This Gartner ThinkCast podcast discusses the two AI races facing CIOs: the tech vendor race (rapid innovation) and the AI outcomes race (delivering value). The speakers, Mary Mesaglio and Hung LeHong, explain that CIOs can set their own pace (steady or accelerated) depending on their organization's ambitions and industry. They emphasize the importance of focusing on deep productivity (matching job complexity with employee experience) to achieve AI benefits and managing AI costs, which can be unpredictable and significantly higher than estimated. The podcast concludes by introducing the concept of a "tech sandwich" – a new tech stack needed to manage the influx of AI tools and data from various sources within an organization.
