Harnessing the energy of AI
IT leaders find themselves in a tough spot. Senior stakeholders want to cut costs and reduce risks. But employees are sprinting towards new technologies like AI, leaving compliance departments in the dust.
“The curiosity is huge,” said Miro’s Bram Jonker in a recent webinar on tool consolidation with Forrester VP and principal analyst Bobby Cameron.
“They want to make use of the latest tools that are out there that everyone is talking about,” he continued. “So what happens is that people just put down their own credit cards. They go, ‘You know what? I will pay 15 bucks a month if I can get access to this amazing technology, which is also going to help me learn what is out there and to start mastering it.’”
Obviously that creates risks around shadow IT and security, but that doesn’t mean IT leaders should just stamp out the behavior. Because this kind of enthusiasm for change almost never happens.
Generally speaking, employees hate new technology. That’s a bold statement but consider the data. A few years ago, Gartner found that 60% of workers were occasionally or frequently frustrated by new software, while 56% said they wished management would just bring back their old tools.
Contrast that with their attitude to AI. According to Miro’s own research, 76% of global workers believe it will benefit their role, and 61% said it makes them feel excited or energized. The question for IT leaders is how they can match that urgency while delivering on the mandate to streamline their tech stack.
Why consolidation starts with collaboration
Forrester’s Bobby Cameron had no doubt about what the strategy should look like. “The key message is not to limit tools, but to make sure the tech organization keeps up with whatever employees are doing,” he said. The simplest (but most often overlooked) way to do that is through collaboration.
Bobby shared an example of how that looks in practice. He recalled “a tier two automotive supplier in the States where the CIO pulled together the hackers from across his company in order to better manage new tool adoption. These folks – not just in IT but from all over – would be the ones breaking in new tools on their own. They knew what was going on so the CIO encouraged a continuous discussion among them around what was hot. Then the CIO would provide funding for the new tool that was most favored among the hackers and make it available for everyone to use.”
Maybe some people look at that example and see IT leadership that isn’t really leading – just following the whims and demands of employees. But this is servant leadership in action. It’s IT truly collaborating with the business and being responsive to its needs.
“If you’ve got people who have chosen tools and are trying to make it happen, just shutting them down and saying, ‘No, don’t do that!’ isn’t going to work,” Bobby continued. “Find out what’s new and different that is being effectively used, and maybe that’s a better tool. So pull those people in and make them part of the ongoing analysis.”
Miro’s Bram Jonker was quick to back him up. “It’s about stepping out of isolation, gaining trust from your employees, and engaging with them to get their input on what they need. Then they’ll come to you. They’ll come to you and say, ‘Hey, we’ve tried this tool. Let’s put it into your process.’”
Does that mean you just end up with exactly the kind of tool sprawl you set out to reduce? Not at all. It means you can make decisions about what to keep and what to cut based on an understanding of the value the tool really provides, not just the licensing cost you see on a spreadsheet.
