How To Play Up Tech Opportunities At Legacy Companies

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It seems that every company is running full speed into generative AI solutions to help enhance customer experience, increase efficiency and become more productive. And the stakes are high: A study released today by NTT DATA says 97% of CEOs anticipate a material impact on their business from using AI.

But company leaders in the IT area are a little more leery of the risks AI brings their business. While nearly 70% of all of the study’s C-suite respondents said they feel optimistic about generative AI, 45% of CISOs feel pressured, overwhelmed and threatened by it. Throughout the C-suite, just one in four strongly agree that the security risks associated with generative AI are adequately understood and managed. These risks are widely recognized, the study found. Nearly nine in 10 C-suite execs said they’re very concerned about security, but most of them said the promise and ROI of the technology outweigh those risks.

Also complicating matters is government regulation—or lack thereof. The EU’s new AI Act is beginning to impact how AI companies do business, but there’s no clear sense of what the U.S. as a whole might do. While President Joe Biden took a step toward regulations, signing an executive order to set the stage for rules focused on safety and national security last year, President-elect Donald Trump has promised to rescind it. Meanwhile, states are grappling with their own AI regulations, with at least 45 states and territories proposing AI legislation this year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, and comprehensive laws already on the books in Colorado. A total of 82% of execs surveyed said this unclear regulatory landscape stifles innovation and hinders investment in AI.

As executives as a whole are coming to grips with both the real possibilities and hazards of generative AI, the coming year will be interesting. Research into AI security—and companies that can provide solid solutions—is likely to grow. And as time passes, the industry is likely to play an active role in forming regulations so they at least have some certainty about how to move forward.

While AI’s promise and possibilities make tech careers exciting, a person doesn’t need to work in Silicon Valley or an AI startup to really get into it. All kinds of industries are seeking the best and brightest AI talent, though it can be a challenge for companies in more traditional sectors to find it. Don Vu, chief data and analytics officer for insurance company New York Life, talked to me about how he gets people to understand the real opportunities they would have working with his company. An excerpt from our conversation is later in this newsletter.

Next Wednesday, I’ll be leading some discussion panels at the Forbes CIO Summit. I hope to get the opportunity to meet some of you there, and I’ll be sure to share my insights from the event in future newsletters.

POLICY + REGULATIONS

Now that the presidential election results are in, everyone is predicting what they think will happen in a second Donald Trump Administration. Most tech companies are excited, touting the traditional Republican—and decidedly Trumpian—stance of cutting regulations. Forbes’ Sarah Emerson, Alex Konrad and Rashi Shrivastava report AI leaders have been preparing for fewer mandates, more expansive export controls on chips and less scrutiny on corporate acquisitions—meaning potential tech giant takeovers of AI startups.

Trump hasn’t said much directly about what he may do about AI regulation—aside from rescinding President Biden’s executive order last year because, according to his campaign platform, it “hinders AI Innovation, and imposes Radical Leftwing ideas on the development of this technology. In its place, Republicans support AI Development rooted in Free Speech and Human Flourishing.” Undoing this order may threaten the U.S. AI Safety Institute, a group of U.S.-based AI companies tasked with safely advancing AI adoption and collaboration, though there are moves to make this group permanent through legislation.

Trump is reportedly working with AI industry stakeholders as he prepares to return to the Oval Office. Aside from his much-reported working relationship with tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, who owns xAI, Trump’s tech policy head is Vice President-elect JD Vance’s economic adviser Gail Slater and Scale AI managing director Michael Kratsios. Vance himself is a big supporter of open source technology. At a July Senate hearing on AI, he said he worried about “preemptive overregulation attempts that would frankly entrench the incumbents that we already have and make it actually harder for the new entrants.”

But Trump’s return isn’t necessarily going to be good for all tech companies. Despite thoughts that the incoming administration will be less likely to block M&A, Google—which is the subject of legal battles over what the government says are illegal monopolies on search and digital advertising—is unlikely to benefit, writes Forbes’ Richard Nieva. The court case about search was filed during Trump’s first term in office, and he’s expressed frustration about the company’s search engine on the campaign trail In September, he said he would prosecute Google for “illegally” only showing “bad stories” about him and positive ones about Vice President Kamala Harris.

