When you work in technology, understanding the objectives and priorities of technology executives and the organization can help you better align your efforts and present yourself as someone who can effectively contribute during job interviews.
In fact, according to a recent report, more than half of employees say that increased transparency around company goals would help them manage their workload and be more productive. Yet only 23 percent feel educated about their company’s main objectives.
To help you connect your daily work to the bigger picture, we asked three tech execs to share the top priorities on their agenda for 2025.
Deliver Business Value from Technology Investments
Above all, technology executives need to ensure that recent investments in artificial intelligence (AI), Big Data, analytics and machine learning provide real value by supporting and enhancing the overall business strategy. They need to justify their investments and prove that every new system or tool enhances and supports what company leaders want to achieve.
According to a recent survey from Gartner, only 48 percent of digital initiatives currently meet or exceed their business outcome targets.
“We don’t have endless pots of money to invest, so the majority of our expenditures need to deliver tangible benefits incrementally to justify future spending,” explained Jay Ferro, EVP, chief information, technology & product officer at Clario, a clinical trial data management company.
Or as PwC puts it: “Your CEO and board want to see upticks in productivity and cost savings now.”
For example, Ferro has vowed to ensure that every chatbot or machine learning (ML) algorithm his team deploys—or every app they modernize through AI—removes friction and improves the experience for customers and patients in clinical trials.
“My CFO and I are in alignment, every investment we make needs to improve speed and reliability and differentiate our offering,” Ferro said. Following through on that commitment will not only impact revenue, efficiency and data quality, but help us meet our mission of transforming the lives of patients and their families.
Drive Company-Wide Productivity and Efficiency through AI
Richard Wiedenbeck, chief AI3 officer for Ameritas, said that his top priority is getting significant levels of productivity and efficiency from artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled work into the company.
To make sound decisions about where and how to engage AI, he plans to build working prototypes. For example, he wants to know if AI can function as a professional and execute end-to-end work. Can a bot learn and take on increasingly complex responsibilities? How would a manager oversee and manage that?
“To see how far AI can go in ‘doing the work’ of humans, we will be prototyping and learning from ourselves,” he noted.
Help Employees Understand their Value
To provide services and products that deliver business value, team members must first understand their impact and clearly see how their work and actions directly contribute to the company's top- and bottom-line success.
This is why Tim Crawford, CIO strategic advisor for AVOA, is committed to bridging the chasm between business and IT in 2025.
“As leaders, we can’t overlook the human component in achieving our objectives,” Crawford said. When team members are able to connect the dots between daily tasks like developing an app and the value they are able to create for customers and the business side of the organization, it significantly boosts their engagement, motivation and willingness to go the extra mile to solve a problem when necessary.
Operate with Discipline
The days of chasing bright shiny objects are over. Consistent execution of the fundamentals is crucial, as it provides a solid foundation for tackling more complex issues and adopting new technologies.
Whether its increasing uptime or minimizing deployment issues through DevOps, doing the basics well pays the price of admission for implementing cutting edge technologies, Ferro said. That’s why ensuring that all technical operations are carried out with a high level of rigor and accountability, minimizing errors and maximizing efficiency, is a top priority for tech execs like Ferro.
Help Employees Grow and Evolve in the Age of AI
Although harnessing the power of investments in technology and AI is a top priority, technology execs are equally committed to upskilling and helping technology workers navigate their careers in the age of AI, despite the unknowns.
For example, even though he has not found a playbook for workforce readiness, Wiedenbeck says that he intends to build a plan for how we prepare and evolve our workforce for a future of work that will be highly AI-centric. He’s also looking for input or edits since he admits that he doesn’t have all of the answers.
Not having an established set of guidelines, procedures, or steps to follow isn’t holding Crawford back either: “I am committed to building and articulating a path for growth that includes upskilling and reskilling and may even include job shadowing experience as a part of a mentorship program.”
He added: “Even as artificial intelligence becomes more prevalent, as leaders, we can’t forget the importance of treating people like people.”
