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😳 Sorry for being dark the last two weekends. Sometimes being a new father trumps my reading schedule! Hope you found some interesting stuff to read in our absence.

In Case You Missed It: These Past Weeks from The DX Report

Your Weekend Reading List

AI isn’t great at decoding human emotions. So why are regulators targeting the tech?

From MIT Technology Review: AI, emotion recognition, and Darwin

Snap Analysis: An interesting look at an emerging application of AI that will likely come into play in the enterprise shortly.

To Navigate the Age of AI, the World Needs a New Turing Test

From Wired: The father of modern computing would have opened his arms to ChatGPT. You should too.

Snap Analysis: This is a long and philosophical look at the impact of AI and how we should be looking at it differently.

Do you think more clearly when reading or when listening?

From Psyche: How we take in information has a remarkably significant effect on how intuitive or analytical we are in thinking about it.

Snap Analysis: In today’s environment, being an effective enterprise IT leader requires deep analytical thinking about what is impacting your organization. You may want to focus on reading to do so.

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In Case You Missed It: This Week from The DX Report

The 7 Decisive Investment Signals When Evaluating an Enterprise Tech Company

When evaluating a new tech company as a potential partner, there are seven essential signals you should watch to determine if they’re a safe bet.

Your Weekend Reading List

💡 This week, there wasn’t any content that I felt was really worthy of sharing, so instead, I’m sharing a short list of some of my best (in my humble opinion), most impactful, and still relevant analysis from the past. This decision was inspired, in part, by my recent learning that an university course on AI is using one of my articles as part of its curriculum! Anyway, hope you find something new and valuable here.

When it comes to big data, analytics and AI, the value does not come from collecting the data, or even from deriving some insight from it — value comes from just one thing: action.

We are entering a new and exciting era for IT professionals. Leadership will be in great demand and short supply. But I believe there is a great IT leader in each of us. There is an art to great leadership, but it is an art you can learn.

As we continue to instrument every facet of modern work, it's beginning to enable data-driven management. The flip side of this data-driven augmentation, however, is that it may make the act of management the prime target for automation

Underpinning this transition will be the transformation of work, the key enabler of which will not be technology, but imagination.

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In Case You Missed It: This Week from The DX Report

The Future of Generative AI in the Enterprise

The world is abuzz about large language models and the promise of AI. But how will all of this play out within the enterprise? We talked to the head of AI research at one tech company to find out.

Your Weekend Reading List

The big product and platform shift: Five actions to get the transformation right

From McKinsey: To succeed, incumbent organizations need to take five actions as they scale their product and platform model transformations.

Snap Analysis: This guide is very closely aligned to the concept I presented recently on Digital Transformation Platforms. It provides a great big picture view of how it all fits together.

Where’s AI headed in the workplace? VCs weigh in

From TechBrew: Smaller, specialized models could help unlock new use cases, investors say.

Snap Analysis: As we covered in this week’s DX Report on the future of generative AI in the enterprise and interview with Zoho’s head of AI research, the future of generative AI is going to be one in which it is mixed with various forms of AI, other LLMs, and outside data.

White House Says Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft Agree to AI Safeguards

From The Wall Street Journal: Big tech companies adopt voluntary guidelines, such as watermarking artificial content.

Snap Analysis: Not specific to the enterprise, but noteworthy for two reasons. First, it points to the high levels of attention being paid to AI and how organizations are applying it, so beware. Second, because it’s a big nothing burger. This announcement is just fluff that does little (if anything) to move the ball forward.

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In Case You Missed It: This Week from The DX Report

🌠 This week we only had one piece of analysis, but it was a doozy! In it, I explain the rationale for why I believe the Digital Transformation Platform is the key for an enterprise IT leader’s success.

How You Can Accelerate Innovation By Building a Digital Transformation Platform

You need to create agility and a competitive capability from a complex and intertwined collection of hardened functional and LOB apps. To do that, you need to build a Digital Transformation Platform.

Your Weekend Reading List

The rewired enterprise: How five companies built to outcompete

From McKinsey: Lessons from five rewired enterprises highlight how to turn initial digital gains into enterprise-wide ones.

Snap Analysis: This article is part of a recent trend addressing the more fundamental work necessary to authentically transform an organization for the future. In this case, to “rewire” it, but it’s very much aligned to my work on Digital Transformation Platforms.

The RTO debate is over according to new research

From FastCompany: A flurry of new research shows that blanket return-to-office mandates, especially for full-time in-office work, harm productivity by decreasing employee engagement.

Snap Analysis: Not sure I buy that this is a settled matter, but it is some interesting data. It also states that the answer is hybrid as full remote work leads to a drop in productivity. In either case, I think it points to a clear signal that we won’t be returning to the full-time in-the-office past.

