Techie Tonic: AI is not just about cutting costs — It is about rebalancing the business
It was a nice conversation with one of the expert CIO, Jayakumar Mohanachandran in our community. He started putting forward the first question the CFO asked about a new technology investment was simple: “How much will it save?” That question is still important. But as AI moves from experimentation into the core of business operations, he believe we need to ask a bigger question: “What more can…
A leading expert on AI, CIO Jayakumar Mohanachandran, shared insights with Gulf News on how the technology is reshaping the business landscape. Initially, AI was viewed as a means to cut costs and improve productivity by streamlining tasks like software development, service requests and document processing. However, as AI becomes integral to core business operations, the focus should shift from merely saving money to exploring new possibilities.
Mohanachandran proposed a three-layered technology portfolio: Run, Modernize and Reinvent. The Run layer maintains existing systems, Modernize aims to upgrade the technology foundation, and Reinvent utilizes AI and automation to transform business processes. The goal is not to eliminate spending on the Run layer but to optimize it to create room for growth in Modernize and Reinvent.
For instance, if a company allocates $100 million to its technology budget, a significant portion may be spent on maintaining legacy systems. Instead of immediately cutting that expenditure in half, the strategy could focus on making the existing environment more efficient, thereby freeing up resources for modernization and AI initiatives. This creates a positive feedback loop: investing in AI leads to increased productivity and quality, which in turn frees up more resources for reinvention.
Mohanachandran emphasized that AI should not be seen as a binary choice between legacy IT and the future of AI. Rather, it should be viewed as a transition from maintaining the status quo to modernizing and reinventing the business. For CFOs, AI investments should be evaluated based on their impact on key business metrics such as revenue, productivity, customer experience, quality, cycle time, risk and speed.
For CEOs, AI should become a central part of the business transformation agenda rather than an isolated IT program. And for CIOs, the responsibility is to protect the current business while building the foundation for future innovation.
Written by urgent.news from Gulf News's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