CYBERSECURITY

Another country has concluded TikTok is a threat to national security. Canada’s government ordered the app, owned by China’s ByteDance, to shut down its Canadian subsidiary and close its offices in Toronto and Vancouver, writes Forbes senior contributor Emma Woollacott. The decision does not ban the app in the country—Canadians can still create content and access videos—but Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry François-Philippe Champagne cautioned users to be alert to possible risks to how their personal information might be used and shared. TikTok has been banned on Canadian government-owned devices since February 2023, similar to government bans in the U.S., EU and U.K.

TikTok is on track to be banned altogether in the U.S. over national security concerns, thanks to a bipartisan law passed in April that restricts the app by January 19, 2025 if it is not first sold to an entity in a U.S.-friendly country. Reports indicate Trump may try to stop the law from taking effect, though it’s unclear how he could be able to do that; he doesn’t become president until the day after. The law has been challenged in federal court, with TikTok arguing it violates the First Amendment. The D.C. Court of Appeals heard the case in September, and no ruling has been issued, but both sides requested one by December 6.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Recognizing that there are business risks posed by AI is important, but a new study from Riskonnect shows many companies haven’t moved past that step, writes Forbes senior contributor Edward Segal. Four out of five companies don’t have a dedicated plan to address generative AI-related threats. Companies are already impacted by cybersecurity threats—72% said they’re having a significant or severe impact on their organization. Segal writes that many company policies about AI deal with employee use—keeping chatbots secure and targeting protected data and code from being entered into open source systems—but aren’t wide enough to consider standards for systems they’re building or the downstream effects on individuals, groups and communities. There’s no time like the present for addressing some of these issues, Segal writes.

BITS + BYTES

New York Life Predates Modern Electricity. How Do They Hire Top Tech Talent?

Before he became New York Life’s chief data and analytics officer last year, Don Vu spent decades working for a variety of companies in the tech space, including building streaming platform BAMTech through the digital arm of Major League Baseball and as VP for data and analytics at WeWork. Even though he’s at a more traditional company now, Vu is still bullish on the huge opportunities for using AI and building technology to impact the future.

I talked to him about how he shares that value proposition with potential hires, and how companies that people may not associate with tech can attract some of the best talent. This conversation has been edited for length, clarity and continuity. A longer version is available here.

When people think of a company for tech talent, they probably don’t think of a company like New York Life. Why should they think of a legacy insurance company as a good place to hone their tech skills?

When I have conversations with folks about opportunities at our company, I focus on a few different things. There’s basically four main pillars.

The first is around impact. One of the things that’s really remarkable about New York Life is we are a mission-based company. Ultimately, what we’re trying to do is secure the financial future for families. We want to be a leader in providing holistic advice and guidance for folks. Oftentimes at other organizations, you might be getting someone to try to stare at their phone more, or click on more ads. No shade meant to be thrown to those activities, but it is a different type of organization that we have. Similarly, there’s an opportunity to lead a transformation and truly leave things better than you found them at a company that has incredible heritage. We’re 179 years old, so this notion of impact is a really big one.

The second thing is most tech folks that are trying to implement AI solutions really want to have business impact, and they want synergy with the business strategy. One of the things that’s really compelling is that our organization’s business strategy and our AI and data strategy are incredibly in sync. Craig DeSanto became the CEO of the organization two years ago. He set our company on a course to really focus on the client and agent experience, as well as operational efficiency, and that’s really meant to be driven by tech, data and AI. Because of that tight synergy with the business strategy, the partnerships we need in order for our work to be successful, to see the light of their day, [are] already there. It’s baked in. There’s already inherent belief and understanding in the work that we do and its importance for our overarching business success.

The third thing is we have long-term time horizons. Oftentimes if you work for a tech company, it could have a little bit of whiplash and skate to the shiny new thing, or be beholden to quarterly earnings and what shareholders are beating the drum on. We’re very focused on the long term. We’re privately held, owned by our policy holders as a mutual insurance company. And ultimately our interest and our goals are in the long-term commitments that we have to our policy holders. We can have the patience that’s often required for these strategic capabilities to develop, take root and have an effect. For folks that have been in the space for some time, they really understand that these things don’t happen overnight. You really need to keep banging on the rock before you finally break through.

