r/CIO

When leaders spend their time building instead of leading, they drift from the one thing they were hired to be great at.
That seems counterproductive for any organization. To be clear, I’m not saying they should stop. I’m trying to understand who does the actual leading while they’re heads-down building.

Titles like CEO, CFO and CISO exist because someone has to own those decisions.
And if the answer is “AI will handle it,” that’s a way bigger claim than anyone’s admitting. AI can draft the budget model, but it can’t own the call, answer to the board, or take the blame when things go wrong.

So genuinely asking: is building now part of the leadership job, or is something quietly falling through the cracks? Thoughts?

Earlier this year we tested AI-assisted quoting. It speeds things up but it also brings some risks. For example, it once suggested a discount tier that passed the rules engine but missed a margin floor we had set for a specific customer. No approval was triggered and the quote was almost sent.

To fix this, we made sure the AI only gives advice. Every suggestion still goes through the same approval process as quotes from our sales reps. It slows things down a little, but it keep mistakes from slipping through.

How are you structuring ai authority inside your CPQ so it aligns with the commercial logic you have built?

sometimes the best-fit vendor is not the loudest, cheapest, or the one an executive already knows. for CIOs and IT leaders how do you keep vendor selection focused on actual fit instead of internal pressure?

I was wondering if you have a solution to this. We use a third party to build and ship laptops, but we get complaints because we just ship a standard build and then people have to download the software from company portal or raise tickets to have things installed. Does anyone have a better solution?