PodChats for FutureCIO: Enterprise AI values: From +AI to AI+ in the Asian Century.

In 2025, the landscape of technology adoption is transforming rapidly, with AI and automation at the forefront of this evolution. As organizations strive for greater efficiency and innovation, the roles under the Chief Information Officer (CIO) have become pivotal in navigating this shift.

The AI market is evolving toward monetization and widespread adoption, focusing on resilience, workforce transformation, and managing regulatory changes. Priorities are being driven toward ethical AI integration, explainability, and advancing modernization, as organizations aim for responsible, compliant, and future-ready AI implementation.

IDC predicts that Asia/Pacific businesses leaders will demand up to 80% success rate of generative AI (GenAI) adoption by 2027.

"The adoption of AI and GenAI in the APJ region is driving a notable shift in business strategies and value creation. Companies are leveraging AI to boost efficiency and enrich customer experiences, opening doors to fresh growth opportunities," says Vinayaka Venkatesh, Senior Market Analyst, Data & Analytics, IDC Asia/Pacific. 

What will AI and GenAI look like in 2025? FutureCIO is pleased to be joined by Kalyan Madala, director and APAC Field CTO, IBM Software, Asia Pacific on the topic of enterprise AI values: From +AI to AI+ in the Asian Century.

1. Architecture

Challenges: What are the key architectural challenges we face in integrating AI and automation into our existing enterprise systems, and how can we overcome them?

Opportunities: How can we leverage AI-driven tools to enhance our architectural design processes, and what specific benefits can we expect in terms of efficiency and scalability?

Risks: With the increasing reliance on AI in architecture, what potential risks do we face regarding data privacy and compliance, and how can we mitigate these risks?

2. Development & Engineering

Opportunities: In what ways can AI enhance our coding and testing processes, and how can we measure the return on investment from these advancements?

Challenges: What hurdles do our development teams encounter when implementing AI and automation in the software development lifecycle, and how can we address them?

Risks: As we automate more development tasks, how do we ensure that quality and security are not compromised, particularly with the rise of AI-generated code?

3. Operations & Reliability

Opportunities: How can AI enhance our incident response and system monitoring capabilities, and what specific tools should we consider in our strategy?

Challenges: What operational challenges do we foresee in maintaining system reliability as we adopt AI-driven automation tools, and how can we prepare for them?

Risks: What are the potential risks of over-reliance on AI for operational decisions, and how can we ensure human oversight remains effective?

4. Data & Analytics

Opportunities: How can we leverage AI to uncover new insights from our data that were previously unattainable, and what processes should we put in place to act on these insights?

Challenges: What are the key challenges in ensuring data quality and governance as we implement AI-driven analytics tools, and how can we address them?

Risks: What risks do we face regarding data bias in AI models, and how can we implement strategies to ensure fairness and transparency in our analytics processes?