\n<\/p>\n
Fletcher Previn says advancements in generative artificial intelligence are leading him to rethink workflows not just for Cisco Systems\u2019 10,000 IT workers, a department that operates on a $1.54 billion annual budget, but also the broader employee base of around 90,400.<\/p>\n
He favors a collaborative approach that takes into consideration input from both the C-suite and workers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s the bottom up inertia of people asking for access to tools, and then there\u2019s the top-down inertia of saying, \u2018Here\u2019s how we see this role evolving,\u2019\u201d says Previn, who has served as chief information officer at the networking-equipment company since 2021. \u201cYou sort of have both trying to meet in the middle.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
What that means for his work as CIO is finding ways to improve worker productivity, including giving developers more access to AI coding tools like Cursor, Windsurf, and GitHub Copilot. Cisco Systems is closely monitoring adoption of these tools, as well as the amount of code that\u2019s accepted by developers. Around 70% of the company\u2019s 20,000 developers log into AI coding tools at least once per month.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The acceptance rate for AI-generated code is around 24% and while that may not sound too impressive, Previn says it is a big leap from 4% nearly a year ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cAI is getting better,\u201d he adds. \u201cIt\u2019s supporting more programming languages. Developers are getting more comfortable with it.\u201d Over time, he hopes that as much as 70% of Cisco Systems\u2019 code will be AI generated.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also the ongoing work that Previn is doing to rethink the IT function\u2019s work and responsibilities. He is reevaluating the primary work done for each role, as well as job titles, the ways to reevaluate work with AI tools, and what future training may be required to support such big, sweeping changes.<\/p>\n
Cisco Systems has also made some investments in AI applications that improve productivity to support the non-technical workforce. Some examples include using AI to do more intelligent onboarding, which allows for Cisco to more accurately assess exactly what tools or software are needed to support the role a new employee is hired for.<\/p>\n
Cisco Systems is also using AI for planning hardware updates. Most companies refresh their laptops every two-to-four years. But by using AI to detect a laptop\u2019s memory, application performance, and network telemetry, Cisco Systems can decipher the difference between performance problems that can be fixed by the IT team versus when a device may fail and will need to be replaced.<\/p>\n
Upgrading laptops is a \u201csignificant amount of money at a company of our size,\u201d says Previn. \u201cAnd sometimes a lot of people are perfectly happy with the laptop they have.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Cisco Systems generates nearly $57 billion in annual revenue, large enough to rank 83rd on the Fortune 500, the company competes aggressively for tech talent in an arms race that has accelerated this year as the generative AI boom continues to expand.<\/p>\n
To lure skilled workers, Previn says he prioritizes creating a workplace that encourages \u201cemotional safety for people to be able to innovate and experiment and fail fast.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another key pillar of Previn\u2019s strategy involves recognizing IT\u2019s operation to do all work by a singular platform. There are separate teams organized cross functionally\u2014one to support Workday, another for SAP, and yet another for Oracle\u2014that are made up of around six-to-ten employees who have all the necessary skills to advance an internal tech project into production. This allows small teams to operate independently.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a huge productivity loss when you\u2019re kind of dynamically forming and un-forming teams by project,\u201d asserts Previn.<\/p>\n
Previn says Cisco Systems fields a lot of pitches from the software-as-a-service providers it works with to add on more expensive AI capabilities. He progresses cautiously on that front. \u201cYou can consume all of those things, but run the risk of controlled cost,\u201d says Previn. \u201cIt can create employee experience confusion, similar to what we had when chatbots started to become a thing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He expects that generative AI will increasingly evolve to become an agent-to-agent world, a digital workforce that can perform tasks on behalf of workers, sometimes autonomously and in coordination with each other. That involves an inverted approach to how employees engage with technology. Rather than an employee asking an AI search tool, \u201cWhere\u2019s the link to Workday?\u201d they could instead say, \u201cI\u2019m taking a vacation on Friday.\u201d Agentic AI could then do the rest: block off calendars, cancel meetings, and put up an out-of-office message.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cisco Systems has developed the company\u2019s own internal digital AI teammate that helps the company\u2019s employees find and understand general information more quickly. Rather than an employee being asked to toggle between different language models or select if the data they want to access is publicly available or is internal information, the AI assistant infers intent and determines the appropriate selections.<\/p>\n
