP of Mars, jokingly contrasted the successful takeoff of AI to the lukewarm response to blockchain. The rise of AI “ is not a blockchain/crypto moment. This is probably more real than that.”

Within the financial services industry, however, some see high potential for value-add use cases. Sumedh Mehta, CIO of Putnam Investments, said during a podcast interview earlier in the year that he sees blockchain as having the “potential for being the backbone of future global financial transactions.”

Lori Beer, CIO of J.P. Morgan, also sees the potential value of blockchain if it is done right. When you think about all the processes that we have to comply with payments…there’s so many opportunities where you have to connect to other banks to understand information in that [know your customer] process to be able to know that you can go ahead.”

Co-founder and Co-chairman of The Carlyle Group, David Rubenstein, said crypto and the like are here to stay. “Crypto will be perfected at some point,” he said, “and probably it’ll be made more valuable in some ways down the road.”

The metaverse has been put on ice but isn’t being ignored

While the metaverse, augmented reality and virtual reality didn’t make the most-mentioned list this year, the emerging technology may still get its day. 

As companies collect more revenue from digital channels, the metaverse could serve as a new frontier for customer interactions. “Whether it is immersive environments like the metaverse, your regular eCommerce shopping, or social media shopping, you can actually put prototypes of new products and designs, and see what the interest of consumers is,” said Katia Walsh, former Chief AI Officer of Levi’s. Metaverse technologies like VR may find some early adoption outside the consumer sector. ConocoPhillips has already started deploying tools to make full use of the capability when it arrives. “Today we use VR headsets for drilling locations and to interact with the machines and people without leaving our desks,” said Pragati Mathur. “How we extend that into the industrial metaverse is something … which is exciting.”