6 Takeaways from the CIO/CTO Forum on Generative AI in the Enterprise- ON Partners

Citi Ventures x ON Partners brought top executives together in NYC to discuss the impact of generative AI across the enterprise. Learn six key takeaways from leaders at Microsoft, BCG X, AWS, and Deloitte.

In an era of continual disruption, Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) must amplify their impact, partnering at the C-level to adopt and accelerate digital business models that shape the future of work and drive growth.

Never has this been more true than in the era of generative AI, a fast-emerging field that promises to transform how enterprises of all kinds do business. The Citi Ventures x ON Partners CIO / CTO Forum recently brought together leading AI experts from Citi, Microsoft, AWS, Deloitte, and BCG X  to discuss the opportunities and risks of generative AI and LLMs, along with key considerations, first likely use cases, and best practices for leveraging this capability in large enterprise environments.

The following panelists shared their perspectives on the space:

• Nimrod Barak, Managing Director, Global Head of Innovation Labs, Citi
• Chris Coulthrust, Senior Cloud Solution Architect focused on Gen AI and LLMs, Microsoft
• Arni Raghvener, Director Customer Acceleration in AI, AWS
• Frank Farrall, Principal, Cloud Analytics and AI Ecosystem, Digital Transformation, Deloitte
• Barric Reed, Principal, Data Science, BCG X

Some of the topics and questions posed to the panelists for discussion included:

• What are the key opportunity areas for generative AI in large enterprises?
• How should enterprises think about urgency and timing for deploying these solutions?
• What are best practices for selecting use case and deciding on build vs. buy, e.g., your own model or another vendor’s model?
• How will tech stacks evolve with the implementation of generative AI?
• How will organizations need to evolve to support the development, deployment and use of generative AI applications?
• What are the key risks associated with using generative AI in the enterprise, and how can those risks be mitigated?

Six Takeaways on Generative AI in the Enterprise

Here are the six key takeaways from our partner Brad Westveld on what observations were trending in the CIO/CTO Forum discussion:

01: We are entering a phase of extreme testing and tons of experimental “leaps of imagination” in this technology. There is so much yet to be described and defined in this space.

02: Lawyers are going to make a lot of money. There will be a lot of lawyers that are going to become technologists and a lot of technologists that are going to become lawyers as we figure out things around compliance, governance, security, and IP.

03: AI needs to be centralized in an organization. Rogue pieces of large enterprises working on this will lead to data breaches. A centralized strategy is necessary to reduce risk and to keep in-house in terms of security and IP.

04: Enterprises need to decide if they are going to build or buy this technology and these are significant decisions in regards to go-to-market speed and cost.

05: UX around this particular technology is not great right now. The UX has a long way to go as it interacts with humans and how they interact with it.

06: The closest business cases for immediate AI use right now in a large enterprise environment include those utilizing customer service, those in media, content, and advertising, and if you are in data sequencing or healthcare to get a drug to market much faster.

A big thanks to our co-sponsor Citi Ventures and our expert panelists for an educational forum on the future of generative AI in the enterprise.

View our recent executive search work in the generative AI space for CIO and CTO leaders.