Previn says this approach is an evolution of his thinking that Cisco Systems can\u2019t assume that workers are up to date on which AI models are most advanced and best match the tasks they are trying to complete.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rate of innovation in AI is happening so quickly that if you find out your developers are using a language model that is six months old, then effectively, all the software you\u2019re writing is already six months out of date,\u201d says Previn.<\/p>\n
John Kell<\/strong><\/p>\n Send thoughts or suggestions to\u00a0CIO Intelligence here<\/em>.\n<\/p>\n Meta freezes hiring for its AI division. <\/b>After luring more than 50 AI researchers and engineers, the social media giant behind Facebook and Instagram has put into place a hiring freeze for AI talent, according to a <\/span>report<\/span><\/a> last week from <\/span>The Wall Street Journal<\/span><\/i>, a move that a company spokesperson confirmed was due to organizational planning to create \u201ca solid structure for our new superintelligence efforts after bringing people on board and undertaking yearly budgeting and planning exercises.\u201d An AI arms race has accelerated in 2025 for both technology and non-technology roles, with Meta among the Big Tech giants that have been seen as especially aggressive on that front, offering researchers pay packages worth nine figures. Last week, Meta also <\/span>announced<\/span><\/a> internally it would split its AI division into four groups, focused on research, \u201csuperintelligence\u201d AI, products, and infrastructure like hardware and data centers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n U.S. takes 10% stake in struggling chipmaker Intel. <\/b>Intel has agreed to give the U.S. government a 10% stake, <\/span>worth roughly $10 billion<\/span>, though the federal government will not be involved in company governance nor claim a board seat. The news comes after Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had outlined plans for the government to receive equity in return for the CHIPS Act cash grants that Intel has received, which President Donald Trump has lamented as handing out money to chip makers like Intel without getting anything in return. \u201cWe should get an equity stake for our money, so we\u2019ll deliver the money which was already committed under the Biden administration,\u201d Lutnick told CNBC last week.<\/span><\/p>\n Anthropic nears deal to raise $10 billion in new round of funding. <\/b>Anthropic, which was last valued at $61.5 billion in a $3.5 billion round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners in March, is <\/span>reportedly<\/span><\/a> seeing strong investor demand in what would be one of the largest rounds of funding to date for an AI startup. Bloomberg says that investment firm Iconiq Capital is reportedly leading the round and that other expected participants include TPG, Lightspeed, Spark Capital, and Menlo Ventures. Less than three years after the debut of ChatGPT, AI is producing billion-dollar startups like Anthropic <\/span>faster than the dot-com era<\/span>, with 498 AI unicorns valued at $1 billion or more with a combined value of $2.7 trillion, according to CB Insights.<\/span><\/p>\n General Motors builds AI team with Big Tech alums.\u00a0<\/strong>WSJ<\/em>\u00a0reports<\/a> on an AI hiring spree spearheaded by GM, the auto giant that has lured nearly a dozen technologists from top tech companies including Meta and Amazon Web Services over the last eight months. Two of the more notable hires thus far, WSJ says, are Barak Turovsky, who now serves as GM’s first-ever chief AI officer, and John Anderson, now executive director of AI research. Both came from Google. The team’s work will support GM’s planned AI center of excellence that will mostly be based in California. GM’s AI team is fairly scrappy, with less than 20 workers, and some applications of AI that they are focusing on include improving back-office workflows and boosting products like manufacturing robots and the future fleet of autonomous vehicles.<\/p>\n Generative AI giving an innovation lift to other tech advancements.