The recent surge in Generative AI (GenAI) adoption marks a significant shift in the technological landscape, with businesses rapidly integrating these tools into their operations. A survey of chief AI and data officers reveals a near-universal increase in GenAI investment plans for 2025, signifying a strong belief in the technology’s transformative potential. While some experts have positioned GenAI as being at the peak of inflated expectations, the rapid increase in production deployments suggests otherwise. This widespread adoption raises a critical question: who will steer these GenAI initiatives within organizations? The evidence points toward a decentralized approach, where business leaders owning specific processes, data, and P&L responsibilities will drive implementation, necessitating a flexible and responsive approach from IT departments.
The decentralized nature of GenAI adoption stems from several key factors. Firstly, GenAI’s potential extends across numerous organizational functions, impacting work involving words, images, numbers, and sounds (WINS). From marketing and sales to human resources, GenAI empowers teams to automate tasks, generate content, and analyze data, fundamentally reshaping workflows. The accessibility of low-code/no-code GenAI tools further democratizes access, enabling business users to directly implement and manage these technologies, lessening reliance on centralized IT.
Secondly, effective GenAI utilization hinges on comprehensive user training. Mastering these powerful tools requires time and practice, akin to learning a new language or musical instrument. While GenAI systems possess inherent tutoring capabilities, the responsibility and associated costs for training are likely to fall on individual business units rather than a central IT budget, further reinforcing decentralized control.
Thirdly, the ultimate drivers of GenAI adoption are growth and innovation, domains traditionally owned by business units, not IT departments. Whether it’s engineering in tech firms, finance in financial institutions, or marketing in consumer goods companies, these functions hold the reins of growth initiatives. IT, while playing a crucial supporting role in providing infrastructure and expertise, typically does not lead these efforts. This pattern is reflected in early GenAI use cases, which predominantly focus on enhancing customer service functions, areas directly tied to business growth and owned by specific business units.
Fourthly, the emergence of specialized GenAI models tailored to specific functions or industries accelerates this decentralized trend. While general-purpose models like ChatGPT remain dominant, niche solutions like Harvey for legal applications or customized on-premise AI appliances for diverse sectors are proliferating. These specialized tools are typically procured and managed by the respective business units, further decentralizing control and decision-making.
Finally, ambitious executives often leverage transformative technologies to advance their careers. GenAI presents a powerful opportunity for leaders to demonstrate their ability to drive productivity gains, enhance innovation, and achieve greater organizational scalability. By championing the adoption and successful implementation of GenAI within their domains, these individuals position themselves for future leadership roles. This bottom-up drive for innovation and transformation further reinforces the decentralized nature of GenAI adoption within organizations.
However, the decentralized nature of GenAI adoption doesn’t diminish the crucial role of IT functions, particularly in two key areas: sense-making and data availability. The rapid pace of GenAI evolution necessitates a strong sense-making capability within IT, allowing them to navigate the constantly evolving landscape of vendors, technologies, and service providers. CIOs must become adept at identifying and evaluating key trends, enabling their organizations to make informed decisions and avoid being left behind in this rapidly changing field. This requires a shift in focus, moving beyond traditional cost optimization and standardization toward a more agile and forward-looking approach.
Similarly, the role of the Chief Data Officer (CDO) undergoes a significant transformation in the age of GenAI. Traditionally focused on data governance, risk mitigation, and efficiency, CDOs must now embrace a more outward-facing, growth-oriented approach. The explosion of unstructured data—text, images, audio, video—presents both a challenge and an opportunity. GenAI models thrive on diverse datasets, and the CDO’s task shifts to enabling access to this rich pool of information while ensuring responsible and ethical use. This requires a collaborative and iterative engagement with business units, progressively addressing data needs and unlocking the full potential of GenAI models.
In conclusion, the transformative power of GenAI lies in its ability to reinvent business processes, products, and services. This value realization requires a deep understanding of business operations, data, and customer needs, ultimately placing business leaders at the forefront of GenAI adoption. While IT functions play a vital supporting role in sense-making and data provision, the decentralized nature of GenAI implementation necessitates a shift in mindset for technology leaders. Embracing a more flexible and empowering approach, focused on enabling business units to effectively leverage GenAI, will unlock the technology’s vast potential for organizational transformation. Those technology leaders who can successfully navigate this shift will be best positioned to lead their organizations into the future of AI-driven innovation.
