The secret to CIO success? Unleash your inner CEO

Embrace AI or die. That’s the modern mantra across global business, putting CIOs in the driver’s seat of the enterprise’s success — and in some cases pitting them against their CEOs.

Not all IT chiefs take the expanded calling to heart. But Chris Bedi of ServiceNow is one who does. He is not gunning for the CEO position but does not mind “being a positive source of constructive tension” when insisting the C-suite and board of directors heed his advice about digital initiatives — especially generative AI — being top business priorities for the company, he says.

ServiceNow was among the first SaaS vendors to deploy generative AI services to its customers and that has paid off nicely. That and Bedi’s business-savvy approach to his digital agenda helped earn Bedi the coveted MIT Sloan CIO Leadership Award for 2024 in May.

“The judges were looking for someone who personified more the role CIOs should be playing, and that is really to own and drive the transformation of the whole company in literally everything. Every business strategy and every business process is powered by tech,” Bedi says. “Therefore, CIOs, I think, need to step up, take on that responsibility of driving the whole organization forward.”

According to Bedi, who was elevated to chief customer officer from chief digital information officer in June and promoted to interim chief product officer this week, that means taking on some responsibilities that are “a bit blurry” in terms of the job description, leading initiatives that have traditionally been under the purview of HR or the CFO — or the CEO, in some cases.

“An example of that would be leading the talent transformation of the whole company to get ready for AI. Or it could be taking on the responsibility of the measurement of value and translating that into metrics that show up on the P&L,” says Bedi, who remains the overall leader of ServiceNow’s technology org.

But does this mean the technology chief should become the chief executive of the modern enterprise?

George Westerman, senior Lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management and a judge for the CIO leadership award, acknowledges the business acumen of an enterprise tech leader has become paramount. But he says he never “implied at all” that the CIO is becoming the new CEO.

“Chris distinguished himself not only as a great leader of the technology function, but also as a business leader. He knows the company and its customers, and he has positioned himself to drive real change for the benefit of both,” says Westerman, who is also the founder of the Global Opportunity Forum.

“Certainly, he has a good approach to AI, but many CIOs do. Certainly, he knows the possibilities of digital, but many do,” Westerman says. “What is different is that Chris doesn’t talk or act like a technical person. He really knows the business and he acts like a true business leader in identifying opportunities and making transformation happen.”

Expanding the CIO remit

Bedi firmly believes that CIOs “need to be more” in the future. Many are currently exceeding expectations in this expanding role, but others need to step up and the entire enterprise organization must work to define the qualifications of the future CIO.

“In some cases, CIOs haven’t been given the keys to the car. In some cases, they have not asked for it. But what I would say that in all cases, I think CIOs need to be on their front foot about harnessing all the amazing technologies that we have today, whether it’s automation, AI, building great experiences for customers and employees,” Bedi says. “It’s building some skills that maybe CIOs haven’t focused on as much, including communicating to influence and motivate, thinking like a general manager and really looking at your technology like a P&L and making sure that it’s delivering an outsized return for every dollar that is poured into the bucket.”

Bedi says ServiceNow began its journey in 2003 and today it remains one platform for customers — all the automation technologies you would want, whether workflow automation, RPA, virtual agents. “It has an AI layer to it with machine learning, supervised and unsupervised, and generative AI and an experience layer to build consumer like experiences on a mobile portal,” Bedi notes.

Some ServiceNow customers are going live on ServiceNow’s generative AI solutions within four to six weeks. “That’s unheard of in the enterprise software space,” he adds.

ServiceNow has built its own domain specific language models, which Bedi believes is an important part of the value proposition. “We don’t rely on a third party, which makes the security equation much more palatable to the customers,” he says, pointing to British Telecom’s massive productivity gains using ServiceNow’s AI in four weeks. “These models are pre-built, and they get trained on the customers’ data.”

ServiceNow itself has been live on its generative AI solution for about six months and is already generating roughly $10 million in productivity gains, with a vast reduction in human work required for customer call centers and a 10% improvement in developer productivity, Bedi says. And the value grows every week, he says. “The models are learning at a fast pace, and the more they get used, the better they become,” the CDIO says.

Agents of change

It is now understood to a far greater degree than in the past that the CIO must align technologies with business goals to achieve maximum outcomes, but that does not mean the CIO has to do it all — or take a CEO-like role. Every C-suite role is evolving thanks to dramatic technological change. Moreover, the C-suite continues to expand, with IT leaders increasingly stepping in to take on these new leadership roles.

Still, there is no doubt the CIO role has evolved in prominence, prestige, and power to be an agent of change.

“Saying the CIO will replace the CEO is a stretch, but CIOs being viable candidates as successors for the top spot is real, as business and technology strategy converge,” notes Ashley Skyrme, senior managing director at Accenture, who views the change more as one that will transform the qualities looked for when hiring the next generation of CEOs.

“What is the new CEO profile in an era of genAI and data-led business models? How does this change CEO succession planning and who you select as your CIO?” she asks.

The answers to those questions will determine “what CEOs need to learn and what CIOs need to learn” to succeed in the future, Skyrme says.

As Bedi sees it, that future will favor the bold CIO.