- Deloitte's technology consultants used to meet primarily with clients' chief technology and chief information officers.
- But lately, they've been meeting much more frequently with CEOs and other top-level leaders that don't work in corporations' technology departments, Bill Briggs, Deloitte's global CTO, told Business Insider.
- The top leaders have come to understand how important cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence are to the future of their businesses.
- CEOs and board members also want to be up-to-date on the latest tech trends and how digital innovations are transforming the business landscape so they can ask informed questions and make considered decisions, he said.
It used to be that when Bill Briggs was giving an overview of the latest technologies making their way into corporate America or the technological trends that are likely to affect enterprises in coming years, his audience was mostly chief information and chief technology officers.
These days, though, Briggs, who is the chief technology officer of auditing and consulting giant Deloitte, is spending as much time talking about the digital transformation of business with clients' CEOs and board members as he is with their technology leaders.
"The biggest story for me is that technology has been elevated into the heart of business strategy," Briggs said in a recent interview with Business Insider in advance of his firm's release of its latest tech trends report. Corporate directors and top executives, he continued, are "recognizing how critical this is."
Deloitte consultants have been meeting with CEOs and top business leaders for decades, of course. And, occasionally, they'd want to meet with Briggs and his team of technology consultants too. But in the last two or so years, Briggs and his team have been meeting with CEOs and board members with increasing frequency, he said.
The CEOs and directors want to understand new technologies
The meetings typically aren't just one-hour briefs or surface overviews of the landscape, he said. Instead, the non-technology executives and leaders want to roll up their sleeves and explore the topics Briggs covers in-depth, he said.
Corporate leaders outside the IT department have started to understand that new technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, 5G wireless technology, the internet of things, and virtual and augmented reality are crucial to their futures, Briggs said. They've also started to see the need to be as familiar with such innovations as their technology teams, he said.
Directors and CEOs want to be able to ask informed questions of their companies' consultants and vendors about the products and services they're recommending and selling, Briggs said. They also want to be able to educate themselves on what's possible and real so they can push their organization to embrace change, he said.
Top corporate leaders are saying, "'Even though we need more out of our technology organizations that help lead us, we also, collectively, have the responsibility to understand deeply what's possible and what it's going to take for us to get there," he said.
Deloitte hosted directors at CES
And the Deloitte's technology team isn't just meeting with CEOs and directors in corporate boardrooms and executive suites. Earlier this month, Deloitte hosted about 40 corporate directors at CES, the annual technology convention in Las Vegas. Most hadn't ever attended the show before, and Deloitte helped show them some of the highlights of the show, focusing in particular on the convergence of consumer electronics and enterprise technologies, Briggs said.
"We did an outreach and said, 'We'll help you navigate through the chaos, but we'll also help translate [it] into what it means to be a board director and what it might mean to the entities that you represent,'" he said.
Briggs said he got something out of the event as well — a renewed sense of wonder about the giant trade show and all that's on display there.
"It's fun to see CES through first-timers eyes again," he said.
- Read more about how enterprises are embracing technology:
- Many companies are stumbling as they rush to adopt artificial intelligence — here's what's tripping them up
- A new survey suggests Salesforce and SAP have an early lead over Amazon and Google in the next frontier in tech
- The head of tech of one of the world's largest consulting firms says the business world's most overhyped new technology is also the most important
- These charts show how pumped up HR departments are about AI — even if many of them are still relying on paper documents
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