Across Fortune 500 businesses we serve globally, and based on the work we did with MIT Sloan School, we see seven digital transformation trends for 2022.
Data has moved from being a byproduct of automation to a first-class citizen in leading enterprises, says Sanjay Srivastava, chief digital officer, Genpact. “AI allows CIOs to make the most of the data at their disposal, generating predictive insights for more informed decision-making. AI adoption is sharply increasing across the board and enterprises are embracing the journey to responsible AI,” he tells Sudhir Chowdhary in a recent interview. Excerpts:
How has digital transformation evolved in the last one year?
The last year has been transformational for mainstream corporations globally. These businesses have gone through three stages—first, how they react to and build resilience through the pandemic; then their focus on recovery and growth out of it; and now, their focus on market expansion and long-term sustainability. Growing into new value streams and markets requires redesigned value propositions, that in turn needs new business capabilities, which in turn requires a new technology backplane that is more agile, innovative, and flexible. And as digital has become the driving force behind the transformation, CIOs have increasingly become the pilots and co-pilots of their transformation.
What are the top trends that you predict in this space in the year 2022?
Across Fortune 500 businesses we serve globally, and based on the work we did with MIT Sloan School, we see seven digital transformation trends for 2022:
1. The role of CIO is evolving from flight engineers to pilots and the skill- sets now require a balance of outside-in and inside-out critical thinking;
2. The push for outcomes will drive great focus on the intersection of technology and business;
3. AI adoption is sharply increasing across the board and enterprises are embracing the journey to responsible AI;
4. Data will become the largest driver of transformative value;
5. Journey to the cloud will accelerate due to the access to innovation it offers;
6. The future of work is here;
7. Sustainability efforts will get a large lift when looked at through the lens of data and change management.
Will the importance of data increase even further this year?
Being a data-led organisation is imperative to success. CIOs agree on the need to make data-driven decisions to realise business value. Data has moved from being a byproduct of automation to a first-class citizen in leading enterprises. More than half (55%) of CIOs in our study report that they will be accelerating their investments in AI next year. AI allows CIOs to make the most of the data at their disposal, generating predictive insights for more informed decision-making. Great AI results come from a good data strategy, but good data strategy requires a good business strategy.
There are three key steps to applying data and technology to big problems:
— Building a foundation of data;
— Systematically turning that data into insights and recommendations;
— Leveraging user experience to drive change management.
Will more companies go for cloud adoption as part of business strategy?
Across the breadth of work we do, we’re finding CIOs are prioritising cloud investments—not only because of cost savings, but for the opportunity to drive more innovation into their technology backplanes. A cloud-smart approach evolves an enterprise strategically. CIOs are looking for an asset-light, functionality-rich technology backplane, and cloud is allowing them to accelerate innovation in three primary areas:
Data: As enterprises enter a new normal, reducing the time it takes to turn data into insight to make data-driven decisions at speed will become increasingly important.
Automation: Cloud allows automation to be accelerated through the use of composable building blocks that can be assembled to orchestrate an end-to-end business process.
AI: Capacity in the cloud allows enterprises to unleash the compute power they need to drive results from AI.