With the dawn of the age of AI-centric enterprise software, technology selection feels more antiquated than ever. Yet the cost of a poor choice today can have exponentially greater consequences than in any previous era.
In the past, the cost of picking the wrong solution was impactful but limited. Perhaps you would deploy a few months slower or execute marginally less efficiently. Despite the most dramatic of claims, no one believes picking the wrong ERP could reduce your operating income by 10%, or that picking the right CRM will increase your sales by 30%.
Yet AI redefines the boundaries of what software can do. What today takes 1000 people could take 500—or 50—depending on the quality of the AI and how it is integrated into the process enabled by software. In this world, CIOs must not allow their organization to continue the practices of the past. Far more than with the emergence of the internet, they control and guide the ability of their organizations to use technology in a way that can directly affect the top and bottom lines.1.