AI Needs People: Why CIOs Are Rethinking the Productivity Play

**Alexis Waringa** (0:03)
Welcome to Gartner ThinkCast, I'm Alexis Waringa. If you're a CIO right now, you're under a very specific kind of pressure. The board has seen the AI headlines, the CFO wants to know what all of that investment is actually returning, and everyone is expecting you to show the value. But what happens when executives realize the human side that may have been sacrificed while chasing ROI is exactly what's needed to make AI actually pay off?
Today, we're joined by someone having these very conversations with CIOs directly, Gartner's Senior Executive Partner, Denise McCurdy. Denise, welcome to ThinkCast.

**Denise McCurdy** (0:35)
Thank you for having me.

**Alexis Waringa** (0:38)
Great to have you here. So before we get into the AI of it all, for listeners who may not know what exactly is a Gartner Executive Partner and who do you spend your days with?

**Denise McCurdy** (0:48)
So great question, Alexis. First of all, a Gartner Executive Partner is someone that has a number of CIO, mostly CIO clients, though sometimes I work with CTOs and CDOs. It really depends on the remit of that particular organization. So our job as executive partners is to be part coach, part technology leader, part counselor and advisor, sometimes part pusher backer, right? Because we are a safe space for our clients, but it's ultimately a friendship, a trusted advisor, a place where our CIOs can go, and where they feel comfortable to have these really honest conversations about how do we lead our organizations?
Things are changing so quickly, so they need that outside in view.

**Alexis Waringa** (1:41)
Yeah, very valuable to have. So when a CIO comes to you about AI right now, what are they actually anxious about?

**Denise McCurdy** (1:48)
Oh, that's a very good question too. So there's a lot of anxiety and excitement with AI right now. It is truly transformative. I've been in technology for many years, and I can say that nothing has ever moved quite this quickly.
So they're anxious about how do they keep the business safe and secure? They still have a business to run while they're trying to transform with the promise of AI.
AI is coming at them from many different directions. Their CEOs tend to want more of it. The board of directors certainly do because they see the value of what AI can bring to the business. Their business stakeholders are very interested in AI. And of course, again, they have to issue laptops. They have to keep the network secure. They have to keep the operations, the day-to-day operations running. So they're really wearing two hats now more than any other time. And that is doing their day-to-day job while they're trying to infuse their organizations with the power of AI. So they're anxious because it's a lot. They're not sleeping a whole lot right now.

**Alexis Waringa** (3:03)
Yes, a lot on their minds. And it sounds like a lot of leaders are coming at AI as an efficiency play.
So they can do more with less, show the savings. But if they're meeting with you, they must value the human connection as well. So what's the importance of still maintaining the human side while implementing AI?

**Denise McCurdy** (3:20)
Yeah. So we know AI works, right? AI, and I'm using that synonymously for gen AI and agentic AI.
Obviously, it works. But it doesn't replace what people bring to the table. And the ability for people to collaborate across an organization using whatever the technology is, is actually, is the human side where our most accelerated businesses thrive. Today, it's AI, gen AI.
A few years ago, I'll say a few more than that, it was the Internet. That was transformative. It will be quantum. It will be something else, right? So there was always going to be some kind of technology out there. We're kind of used to that. But what doesn't change is people and their ability to work together to really drive the business forward. That sounds like a platitude, but it's actually, it's actually not. It is using the technology, a harnessing the technology to make a difference for the organization.

**Alexis Waringa** (4:26)
Are you finding that leaders are trying to maybe skip the human part and paying for it later?

**Denise McCurdy** (4:31)
I was seeing that. I think that we're seeing already, we're starting to see that turn a bit, where people realize that they can't just cut their way to the bottom and race their way to the bottom. Yet, there will be some jobs that are lost due to productivity gains because of AI.
We know that and the old adages, you don't see a whole lot of candle makers anymore. When it's electricity, you name the technology, there's always going to be people that are displaced. That won't be any different. But we do see already the tide changing.