The [fourth] thing is there’s quite a bit of talent and technology partnerships that we are able to leverage. We work with leading technology providers. [We have a] very deep relationship with AWS. We have relationships with OpenAI, Microsoft, Anthropic. We are very intentional about making sure that we are partnering with the people that are setting the front edge of innovation, such that we too can be pioneers in that space for our industry. I think folks would be very surprised.

I’ve had people say that, ‘I could work at Google and be one cog in a multi hundred thousand person machine and one of hundreds of thousands of developers.’ Or you can have an inordinate impact within a smaller team and with a company that’s at a different stage of their maturity curve.

Nowadays, every company is looking for AI talent. What is the market like for you?

We find it to be challenging, for sure, and certainly the value proposition needs to be laid out. What I oftentimes look for is the profile of an individual that will be a good fit and successful, not just for the short term—to land the individual as a hire—but to be successful in the long term. I look for an individual that has experience across both digital native organizations, as well as maybe a traditional enterprise.

This is just based on my own personal experience. Major League Baseball Advanced Media was a digital spinoff of the league. It was a true startup, but it was owned by a company that was 125 years old: Major League Baseball. After Commissioner [Rob] Manfred took over, he consolidated MLB Advanced Media with the league office. The league office had more of a law firm’s DNA, and it was a bit of a culture shock. The reason I bring that example up is if you were to take a purely digitally native startup [candidate], that’s all they know. Bring them into a more traditional enterprise, there is going to be an adjustment period.

I tend to look for, particularly in leadership positions, someone who’s had experience in both dimensions. Leaders with that sort of profile, that have straddled both worlds, tend to have more success, traction, [and] a lot of the horizontal collaboration with business partners that’s required to be successful.

What advice would you give to CIOs in situations like yours: At companies that aren’t necessarily associated with exciting tech careers, but needing to attract top tech talent?

At the end of the day, top talent really can sniff out what’s real and what’s not. I think there’s so many things that are appealing about working in a traditional enterprise. For any leader that wants to make their value proposition resonate with folks that are out looking for jobs and are top talent, you need to think about people, process, and tech.

I think that top talent wants to be around top talent. I think strong engineers want to be around strong engineers. I think good data scientists want to be around other good data scientists. Continue to raise the floor of your talent. Think about anchor hires that then are catalysts for cascading and broader teams that are of high quality and increase your talent density. That’s something that’s real. I’ve seen firsthand the effect that has, almost like an attraction mechanism when you have strong leaders in an industry.

As long as any company remains anchored to old technology, it can be a headwind not just for business agility, which is something that we’re all mindful of, but also for bringing talent on board. There’s so many things that explicitly implicitly are communicated to a candidate when you talk about your tech stack, your architecture. Are you working in the cloud? Are you working with leading vendors in the space in AI and data? Those things convey and make very clear and tangible to top talent what the opportunity is, and what DNA the organization has with respect to technology as a whole.

And then process. Are people working in Agile methodologies? Are people working in more antiquated ones? Is there close synergy with business partners? Are folks iterating and shipping and then testing? I think those sorts of dimensions are also really important. If folks hear about multi-year plans, multi-year projects and long cycles by which software and solutions are being shipped, I think that can be a bit of a flag for folks as well.

FACTS + COMMENTS

President-elect Donald Trump repeatedly vowed on the campaign trail to crack down on immigration, and Forbes’ Amy Feldman reports many immigrant tech workers have been scrambling to get their visas in order.

65,000: Number of H-1B visas—for U.S. companies to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations—granted per year. There’s an additional 20,000 available for those with a master’s degree or higher

24%: Proportion of H-1B visa applications denied in fiscal year 2018, during Trump’s first term

‘We will quickly see business feel the pain of restrictive immigration’: What Blake Miller, a partner at law firm Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, predicts will happen after Trump’s inauguration

STRATEGIES + ADVICE

There’s a big gender disparity in the AI workforce, where 71% are men and 29% are women. Here’s how to correct the imbalance.

If there’s one thing many people will agree on about AI, it’s the utter lack of authenticity—meaning your personal authenticity as a leader matters more today. Here are ways to improve your leadership skills.

QUIZ

AI, drones and 400,000 images have created a digital twin of which attraction for people to take immersive online 3D tours?

A. St. Peter’s Basilica

B. Notre Dame Cathedral

C. Ephesus

D. Machu Picchu

See if you got the answer right here.