IT STRATEGY

Sebastian Wernicke

CAIOs—that’s chief AI officer, for those unfamiliar—are being set up to fail at many organizations, suggests Sebastian Wernicke, partner at finance and economic consultancy Oxera and author of the 2026 book Data Inspired.

Some CAIOs are set up to be drivers of change, while others are stuck as mere coordinators of change, Wernicke said, adding that the coordinators often have limited budgets, small teams, and no reporting line to important business leaders like the CEO.

Yet CAIO coordinators are still expected to be the “center of gravity” for companies’ major AI shifts.

“I think this is where you really see a conflict, because you’re expecting a lot more things out of the role than what it is actually set up to deliver,” Wernicke told IT Brew.

Q&A time!—BH

      

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IT STRATEGY

Ed Zitron

Ed Zitron has made a name for himself in recent years as an outspoken critic of the tech industry’s push on AI—specifically LLMs.

The CEO of EZ Primary Research, Zitron writes the “Where’s Your Ed At” newsletter and hosts the Better Offline podcast. In part 1, he discussed AI bubbles, government subsidies, and other topics; in this part, he talks about how Silicon Valley is approaching this moment, and why he’s skeptical of the potential of the technology to continue to drive the sector.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

One thing I have heard from people in the industry is that the ROI that they are expecting from all of this technology is not going to come until like 2030.

[Zitron laughs.]

The idea is that they’ll build out all of this infrastructure, lay all this groundwork, and then in four years the profits are going to come. I’m going to guess that you don’t agree that that’s realistic.

Yeah, that’s complete hogwash. It is based on nothing. They don’t actually have any foundation to that argument, beyond fairy dust and dreams and vibes.

Zitron’s predictions for the future of AI.—EH

      

CYBERSECURITY

Shannon May, Photos: Adobe Stock, Unsplash

When you know better, you do better…or do you? For some employees, that’s not the case when it comes to using AI responsibly in the workplace.

According to a June report by AI-native browser security platform Neon Cyber, almost half (48.3%) of US knowledge employees admit to knowingly breaching an AI policy within their company. The findings are based on a May survey of 227 US knowledge workers who use AI at work.

Employees also admitted to circumventing AI policies to use tools of their choice without restraint. About half (49.3%) said they would use a tool even if it wasn’t approved yet. Another 41.9% said they would copy work data into a personal, unapproved tool “just this once.”

What’s at risk when companies fail to enforce AI policies?—BM

      

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patch notes

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top IT reads.

Stat: $400 million. That’s approximately how much Starbucks spends on software per year. (Bloomberg)

Quote: “They have to learn. I can’t send them to university. There’s no course you can take in school anywhere. They have to be able to learn on their own.”—Nikesh Arora, Palo Alto Networks CEO, on non-AI savvy employees (ITPro)

Read: You may want to put a little more thought into the quality of the next USB-C charger you buy for your phone. (the Wall Street Journal)

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