Durandt Eksteen

Every conversation about the responsibilities of a CIO these days inevitably turns to AI and its impact on the business. The possibilities for faster, more efficient processes. The potential to rapidly launch new services by speeding up the development process. And the threats it carries, with malicious players using AI to unleash sophisticated attacks anywhere and everywhere. My conversation with NEC XON’s CIO in Africa, Durandt Eksteen, follows that path until we discuss a post he wrote for LinkedIn, lamenting that business leaders vastly underestimate IT’s ability to drive success.

His article argued that IT shouldn’t be just an expensive support function in the background, but, rather, an operational backbone delivering faster innovation, improved customer trust, and enhanced resilience. To achieve that, organisations must involve IT in strategic planning, measure its success by business outcomes, build internal skills and embed cybersecurity at every level.