Are CIOs recognizing the potential of AI and machine learning? Can large organizations adopt the cultures of digital natives like Amazon and Google? And is tech screwing up the planet?
This year’s MIT CIO Symposium speakers will pose these and other provocative questions—and offer answers—at the May 23 conference. The day-long event promises high-level sessions, discussions, and keynotes, by and for IT executives. In particular, the emphasis will be on how to execute on digital visions to reap maximum benefits.
MIT IDE leaders and researchers will offer their unique perspectives on the following panels and sessions:
- George Westerman, IDE Principal Research Scientist, will kick off the conference with a discussion about Creating a Digital Culture and the challenges posed. Sure, every company wants to be faster and more innovative, but achieving that on a pre-digital foundation is no easy feat. The panel will examine ways CIOs can drive cultural shifts that spur their companies to compete with – and surpass – digital native companies. Speakers include: Michael Brown, VP, Information Technology, ExxonMobil; Tanguy Catlin, Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company; Andrei Oprisan, VP, Technology, Liberty Mutual Insurance, and Melissa Swift, Global Leader for Digital Solutions, Korn Ferry Hay Group.
- The focus is on new technologies– both their positive and negative impact– as IDE Director Erik Brynjolfsson, offers insights on The Future of Work in a World of AI, ML and Automation. As he notes, technology has always been a double-edged sword– taking jobs away, but ultimately providing many more. As AI and machine learning take hold, we now have complex questions to ask about how these brilliant technologies can enable the creation of jobs, optimize mind and machine, and also present us with the opportunity of income equality in a technology-driven economy.
- Michael Schrage, Fellow at the MIT IDE, will also drill down on the current generation of intelligent systems and importantly, how CIOs can select and implement them to improve capabilities and transform their organizations. The panel, Implementing AI, features: David Gledhill, Group CIO & Head of Group Technology & Operations , DBS; Cynthia Stoddard, Senior VP & Chief Information Officer, Adobe, and Giorgos Zacharia, Chief Technology Officer, KAYAK.
- Additionally, Westerman will interview the four CIO Leadership Award finalists about their specific tactics to transform their IT units and their very different organizations. The finalists are: Akash Khurana, VP, Chief Information & Chief Digital Officer, McDermott Inc.; Mike Macrie, Senior VP & Chief Information Officer, Land O’Lakes Inc.; Harmeen Mehta, Global Chief Information Officer & Head, Bharti Airtel Limited, and Atefeh Riazi, Assistant Secretary-General, Chief Information Technology Officer, Office of Information and Communications Technology, United Nations.
- Is Tech Screwing Up the Planet? Andrew McAfee, Principal Research Scientist/Co-Director, MIT IDE, will summarize the day’s events and also challenge attendees to think in new ways about IT in the future. McAfee remains staunchly pro-technology and sees it as a critical engine for a high-growth economy in the second machine age and an enabler of jobs and innovation. But at the same time, he raises questions that must be considered about the impact of technology on the environment. Are we paying a price for these benefits by harming the planet?
Full details on the event agenda, speakers and registration can be found at the Symposium home page here.