Why today’s businesses, governments must court CIOs

The role of the chief information officer (CIO) in an enterprise has evolved from being a bit part player in the 1950s to becoming pivotal to business operations and continuity. This change followed the incorporation of computing and later the introduction of the internet into business operations.

Over the past decade, however, the CIO or IT leader role has been reprised as businesses become fully digitised to take advantage of the vast online market. The CIO is today expected to, among other duties, assist a business understand the digital world, highlight the opportunities for brand building and revenue generation, and potential risks as well as how to take advantage of inherent opportunities.

The CIO is expected to function as a strategic partner to C-suite executives and in that role help to develop a strategic vision for the business as well as articulate how to deploy existing and emerging technologies to achieve set objectives. In line with this new role, IT leaders closely monitor the internet, social media, and digital trends that may likely impact their business. Thus, in the digital world, the CIO not only seeks to harness the opportunities in technological innovation he must also enunciate strategies to mitigate inherent risks.

Tech innovation, role of CIOs and business sustainability

However, with the dizzying pace of technology innovation, the role of today’s CIO has further evolved to include what an IT expert called the ability of “forecasting probable futures.” In essence, CIOs, like Nostradamus, must be able to see tomorrow in technological innovation terms and fashion how their organisations can fit into it for business sustainability. Quantum computing will soon be mainstream while the adoption of generative AI and cybersecurity is rising. IT leaders must not only be conversant with the current possibilities of technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, robotics, the Internet of Things, and cybersecurity, but they must also be able to anticipate or predict other imperceptible use case scenarios and articulate strategies to harness them or mitigate against such use case.

AI and deepfake

The transformative impact of artificial intelligence is felt across industries and the socioeconomic fabric of communities globally. Its possibilities to drive innovation, disrupt industries, and solve complex problems remain enormous. AI’s use in healthcare for precision diagnosis and medication is well known. Chatbots like ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, and MetaAI and virtual assistants like Cortana, Siri and Alexa have continued to push the boundary of what is possible in customer service, education or learning, energy and traffic management. Google Translate, which is breaking language barriers and connecting people and businesses worldwide, driverless cars in the transportation industry, precision agriculture, DALL-E in creative art, and algorithm trading and fraud detection in the financial services industry are all made possible by artificial intelligence. AI is also deplored in deepfake, with face swapping and voice cloning progressively commonplace.

And herein lies the risks. Unscrupulous elements are increasingly using AI for unethical and criminal enterprise; AI is used for disinformation or misinformation, identity theft, and financial fraud. And with the growing sophistication of generative AI, it’s difficult now to detect these manipulations. For instance, AI was used in the last Slovakia elections to fraudulently sway the outcome. In 2021 in the United Arab Emirates, a company director’s voice was cloned and used to transfer $35 million from his bank. Early this year in Hong Kong, a face swap and voice clone of a company’s chief financial officer were used to trick a finance worker to transfer $25 million to the fraudsters. But CIOs must not only devise ways to identify these frauds they must devise ways to stop them even before they occur.

As quantum computing goes mainstream

Quantum computing, now accessible via cloud platforms, is another technology innovation with vast possibilities that when fully adopted can help solve complex problems, including the breaking of encryption. IT experts said quantum computing is set to gain widespread adoption in 2025 and beyond as more organisations in industries like telecom, the media and others are committing billions of dollars to this innovation.

Like AI, however, the dark side of quantum computing could wreak devastating consequences on businesses and other organisations. There is increasing fear though of criminals and other shady elements already looking ahead by stealing enormous amounts of encrypted data which they then warehouse waiting for when quantum computing will become readily available and accessible to use it to break the encryption, what is termed “Harvest Now, Decrypt Later”.

It’s these possibilities and risks that CIOs must constantly seek to balance as they adopt these technology innovations. And beyond the immediate threat, they must be able to anticipate other possible not-so-obvious threats and guide against them.

Defence against unethical use of innovations

CIOs in industries such as financial services and healthcare where sensitive data are handled are already well aware of the risks posed when quantum computing finally comes on board. Many already have plans to invest in post-quantum cryptography to safeguard their critical infrastructure. To counter deepfake and cybersecurity, CIOs are turning to AI detection tools and blockchain for content authentication.

CIOs in Nigerian organisations

CIOs in key industries in Nigeria can no longer afford to take the back seat. Like their counterparts across the world, they need to realise that they are critical to the survival of their organisations and thus must take the lead as they insist on robust investments in IT infrastructure. The financial services industry and the government are critical because they warehouse highly sensitive personal data making them more susceptible to cyberattacks. Last month, there was an attempt to hack into the GTBank website as criminal elements sought to take over the site. Also this year, there were multiple newspaper reports of an attack on Nigeria’s National Identity Management Commission’s data portal. The Commission denied this though. But, the point is, these threats are real and CIOs in the country must be more aggressive in demanding better infrastructure to guide against attacks as well as articulate preventive measures against cyberattacks. A 2023 report by Kaspersky showed that Nigeria suffered the second-highest cyberattacks in Africa and was 50th globally.

As technology innovations bring opportunities and risks, with IT leaders in organisations charged with harnessing these opportunities while mitigating the potential risks, it is becoming increasingly clear that smart and forward-thinking organisations and industries must prioritise their spending to ensure that IT departments are fully enabled and CIOs given the necessary backing by business promoters to safeguard the business and ensure sustainability, with broader implication for the economy.