Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 50 | Page 46

CIO opinion CIO OPINION change the mind set of some of our key people on how we should perform. How important is a consultative approach to the way you do your job? In what ways do you use technology to enhance the experience of your customers? It’s important so we can modify our plans to meet customer expectations. In many ways – by starting to automate most of our services this will reduce human error and also the waiting time for customers to be served. How is technology impacting your industry and how are you leveraging it for business growth? It impacts us in many ways – one of them is to give the opportunity to some of the companies to offer different services even if they are not specialised such as a new fintech company. What technologies are you looking to invest in? RPA to enhance the performance and reduce the cost of our processes. What are the main IT challenges in the Middle East at the moment? Could you highlight some of the previous positions you have held and what they entailed? Head of PMO at SAMBA; Head of PMO at Bank Al-Jazira; and Head of Infrastructure at SADAD – SAMA. What advice would you give to aspiring CIOs? You are the future. Why is versatility an important characteristic for a CIO? Versatility is the most successful element if we want to compete and offer different services. To implement your plans and strategy what kind of talent would you be looking for? An innovative and AI specialised skill set. For big organisations it’s how to replace the current legacy system. You recently spoke at the World AI & RPA Show in Riyadh. What did you talk about? In general, how AI and RPA impact the way we serve our customers and what the biggest challenges are during Digital Transformation. n “ EMPLOYERS NEED TO ANTICIPATE CHANGES IN JOB FUNCTIONS AND BE AWARE OF LEGAL PITFALLS ASSOCIATED WITH EVOLVING TECHNOLOGY. How would you describe your managerial style? Between participative and coaching. What does your typical day look like? Exploring the market to understand the technology trends and forcing the change towards digitalisation. What is the most important lesson you have learnt in your career? Change will happen and to be successful we need to be part of that change. Could you name some of the key technology vendors you work with? IBM and MS. 46 INTELLIGENTCIO www.intelligentcio.com