The Heller Report: Special AI Adoption Issue

When Mark Brooks joined Reinsurance Group of America as its new CIO in 2023, the company had a data-driven growth vision. As Brooks tells Martha Heller in this interview for CIO.com, he has pursued that vision by communicating with his board about the value of generative AI and creating an IT organization that emphasizes business engagement, enterprise data, architecture, and devoted centers of technical experts.

At United Airlines, a successful launch of generative AI applications to enhance customer service relied on engineering and risk management capabilities, as CIO Jason Birnbaum tells Martha Heller. In this conversation at CIO.com, Birnbaum explains how cross-functional risk management ensures the use of gen AI applications are sound from legal, security and technological vantage points. 

The value of a dataset emerges when it constructively connects with other datasets, argues Accenture’s Penelope Prett. “Value comes from the complex products that represent the interactions of multiple types of data,” says Prett, the global consultancy’s former chief information, data and analytics officer who now serves as the firm’s global lead for its Workday Business Group. In this conversation with Martha Heller for CIO.com, Prett explains how those dataset combinations yield predictive insights.

In this, the first in a two-part series about leadership and governance for companies seeking value with AI, Dan Roberts, host of the “Tech Whisperers” podcast, shares insights about moving from the “messy middle” of stalled initiatives and skeptical stakeholders. Roberts convenes three CIOs-turned-board members – Julie Cullivan, Diana McKenzie, and Wayne Shurts – to share their lessons on driving value while managing risks and building profitable enterprises.