CIOs under pressure to deliver AI outcomes faster

Perez, who has been CIO of Salesforce for over two years, also sits on the board of directors for The Hershey Co. He sees leadership increasingly expressing the need for different business results, and “they are clinging to technologies to drive those business results. Of course, some of that push is coming down to the CIOs,” he observes.

From Perez’s perspective, two major problems with those expectations. First, CIOs — like so many in the IT industry — lack the experience to know what gen AI can actually do. CIOs view gen AI as a technology that is here to stay, and they are excited about innovating with it, but it will take time and extensive experimentation to deliver value from AI responsibly. Top brass, however, wants to see outcomes faster.

Perez says he’s fortunate because his team is learning quickly what works and what doesn’t as they implement AI directly into the company’s CRM offering. Many other enterprises are juggling to innovate and deliver value to the business without industrywide guardrails or proven methods for implementing responsible AI.