Successful leadership in the coming year will likely require embracing artificial intelligence (AI) and associated solutions. At the same time, those who aspire to lead technological innovation must also promote greater human intuition and creativity. That balance requires walking a delicate line between automation and human creativity, said a chief digital officer and former chief information officer.

With AI now readily available online and integrated into vendor solutions, it’s tempting to automate as much work as possible, as some experts suggest. cheaper and often more reliable than humans.

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I spoke to Carrie Rasmussenexecutive vice president and chief digital officer at Dayforce at the company’s recent customer conference, and she said modern IT leaders must keep human and machine intelligence on an equal level, balancing each other’s strengths.

Creativity that drives critical thinking and innovation is becoming the most valuable skill for technology and business professionals. However, these human-centered skills are not taught enough in schools. With the rise of AI, there is an increasing risk of losing the skills needed to advance and protect businesses.

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“The role of the developer will be very different in the future,” she said. Managing new technologies requires discipline. “We need to make sure we clean up or remove old environments. That’s going to be really interesting because AI learning models are very expensive. You need to think about how you get into some of these generative models. ”

The greatest risk, however, is that emerging technologies lead to an erosion of understanding of the logic and reasoning behind the solutions and processes adopted. “We risk losing sight of coding skills if we start integrating everything Generative AI” Rasmussen said.

“We need to continue to learn techniques to keep bad actors out. But if we never teach coding again and you just use an AI tool, are we parting ways with part of our thinking? If robots do everything for me, I’m really a creative and innovative thinker? Because I don’t think about how it was built.

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Rasmussen said “soft skills are important” to promote greater critical thinking. For example, one of the biggest challenges for an IT manager is finding the ROI of emerging technologies. AI gets very expensive very quickly, and IT managers and professionals need to be careful to prevent things from getting out of control.

Rasmussen recommended being open to the possibilities of emerging technologies, such as generative AI. But there is another element that must also be closely monitored and managed: data.

“Make sure have this database – governed data,” she said. “How do you deal with the AI ​​that’s coming. It also happens in the software you buy. Every day there is something new. Anticipate the governance part, be open and make sure your house is in order. »

She said new technology initiatives need to be very targeted. “Be determined — no peanut butter,” Rasmussen said.

“Drive where you see value. We see value in developing code with GitHub. We see value in generative search. We see value in language translation. You’re going to see some things around the ability to create training material quickly. Stay where you can make a difference.

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Rasmussen said one area of ​​great promise is AI agents – ultimately: “I don’t think we’re ready to let things go. I think the word ‘co-pilot’ is a strong term because you have always need a human.”

The right approach to agentic AI is incremental. “I don’t think we’re ready to let them go and say, ‘Deliver emails to my customers,'” she said.

Rasmussen said orchestrating AI agents is key. “We still need a human,” she said. “Because the models are drifting or there is a built-in bias. These are things we need to think about. There will be controls, but we’re not there yet. You need to be open to the vision of the direction we can take. You I can see it. Things are falling into place.