Agentic AI presents greater decision-making opportunities than ever before: Jay Upchurch, CIO, SAS

– Agentic AI presents great ideas and opportunities
– Composite AI is a philosophy
– Gen AI has become a shiny toy for CIOs

The digital transformation journey of organizations is evolving fast with the advent of several new and innovative technologies such as Agentic AI, where systems act autonomously with purpose and adaptability. This shift is expected to empower businesses to move beyond automation, enabling intelligent decision-making, personalized engagement, and continuous learning—redefining customer experiences, operations, and innovation in an increasingly dynamic and data-driven world. ETCIO spoke with Jay Upchurch (JU), CIO, SaS Institute over a range of diverse topics including agentic AI, new technologies, and the evolving role of a CIO. Here are some excerpts:

ETCIO: What are your views on decision-making in the age of agentic AI?

JU: Agentic AI can instantly present ideas. Organizational leaders will face greater decision-making opportunities than ever before. This is a greater responsibility.

ETCIO: What's the toughest challenge a company faces today when scaling composite AI and how can SaS help overcome them?

JU: Composite AI is really more of a philosophy. It's the belief that different techniques of artificial intelligence are required to work in tandem to be successful. It's not that Gen AI is the only tool in your toolbox that you always have to use to solve every problem. Machine learning can be a tool. Computer vision can be a tool. Natural language processing can be a tool. So, the struggle for IT resources is knowing which technique to use. Over the last two years, CIOs have gotten enamored with Gen AI because it was on the headlines. You were playing with it at home. You wanted to use it at work.

ETCIO: What are the skills and mindsets that organizational leaders need to acquire in response to this change?

JU: We are all looking for competitive advantages, and I think the competitive advantage today is your ability to make informed business decisions as fast or faster than your competition. I think there's another piece to it. Can you out-learn your neighbor to win? On the decisioning side, I do think companies will need to recognize that that is their competitive advantage. They need to recognize that if you're not using data to drive the decisions, you're putting yourself at peril, and perhaps your customers as well.

Today, understanding responsible innovation and data lineage is very important. When you make those decisions, you can defend it better. It's not just about the gut feeling. One of the things that CIO struggle with is the shiny toy syndrome, where we get really enamored by something. Gen AI has become something like that for a lot of us over the last two years, where we wanted to solve every business problem with Gen AI. But that's not necessarily the case with intelligent decision making. Gen AI can help with some information to get to the point, but when it comes to actually making that deterministic decision, you may need a different AI technique.

ETCIO: How do you see the role of a CIO evolving, particularly against the background that there is a CTO in your organization, who is also looking after technology? How do you strike the right balance?

JU: It's a blessing. We all need friends. We all need help. Think about how fast things are changing today. There are plenty of times where I pick up the phone or video call Brian (Brian Harris, CTO, SaS Institute): Hey, what did you see? What are you hearing on this topic or that? We regularly bounce ideas off, so we're able to collaborate as peers.

The role of the CIO has dramatically changed. There was a time when CIOs were supposed to be the smartest IT guy in the room. You were. You sat and listened and somebody told you what they wanted. You had to go build it. With the advent of the COVID pandemic, everyone wants to put more digital into products and services. Companies were looking for where to go for help and insights. The CIO function has consequently risen in importance. Many of my peers have PnL responsibilities now: they are responsible for revenue generation in some way or the other. For example, I call my role as a CIO plus role. I run it internally for us, but I also run our commercial cloud business. I have to stay connected to our products, services, customers, and how they use them. Because I buy it from others, I know how to deliver it more successfully.

I pick up patterns that are really good, and that I can apply those to our own customers. At the end of the day, the CIO function exists to deliver services to your customers, both internal and external. As long as you're a service provider, you're looking for ways to solve a business problem with technology, and you can be successful. I do think the pressure on a CIO today is much more than it ever used to be. The struggle for those in the role is very real. On the opportunity side, you have the chance to really change the lives of your customers and internal employees.