Matt Egan
Global Content and Editorial Director

How to make agentic AI work for your organization

Your weekly round-up of the questions asked by readers of CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, and Network World sees Smart Answers explain how to make agentic AI work for any organization; identify which IT jobs AI will replace; and interrogate why it is so expensive to run AI on public cloud.

Agentic AI use cases for business
Credit: Rob Schultz / Shutterstock

This secret for agents

Despite the hype, IT leaders tell us that there’s an approaching reset of agentic AI expectations. We recently reported that said reset may be underway, and now CIOs can get down to serious AI integration and production-grade implementations. We said that CIOs are looking to use agentic AI to execute tasks and orchestrate workflows going deep into enterprise processes, such as CRM, supply chain, enterprise resource planning, HR, finance, and more. 

This prompted readers of CIO.com to ask Smart Answers a more general question: how can they use agentic AI to drive positive outcomes for their organizations? According to our generative AI chatbot – fueled by only our trusted human journalism – the answer is to fundamentally change the way an organization operates.  

Organizations should automate processes and decision making. Empower systems to act independently, execute tasks, and make decisions with minimal human intervention. Augment human capabilities across functions including sales, customer service, HR, and IT.  

Simple, really. 

Find out: How can agentic AI drive strategic business outcomes for my organization? 

Will AI take your job?

As more companies cite AI as a main driver for layoffs, IT pros are left to wonder whether career anxieties are being realized, or the industry is simply adjusting to another new paradigm. This week we reported that AI is beginning to reshape the IT job landscape as layoffs rise

Unsurprisingly our readers had one question: will it affect me? Smart Answers has insights. 

Midlevel IT support, QA testing, and some software engineering jobs are seeing increased automation which means reduction in some roles. But there is good news: although companies are reducing legacy roles, they are also creating new positions focused on AI augmentation. 

Strap in. 

Find out: Which IT roles are most vulnerable to AI replacement?  

Cost of cloud

As these AI strategies and tactics mature, CIOs are rethinking their commitment to public cloud. This week we reported that concerns about cost and data privacy mean IT leaders increasingly see private cloud or on-prem as the better alternative for AI, once workloads stabilize and experimentation is done

This caused our CIO readers to ask why it is expensive to run AI on public cloud? Smart Answers points out that electricity costs, crucial for AI infrastructure, account for 40-60% of total operational expenses and may be somewhat to blame. It also points out that 40% of cloud budgets are wasted due to preventable mistakes and inefficient processes. 

Find out: How is AI impacting cloud infrastructure spending?  

About Smart Answers 

Smart Answers is an AI-based chatbot tool designed to help you discover content, answer questions, and go deep on the topics that matter to you. Each week we send you the three most popular questions asked by our readers, and the answers Smart Answers provides. 

Developed in partnership with Miso.ai, Smart Answers draws only on editorial content from our network of trusted media brands—CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, and Network World—and was trained on questions that a savvy enterprise IT audience would ask. The result is a fast, efficient way for you to get more value from our content. 

Matt Egan
Global Content and Editorial Director

Matt Egan is Global Content and Editorial Director of Foundry's enterprise sites. He has worked for the world's leading technology brands - CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld and Network World - since 2003. A passionate technology fan who writes on subjects as diverse as AI, internet security, and IT leadership, in his spare time Matt enjoys playing soccer (badly) and singing in a band (also badly).

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