Today, most IT teams are stuck in reactive mode instead of realizing their full potential as drivers of innovation. That’s according to a new Forrester Consulting study, commissioned by Tines, which reveals that IT has a key role to play in scaling AI. However, many teams are being held back by organizational barriers, limiting their impact.
The study, Unlocking AI’s Full Value: How IT Orchestrates Secure, Scalable Innovation, surveyed over 400 IT leaders across North America and Europe to explore the challenges and opportunities they’re currently facing. It found that governance and security, lack of budget and executive sponsorship, and siloed initiatives are the biggest blockers stalling progress when it comes to scaling AI.
Orchestration connects people, processes, and tools and is critical to overcoming these barriers. But while 86% believe IT is uniquely positioned to orchestrate AI across workflows, systems, and teams, many organizations have yet to fully recognize IT’s role as a strategic driver.
The critical role of orchestration
Businesses are eager to reap the benefits of AI, like enhanced efficiency, improved decision-making, and faster innovation. But fragmented implementation and gaps in governance expose them to significant risks, such as bias, ethical breaches, compliance failures, and shadow AI, which could lead to regulatory penalties or reputational damage.
Ensuring AI solutions comply with privacy and governance regulations is the top business priority for more than half (54%) of the organizations surveyed over the next 12 months. Yet, over a third (38%) cite security or governance concerns as the number-one barrier to scaling AI.
With orchestration, organizations can drive a compliance-first approach. It enables enterprises to build governance and security into AI workflows and processes, setting them up for success as they scale their initiatives. While traditional governance processes struggle to adapt to the evolving demands of AI, orchestration allows for greater oversight, efficiency, and flexibility.
Indeed, 88% of IT leaders say that without orchestration, AI adoption remains fragmented across the organization. Lack of orchestration also exacerbates challenges such as:
Ensuring AI practices are ethical and transparent (50%)
Security concerns related to data access, compliance issues, inconsistent governance, auditing, and shadow AI (44%)
Lack of employee trust in the outcomes generated by AI (40%)
A robust orchestration framework can address these key barriers. Almost three-quarters (73%) of IT leaders highlight the importance of end-to-end visibility across AI workflows and systems. Orchestration enforces consistency, breaks down silos, and enables leaders to:
Align AI with business goals
Monitor performance in real time
Quickly address any security and governance issues that arise
The result is improved efficiency, greater control, and more consistent governance. Together, these help demonstrate responsible AI use, build employee trust, and unlock capacity for innovation.
IT is primed to lead AI orchestration
IT teams have a pivotal role to play in AI orchestration. Of the leaders surveyed:
38% believe IT should own and lead AI orchestration
28% see IT as the coordination hub between departments
84% say aligning AI initiatives with enterprise strategy is a top priority for their function
Orchestration presents a significant opportunity for IT to deepen their strategic influence. While the function is increasingly recognized as an enabler of efficiency, 38% of IT leaders believe they are still overlooked or underestimated.
They attribute this to a lack of business visibility into IT contributions and a reactive focus on troubleshooting and uptime, both of which respondents say hold IT back from being seen as a driver of business outcomes at the board level.
With AI orchestration, IT can shift from reactive to proactive and become a strategic force. In addition to improving operations and upholding governance standards, IT leaders say that orchestration will accelerate progress in key areas like:
Enhancing collaboration between business units
Enabling faster ongoing digital transformation
Increasing employee productivity
Reducing human error in critical processes
This unlocks tangible business value across the organization in the form of efficiency gains, revenue opportunities, and ROI.
To achieve this, however, the research highlights the importance of both technical and non-technical factors. Integrated platforms and no-code or low-code AI automation tools help IT take the lead, but executive sponsorship and cross-functional collaboration models are equally important to ensure success.
Shaping the future with compliance-first AI
The research shows that IT is the best-placed org to drive AI adoption through orchestration, giving them the visibility and control they need to scale AI securely, compliantly, and effectively across the enterprise. But it’s only by bridging the gap between technical requirements and executive priorities that IT can unlock their full potential and shape their organization’s success.
To learn more about IT’s role in AI orchestration, read the full study.