The Heller Report: Wafaa Mamilli on How Roche Drives AI Outcomes in a Changing World

In this AI moment, successful leaders must make consequential decisions in the midst of uncertainty – and success depends on building the right foundations including trusted data, governance that enables quick action, skilled employees and a relentless focus on outcomes, Roche Chief Digital and Technology Officer Wafaa Mamilli tells Martha Heller in this article for CIO.com. “We understand that AI is not a technical challenge; it's a human and change management challenge,” Mamilli says. “That is why we prepared a holistic approach.”

Using AI's productivity gains to cut staff is a mistake, argues Niel Nickolaisen, IT advisor and Field CTO at Valcom Technologies. Instead, CIOs can use these gains to pursue new opportunities. “CIOs finally have the ability to point technology directly at better outcomes,” he writes. “Capturing them requires organizational capacity to spot and pursue the opportunities. Let's not squander a historic opening by cutting away the very capacity we need to seize it.”

Heller announced the promotion of Brittany Danehy to client partner and director of performance and insights, to lead the firm’s service delivery organization and partner with clients on technology executive searches. “In the age of AI, search firms need data and operational discipline to provide increased value to our clients,” CEO Martha Heller said in announcing the promotion. "Brittany’s team leadership, understanding of what makes a search great, and ability to turn those insights into outcomes, are having a tremendous impact on our client experience."

Our waterways are drowning in plastic: daily dumps of 2,000 truckloads fall into the world’s oceans, rivers and lakes. It may be a drop, but a nonprofit tech startup called The Ocean Cleanup is using “interceptors” to make a meaningful dent in the problem, the Reasons to Be Cheerful website reports. The interceptors, “monitored using drones, GPS trackers, remote sensing cameras and time-lapse surveys,” collect debris in the water using booms and conveyer belts (there is even a solar-powered boat). The group, founded in 2013, says it has so far removed more than 66,000 metric tons of plastic trash using dozens of interceptors deployed in 11 countries.