<\/b> McKinsey has identified <\/span>13 technology trends<\/span><\/a> that the consulting giant says has the potential to transform business and reported that equity investments have increased in 10 of these breakthroughs, with big double-digit gains for AI, cloud and edge computing, and digital trust and cybersecurity. Agentic AI, an application of generative AI that can perform more complex tasks and at times act autonomously, experienced a particular meteoric rise, with $1.1 billion in equity investments last year and a 985% increase in job postings from 2023.<\/span><\/p>\n Lareina Yee, a co-author of the report and McKinsey\u2019s global institute director and senior partner, tells <\/span>Fortune<\/span><\/i> that generative AI is raising the bar for what\u2019s possible across other technology trends. \u201cRobotics has been around for 40 to 50 years and we\u2019ve been implementing them in manufacturing, but now powered by cognitive intelligence, that\u2019s a game changer,\u201d says Yee.<\/span><\/p>\n CIOs and other technologists aren\u2019t expected to keep a close eye on every advancement, Yee says, as some are more niche applications like bioengineering or space technologies. But the rapid advancements of generative AI highlight that other technologies, like quantum computing, could soon make the leap from science to reality. \u201cIt\u2019s all science until it\u2019s not,\u201d says Yee.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Courtesy of McKinsey & Company<\/p>\n Hiring:<\/strong><\/p>\n – <\/span>Synergy Pet Group<\/b> is <\/span>seeking a CTO<\/span><\/a>, based in Lakewood, New Jersey. Posted salary range: $200K-$250K\/year.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Chartmetric <\/b>is <\/span>seeking a CTO<\/span><\/a>, based in San Mateo, California. Posted salary range: $200K-$300K\/year.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Headway <\/b>is <\/span>seeking a director of IT<\/span><\/a>, based in New York City. Posted salary range: $218.4K-$257K\/year.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Whatnot <\/b>is <\/span>seeking a director of IT<\/span><\/a>, based in Los Angeles. Posted salary range: $230K-$270K\/year.<\/span><\/p>\n Hired:<\/strong><\/p>\n – <\/span>American International Group<\/b> (No. 157 on the Fortune 500) <\/span>appointed<\/span><\/a> Scott Hallworth as chief digital officer, effective September 1, where he will oversee AIG\u2019s digital, data, and generative AI strategy. Hallworth joins the insurance giant after most recently serving as chief data and analytics officer at computer maker Hewlett Packard. He also previously held technology leadership roles at Fannie Mae and Capital One.<\/span><\/p>\n Every Friday morning, the weekly Fortune 500 Power Moves column tracks Fortune 500 companies C-suite shifts\u2014<\/span><\/i>see the most recent edition<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>UKG <\/b>announced<\/span><\/a> the appointment of <\/span>Jim Joudrey as CTO, joining the workforce management and human resources software provider to oversee the 4,000 global engineering and cloud teams. Joudrey will serve on the UKG executive leadership team and report to CEO Jennifer Morgan. He most recently served as a VP at Amazon and spent a decade at the tech giant, including leadership roles spanning financial systems, supply chain, and in Amazon Web Services infrastructure.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>The Postal Service <\/b>has <\/span>elevated<\/span><\/a> Gary Reblin to the role of CTO, after he previously held the position on an acting basis since June. Reblin succeeds Scott Bombaugh, who retired after a 38-year career at the government agency. Reblin initially joined USPS in 1991, previously serving as applied engineering VP and holding executive roles in several areas, including shipping services and product innovation.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Realtor.com<\/b> announced<\/span><\/a> the appointment of <\/span>Janakiraman Karthikeyan as CTO, joining the real estate listings website after most recently serving as VP of technology at online pet food retailer Chewy.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Jackson Walker <\/b>named<\/span><\/a> Bill Finner at CIO, expanding his oversight of the Texas-based law firm\u2019s information systems and technology infrastructure. Finner joined Jackson Walker in 2009 and most recently served as director of networking and technical infrastructure.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Voyager Technologies<\/b> appointed<\/span><\/a> Paul Tilghman as CTO, joining the space and defense technology company after most recently serving as a chief engineer at defense tech provider Anduril Industries. Earlier in this career, he worked for Microsoft\u2019s Azure space connectivity organization and also held leadership roles at Lockheed Martin\u2019s advanced technology laboratories.<\/span><\/p>\nNEWS PACKETS<\/h3>\n
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