Machine-Driven Decisions Will Impact the IT Team
With most enterprises now using machine learning in some way, CIOs and their tech teams are looking ahead to the next big step in this emerging technology: the automation of decisions that affect business operations and the achievement of strategic goals, according to a recent survey from ServiceNow. The resulting report, “The New Agenda for Transformative Leadership: Reimagine Business for Machine Learning,” reveals that the majority of survey respondents believe that decision automation will contribute to their company’s top-line growth, while also increasing its ability to compete. Cyber-security, customer management and finance are among the specific areas of focus for machine-driven decision making. To ensure success, however, CIOs will need to gain buy-in from top leadership to overcome barriers in the form of budget limitations, outdated processes and a lack of needed talent on staff. “The benefits of machine learning may be clear to CIOs, but other C-level executives and corporate boards often need to be educated on its value,” according to the report. “CIOs must set expectations, develop success metrics prior to implementation, and build a sound business case in order to acquire and maintain the requisite funding. For example, CIOs monitor the IT percentage of revenue, but the promise of an automated enterprise will allow them to focus on margin contribution as a measure of success. … Similarly, the ‘run vs. grow’ metric used to track productivity should evolve to a percentage of work eliminated or fully automated. CIOs should also consider building automated benchmarks against peers in their industry.” An estimated 500 global CIOs took part in the research, which was conducted by Oxford Economics.