Sensible Disruption: The Pragmatist’s Approach to Innovation

Pragmatism in the tech world tends to get a bad rap. Pragmatic CTOs can be seen as overly conservative and unadventurous, and in an industry built by disruptors, taking a measured approach to innovation can, at first glance, appear to be at odds with the nature of emerging tech.  

Rapid-pace developments in cloud and 5G applications, augmented and virtual reality, and AI and machine learning have changed how we live and work seemingly overnight. As a CTO, pragmatic or not, staying apprised of how these innovations affect our day-to-day business operations has never been more important. 

Walk, Don’t Run, Toward AI Innovation 

Although AI is not new, its recent democratization thanks to ChatGPT and other chatbot and virtual assistant models, along with advances in large language models, have prompted business leaders in every industry to issue a directive to their CTOs: “Figure out how we can use AI to save time and money.” And it’s not just company leadership. Everywhere you turn, someone is trying to sell you on a “cutting-edge,” AI-based tool guaranteed by its marketers to improve workflows, ease employee burden, and automate every manual process.  

But before you jump in with both feet, ask yourself: What problem am I trying to solve? Do I even have a problem that can be solved through automation? When we perform data science research, we’re trying to understand if we have a problem to solve and whether AI is the best tool to solve it. The answer might be that we need to adjust the process, maybe even without AI. Or perhaps we can approach it with a more basic “if this, then that,” automation code, which would require minimal investment. 

Related:9 Future of Work Concepts That Need More Attention

Ultimately, AI may or may not be the answer to all your problems, but there is little doubt that, “A huge amount of economic value is going to be created by AI. Company builders focused on delivering value to end users will be rewarded handsomely. We are living through what has the potential to be a generation-defining technology wave,” according to Sequoia. 

Adopting Pragmatic Practices  

So, how can you become a pragmatist in 2024 when new technology, particularly generative AI, is introduced seemingly every day? According to McKinsey, in 2023, technology equity investments dropped 30-40%, “prompting investors to favor technologies with strong revenue and margin potential.” And it has become abundantly clear that enterprises worldwide see the potential in AI; more than 60% of business owners expect AI will increase productivity, while some 40% believe it will streamline job processes. This intense interest in AI has not only changed how enterprises operate but has also placed IT operations in the spotlight. Gone are the days when IT specialists operated in a silo, only providing background support in times of need.

Related:Leading as a Future-Ready CIO in an AI-Driven World

Today’s IT departments and the CTOs who head them are under pressure to proactively search out ways to use AI, even if no clear and present need exists. This “adopt first and assess need later” mentality can be a dangerous business proposition because no matter how revolutionary the innovation is, it is bound to fail if it doesn’t drive significant workflow improvements. Especially if there is a SaaS business model with vendor lock-in for seat licenses over the next three to five years. The environment is changing so fast that you might subscribe to something that does not bring the value you expected, just to end up not having the budget to bring in the “next best thing” a year from now. Such innovations can also have the opposite of their intended effect, leading to confusion and resistance. Change doesn’t come easily for everyone and often requires users to give up comfortable habits that appear to be working just fine.    

Remember that AI can only answer questions from what it knows. If the “knowledge base” isn’t in place before you invest, chances are slim you’ll realize the positive ROI and automated processes you set out to gain. To justify a significant tech investment, it’s paramount to understand what you’re trying to fix before you put something like AI on top of it. This can be accomplished through statistical data learning and other forms of practical research. 

Related:9 Ways to Ensure Continuous Innovation

The Bottom Line 

Whether through automation or innovation, IT teams everywhere have been tasked with determining how to capitalize on technology, sometimes at the expense of processes that are working just fine. The pragmatist’s approach to innovation is not to ignore emerging technologies or even to take a wait-and-see approach but to first identify if there is a problem that needs solving and whether that problem is actionable. Don’t get me wrong, you should embrace AI and deploy it in your organization to achieve certain outcomes -- CX, Revenue, EBITDA, compliance. But take a step back from the hype, take a breather for a few weeks, and do a proper analysis. Even the most idealistic CTO can become a pragmatist by adopting an approach that includes careful evaluation of emerging technology’s practical applications and adopting only those that offer quantifiable business benefits.