The risks of AI are real but manageable

From GatesNotes (the blog of Bill Gates): The world has learned a lot about handling problems caused by breakthrough innovations.

Snap Analysis: Not specific to enterprise IT, but important nonetheless. In this analysis, Bill Gates breaks down many of the short-term risks of AI being thrown around and offers his take. The summary: it’s all manageable. You’ll almost certainly hear some of these concerns from your executive team, so it’s worth having Mr. Gates’ perspective in your back pocket.

The AI Boom Is Here. The Cloud May Not Be Ready.

From The Wall Street Journal: Traditional cloud infrastructure wasn’t designed to support large-scale artificial intelligence. Hyperscalers are quickly working to rebuild it.

Snap Analysis: With so much of IT’s infrastructure in or moving to the cloud, the rise of AI-centric workloads could create risk or challenges. At lot will depend on whether or not you move faster than the cloud providers, which may be more likely than you think. Worth keeping an eye on.

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In Case You Missed It: This Week from The DX Report

Efficiency, Optimization, AND Transformation? Yes!

How do you balance between efficiency and optimization on one side, and transformation and innovation on the other? You don’t. Do both. Charlie joins the StatusGo podcast to explain.

The Privacy and Platform Wars Taking Place in the Enterprise — and Why a New Browser May Signal a Market Shift

Zoho's recent release of its new browser, called Ulaa, hints at a broader war taking place within the enterprise around privacy and platforms. Plus a video interview with Zoho’s Tejas Gadhia.

Your Weekend Reading List

You may be entitled to financial compensation… for your data

From Politico: Two experts propose in POLITICO Magazine an “AI dividend,” their deceptively simple policy scheme for how the average American could cash out for what they contribute to systems like ChatGPT.

Snap Analysis: Super fascinating editorial proposing a dividend paid to all Americans for our data contribution to LLMs. Not specific to enterprise IT, but broadly applicable as the dust settles around the use of generative AI.

Companies Look to Pay Tech Vendors Based on Business Outcomes, Not Usage

From The Wall Street Journal: Tighter tech budgets and pushback against cloud bills are leading CIOs to question the traditional pay-what-you-use model.

Snap Analysis: This is a wrong-headed, reactionary approach. Any meaningful transformation or business outcome will involve more moving parts than a single piece of tech. Don’t ask for this and don’t fall for it.

Companies Are Drowning in Too Much AI

From The Wall Street Journal: IT sellers are rolling out an avalanche of new generative AI features, leaving CIOs overwhelmed and workers confused.

Snap Analysis: Tech vendors have to have a generative AI something at this point. But it’s already causing issues for enterprise IT leaders. This article doesn’t really have any answers, but it’s always nice to commiserate, right?

What is a “corpus”? And why is everyone in AI suddenly talking about it? Here’s what you need to know

From FastCompany: What is a “corpus”? And why is everyone in AI suddenly talking about it? Here’s what you need to know.

Snap Analysis: This one is pretty much WYSIWYG. A useful primer with a little analysis on how things may play out.

Business’s ‘It’s not my problem’ IT problem

From McKinsey: For IT to function better, the business side of the company has to get more involved.

Snap Analysis: I wanted to love this article, but only ended up liking it. Still worth sharing and reading, but it covers many of the same, long-standing truth that business must understand IT and tech better. Check. But it’s not enough because (a) IT needs to step up and dive way deep into the business. That’s happening more, but still not enough. And (b) what is really needed is better guidance on how to eliminate the gap and really pull everyone together rather than “align” them. I might have to write this myself.

This is the Weekend Reader. Each Saturday, we’ll highlight some of the best content from this week (or insights I just discovered this week!). Consider it the enterprise IT leader’s weekend reading list!

If you’d prefer to not receive this, you can go to your profile and “manage subscriptions” and unselect The Weekend Reader.

In Case You Missed It: This Week from The DX Report

What Adobe’s Experience Led Growth Message Means for IT Leaders

Last week in New York, Adobe reiterated its Experience Led Growth message. IT leaders may be tempted to dismiss it as marketing-focused. That would be a mistake. Here’s what it means to you.

Is Digital Transformation Roaring Back? A Look Back to Look Forward

Digital transformation had reached a point of it losing its real meaning. But this post from the archive explains its real purpose — and hints to a new evolution of this über buzzword.

Your Weekend Reading List

The World’s Digital Memory Is at Risk

From The New York Times: From streaming platforms removing digital-only shows from their libraries to governments defunding their national library systems to the effects of tech centralization, data is disappearing at alarming rates.

