CIOs need to ensure their AI initiatives are sustainable

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New research from Gartner.

When CIOs are implementing new AI initiatives they need to understand the environmental implications that come from those programs, according to a new Gartner survey.

CIOs need to ensure their AI initiatives are sustainable

The research noted that CIOs can use their digital knowledge and foundation to support the sustainability efforts of their organisations when implementing AI initiatives.

Bettina Tratz-Ryan, VP analyst at Gartner said the 2023 Gartner CEO survey showed that environmental issues entered the top 10 priority ranking for the first time in the history of the survey.

“At the same time, CIOs are under increasing pressure from their executives, customers, employees, investors and regulators to initiate or reinvigorate their IT for sustainability programs,” she said.

“Sixty-four percent of CEOs surveyed said combining digitalisation, such as AI adoption, and environmental sustainability is a growth opportunity.”

Tratz-Ryan noted that statistic shows the need for CIOs to take more initiative.

“CIOs should take that as a call to be more proactive in establishing their leadership through the execution of sustainability transformation strategies and use sustainability as a platform for growth,” she added.

For most CIOs, delivering on mandates and requirements means tracking and tracing on business KPIs, such as product carbon footprint or energy intensity.

“It is a matter of how the CIO applies their digital foundation, or their digital dividend, to accommodate their organisation’s digitalisation metrics, while delivering on the sustainability requirements – two for one,” said Tratz-Ryan.

“Above all, even if the business is not prioritising sustainability yet, the CIO should make their digital foundation sustainability-ready.”

Being sustainability-ready applies to cloud and storage, infrastructure and operations, digital threads and the rapidly growing adoption of AI.

Although 78 percent of surveyed CEOs said the benefits of AI outweigh the risks, the increasing number of organisations using AI, including generative AI is leading to a growing environmental footprint of AI.

Gartner predicts that by 2030, AI could consume up to 3.5 percent of the world’s electricity.

Pieter den Hamer said AI consumes a lot of electricity and water.

“This negative impact should be mitigated. Executives should be cognisant of AI’s own growing environmental footprint and take active mitigation measures. For example, they could prioritise (cloud) data centres powered by renewable energy,” he said.  

Gartner said public cloud providers can produce 70 percent to 90 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions than traditional server rooms, owned data centres and midsize data centre facilities.

However, AI is not only bad news for environmental sustainability. Gartner noted that AI’s footprint is more than eclipsed by the potential use of AI to boost many sustainability initiatives.

Den Hamer said, “This can only be achieved if business and IT leaders proactively initiate and foster a portfolio of AI initiatives that help achieve the sustainability and environment, social and governance (ESG) goals of their organisations.

“For instance, AI can be used to predict demand more accurately and reduce the usage of raw materials and energy in manufacturing. Overall, if used in the right way and focused on the right use cases, AI can help companies mitigate sustainability risk, optimise costs and drive growth.”

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