Top Tech CEOs Agree: The AI Race Is On

As part of CRN’s CEO Outlook project earlier this year, we asked CEOs across the IT industry what impact they expected AI to have on the business they and their partners would do together in 2024. Here’s what some of them said.

If you ask many of the world’s top technology CEOs what is the biggest market opportunity for 2024 and beyond, the resounding answer will be artificial intelligence.

AI, and particularly generative AI, has filtered into more and more aspects of how companies run and business gets done. Leaders that invest now in these early stages stand to reap the rewards as AI becomes an integral part of everything from IT security to the edge to the data center.

Srini Pallia

CEO, Managing Director

Wipro

Here are the top three impacts AI will have on the industries that we serve. Increased efficiency and productivity: AI can automate repetitive and time-consuming tasks, freeing employees to focus on more strategic and value-added activities... Improved customer experience: AI can analyze customer data to predict individual preferences and offer personalized recommendations. This technology enables businesses to create targeted marketing campaigns, enhance customer engagement and deliver customized experiences... Innovation and growth: AI can [unlock] new potential in various industries... AI can also contribute to the rise of the metaverse, creating interconnected virtual experiences. Building on our decade-long investments in AI, we have launched our artificial intelligence-first innovation ecosystem, ‘Wipro ai360,’ with investments worth $1 billion.

Ken Xie

Chairman, CEO

Fortinet

[AI’s] ability to proactively detect possible issues enables partner and customer IT teams to refine and resolve networking and security issues before they impact the organization. As an example, this past December, we introduced Fortinet Advisor, a generative AI assistant that delivers contextually aware incident analysis, remediation guidance and automated actions that enable security teams to make better decisions, rapidly respond to threats and save time on even the most complex tasks.

Kevin Lynch

CEO

Optiv Security

Within the cybersecurity industry, AI’s role in enhancing threat detection and response will play a vital role in countering AI-empowered threats, and Optiv and our partners will continue to find ways to leverage the power of AI to combat those threats. Additionally, robust AI governance will be essential for innovation, ensuring ethical practices, data privacy, compliance and cyber risk management.

Yuanqing Yang

Chairman, CEO

Lenovo

AI brings huge opportunities not just in AI-generated content and large language models but also in pocket-to-cloud offerings that we deliver to customers together with our channel partners. AI also helps us drive intelligent transformation in every aspect of our lives and in every industry—with purpose-built AI-ready, AI-enabled and AI-optimized devices, infrastructure, solutions and services that empower industries, enterprises and individuals around the world. This means partners will need trusted suppliers like Lenovo, with a comprehensive and secure portfolio of AI solutions.

Mark Barrenechea

CEO, CTO

OpenText

Through the utilization of AI-powered solutions, we anticipate streamlining operations, optimizing processes and extracting deeper insight from data to facilitate strategic decision-making. However, the transformative changes driven by AI won’t occur overnight. To fully harness the benefits of AI technology, our partners must be equipped with access to accurate, reliable and well-organized data. The quality of the data directly correlates with the effectiveness of AI. Enhanced AI, in turn, improves the quality of learning data. This mindset forms the core of modern information management and underpins AI’s ability to excel.

Matt Hicks

President, CEO

Red Hat

Clearly, all eyes are on AI. It’s on the top of everyone’s mind, and that includes our customers. That said, AI will absolutely have a huge impact on the work we do with partners. In 2024, Red Hat is focused on deepening our AI platform capabilities and working hand in hand with our partners to bring AI-enhanced workloads, whatever form those may take, to our customers in a way that is easy to consume, implement and build upon. This means rolling up our sleeves together to broaden skills and capabilities, listening to what our customers want and need, and bringing the best of what we all have to the table.

Assaf Rappaport

Co-Founder

CEO, Wiz

Wiz customers—ranging from high-growth startups to the Fortune 100—have the same question when it comes to AI: ‘What is the best, safest way to use this powerful technology?’ In reality, whether or not it is explicitly sanctioned, business will seek to take advantage of everything AI has to offer. This is a fact which infosec teams must contend with. So how do you act as an enabler to the business? Organizations are seeking strategic advisers on this journey, and that is where Wiz and our partners can help. Not only can we offer benchmarking and insight based on broader trends, Wiz also has the best cloud security researchers investigating AI risk and how to protect these applications. They publish their discoveries and feed that knowledge back into our platform.