AI? It’s not just a tool, it’s a capability. Like a superhero discovering his or her powers for the first time, you can’t expect an employee or organization to master a newfound ability without rethinking everything and making a mess along the way.
in the annual Fortune Brainstorm Technology At a dinner during CES in Las Vegas, a panel of senior technology executives discussed the nuances of AI-driven change management, specifically the need for humans to stay “in the loop” as agent AI sweeps the corporate world.
“(With) the adoption of any technology, it’s easy to … (take) what we’ve been doing and see how we can do it a little differently, a little better,” said Deloitte chief technology officer Bill Briggs. “We discovered that artificial intelligence is a trap.”
Of course, impact and value are already being felt in more “limited” places within the organization, Briggs added. But he said, “We cannot define this approach by the way we have always viewed the world.” “We have to really fundamentally challenge the results we’re seeking and work backwards from there.”
You also have to be realistic and design systems to cope with failure,” barageCTO of Solventum Health Information Systems, the healthcare company that takes its name from 3M 2024. Dot your yeses; cross your Ts.
“How do you make sure you have a kill switch? How do you make sure you have audit capabilities?” he asked. “How do you do this in an automated way while infusing AI through the inference and orchestration layers?”
And you certainly don’t want to create a bigger mess than you have to clean up. Several executives of the group are represented by of wealth Ellie GarfunkelIt was agreed that there is a fine line between embracing a revolutionary vision of future change and critically evaluating the effectiveness of current operations.
“We’ve witnessed (technology) creep in the past,” said Laurie PalmieriSenior Vice President of Solutions Engineering salespersonciting service-oriented architecture and microservices, two software development models that promise better ways to build. “If you let it get out of control, you’re actually just making a bigger mess and then you have to go back and clean it up.”
disney chief information and data officer Susan Doniz agree.
“The AI-first mentality is about simplicity first,” she said. “If you just automate something that already exists, you might just industrialize what you want to do.”
“‘Industrialization of waste’ or ‘weaponization of inefficiency,'” Briggs interjected with a laugh. “Both of those things are terrible.”
So what’s the solution?
First, build a bold leadership team. “Strong leadership from the top means ‘let’s go,'” says Salesforce’s Palmieri.
Then sort the data. “Data is the fuel and the foundation,” Disney’s Doniz said. “If you don’t have orchestrated, integrated, secure data, you’re not going to get anything that will truly improve your processes.”
Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good, says Deloitte’s Briggs. “My favorite quote is Lorne michaels from saturday night live: “We’re not going to move on because we’re ready;” We’re going to move on because it’s already 11:30. “So how do we apply a sense of urgency?”
For more information about the 2026 Fortune Brainstorm Tech Dinner in Las Vegas, read “From factory floors to offices: Physical AI ‘will be huge’“Cheryl Estrada.
This story was originally published on wealth network