Tap into the Wisdom of Your ‘Inner Crowd’

From Behavioral Scientist: A lot of research has shown that the aggregate of individual judgements can be quite accurate, in what has been termed the “wisdom of crowds.” What makes a crowd so wise? Its wisdom relies on a relatively simple principle: when people’s guesses are sufficiently diverse and independent, averaging judgments increases accuracy by canceling out errors across individuals. Interestingly, research suggests that the same principles underlying wise crowds also apply when multiple estimates from a single person are averaged—a phenomenon known as the “wisdom of the inner crowd.” As it turns out, the average guess of the same person is often more accurate than each individual guess on its own.

Looking to Leave a Mark? Memorable Leaders Don't Just Spout Statistics, They Tell Stories

From Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge: That killer fever chart in your slide deck might not be as impressive as you think. In fact, your audience might soon forget that critical data point. If you want them to remember your message, research by Thomas Graeber suggests that nothing sticks to the mind like a good story.

Want to Leave a Lasting Impression on Customers? Don't Forget the (Proverbial) Fireworks

From Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge: Some of the most successful customer experiences end with a bang. Julian De Freitas provides three tips to help businesses invest in the kind of memorable moments that will keep customers coming back.

AI Promised to Make Jobs Easier. Workers Weren’t So Sure.

From The Wall Street Journal: Front-line workers don’t always vibe with new AI tools that promise efficiency but can really mean disruption.

This is the Weekend Reader. Each Saturday, we’ll highlight some of the best content from this week (or insights I just discovered this week!). Consider it the enterprise IT leader’s weekend reading list!

If you’d prefer to not receive this, you can go to your profile and “manage subscriptions” and unselect The Weekend Reader.

In Case You Missed It: This Week from The DX Report

The Evolution of AI in IT Ops: Exploring the Promise of AIOps

A private executive event happening this Thursday has me thinking about the real state of AI in ITOps and whether AIOps is the real deal. Or not.

The Power — and Foibles — of Process

My three-month-old daughter reminds me of both the power of a process — and why nothing is static. It's a lesson too many IT leaders have forgotten.

Your Weekend Reading List

Why AI Will Save The World

From Marc Andreessen: The era of Artificial Intelligence is here, and boy are people freaking out. Fortunately, I am here to bring the good news: AI will not destroy the world, and in fact may save it.

AI Is Helping Companies Redefine, Not Just Improve, Performance

From MIT Sloan Management Review: Research on organizations’ use of artificial intelligence reveals how they can apply the technology to redefine strategic measurement and KPIs.

Breaking technical debt’s vicious cycle to modernize your business

From McKinsey: Develop data-driven insights to build a strategy for paying down the tech debt that stands in the way of business modernization.

Give More Feedback—Others Want It More Than You Think

From Behavioral Scientist: Why do people hesitate to give others constructive feedback, even though there are times when people clearly want feedback for themselves?

Three Lessons From Chatting About Strategy With ChatGPT

From MIT Sloan Management Review: When generative AI’s capacity for strategy creation is put to the test, it reveals where its strengths lie — and where humans still have the edge.

Schumer Lays Out Process to Tackle A.I., Without Endorsing Specific Plans

From The New York Times: The Senate majority leader hopes to give lawmakers a crash course in a technology many say they do not understand as a way to build bipartisan support for regulation.

This is the inaugural edition of The Weekend Reader. Each Saturday, we’ll highlight some of the best content from this week (or insights I just discovered this week!). Consider it the enterprise IT leader’s weekend reading list!

If you’d prefer to not receive this, you can go to your profile and “manage subscriptions” and unselect The Weekend Reader.

What LOB leaders really think about IT: IDC study

From CIO.com: Businesses leaders increasingly rely on digital innovation to meet their goals but are not always giving IT a say in key business decisions, a disconnect that could hinder innovation, a new IDC study has found.

A fail-proof trick to get your brain into the flow every morning, according to psychologists

From FastCompany: When you are finishing work for the day, resist the temptation to reach a natural conclusion. Then, watch what happens.

A startup 'mass extinction event' has begun. You can't see it clearly yet, but it's going to be bad.

From Business Insider: Venture capitalists love to talk about how failure is essential to innovation. They will have a LOT to discuss soon. The startup failure rate is beginning to increase, from artificially low levels in 2021, and there could be a wave of capitulation in the next year where an unusually large number of startups shut down.

Salesforce Aims to Plug ‘AI Trust Gap’ With New Tech Tools

From The Wall Street Journal: Software giant seeks to prevent today’s proprietary corporate data from becoming training fodder for tomorrow’s large language models.

ServiceNow unveils Now Assist for Virtual Agent, a generative AI solution for self-service

From VentureBeat: ServiceNow today announced its latest generative AI solution, Now Assist for Virtual Agent, with the aim of revolutionizing self-service by offering intelligent and relevant conversational experiences. The new capability expands on ServiceNow’s strategy of integrating generative AI capabilities into its Now Platform, which helps customers to streamline digital workflows and optimize productivity.