10 AI questions CIOs need to answer in the boardroom – CIO Dive

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Technology leaders need to sharpen their presenting skills to convey the value of automation.
ORLANDO, Fla. — Communication and empathy have become more important to the CIO role as enterprises focus on generative AI. Board members now expect CIOs to get them up to speed and provide answers to questions that they may not know they have. 
“Most of them are not digital natives,” Tina Nunno, distinguished VP analyst at Gartner, said during the firm’s IT Symposium/Xpo Monday. “The more you can connect the dots, the more effective you will find your communications.”
Board interest in AI has grown in the past two years, but there are signs that boardroom enthusiasm for the technology has wavered this year. Technology leaders operated in a loud AI ecosystem that promised quick gains and benefits, but CIOs have grappled with adoption roadblocks and unclear ROI.  
Board members are ultimately working toward their main goal: protecting shareholder interests. Businesses plan to pour even more resources into AI in the year ahead, and boards want to understand the risks and where the business stands rather than get caught off guard down the line. 
It’s up to CIOs to capture a clear picture of AI plans, roadblocks and risks. 
“There’s an acronym I’ve been using for a while to talk about how to have great board conversations and great board presentations: brief, open, accurate, relevant and diplomatic,” Nunno said. 
There are 10 questions CIOs should answer related to AI initiatives in board presentations and documents:
As technology leaders polish their presenting skills, an emphasis on brevity is required, Nunno said. Board members only want to read an average of 40 pages prior to a meeting, according to Gartner surveys. After asking technology executives in the audience at Gartner’s IT Symposium/Xpo about the length of the documents they hand to the board, quite a few raised their hands for more than 100 pages, with some saying even more than 200 pages. 
“Being brief is a very important priority, and to the degree that you figure out exactly what it is they need to know or want to know, that’s time well invested,” said Nunno. “Having the right questions and right answers is tremendously helpful to boards.”
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The infrastructure services company is creating a migration playbook to guide others into the cloud, Kyndryl SVP and Global Practice Leader Michael Bradshaw said.
Businesses need better security, quality and flexibility from their data foundations to meet generative AI goals, a Hitachi Vantara report found.
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