Pawan Satyawali: Stop talking tech specs and start delivering wins

CIOs have spent decades justifying their existence with complex technical roadmaps and lengthy implementation cycles. Pawan Satyawali throws that playbook out the window.

“At the end of the day, every decision should answer one question: What’s in it for the business?” says Satyawali, former CIO of Tata Consumer Products and now head of digital services at Signify. CIOs should identify AI use cases that deliver measurable impact in weeks, not years, he says in our guide to IT leadership in the AI era. 

While boardrooms grow tired of hearing about AI capabilities, Satyawali has focused on the language of results: revenue growth, cost reduction, compliance improvements, and customer satisfaction scores. He says this is what transforms CIOs from back-office cost center managers into indispensable strategic partners. It’s a formula that turns tech skeptics into AI champions, he says.

For more from Satyawali and other forward-thinking CIOs, download our new four-part guide, “The AI-empowered CIO: What it takes to succeed in the age of AI.”