TechnologyAdobePrint articleNov 18, 2025 – 3.00pmSaveLog inorSubscribeto save articleShareCopy linkCopiedEmailLinkedInTwitterFacebookCopy linkCopiedShare via...Gift this articleSubscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber?LoginArtificial intelligence is shifting from experimental pilot to enterprise foundation, reshaping how Australian organisations make decisions, design services and manage risk. For chief information officers, the pace and depth of the change is altering long-held assumptions about technology strategy, governance and workplace expectations, prompting a reassessment of what digital transformation now means.What began as isolated trials and proof of concepts has evolved into a broader rethink of how information is collected, interpreted and acted on across the organisation. Boards are asking how AI investments translate into measurable outcomes.For CIOs the pace and depth of the change is altering long-held assumptions about technology strategy, governance and workplace expectations,iStockEmployees are seeking tools that make work easier and more engaging. Customers expect more tailored digital services without compromising privacy or trust. The result is a new phase of transformation that places data and experience design at the centre of enterprise planning.Scott King, director of growth and innovation at Adobe’s digital strategy group says AI is not just a technical endeavour. “We see AI as a strategic shift,” he says. “It is going to dramatically change the way that society generates economic value, democratises access to education, and enriches the culture of creative expression.”The shift is profound enough to rival earlier waves of digital progress. “It may prove more consequential to humanity than the advent of the internet, or the personal computer itself.”AdvertisementKing says that the rise of generative and agentic AI has accelerated that shift. Adobe, which has incorporated AI into its platforms for more than a decade, has seen its use move from niche to mainstream. “Two years ago AI was probably 20 per cent of my conversations. Today it is easily 80 per cent,” he says. “That is a nod to the rapid evolution of the market.”Scott King, director of growth and innovation at Adobe’s digital strategy group.From data accumulation to data usefulnessAustralian enterprises have amassed large quantities of data over years of digital system deployment. The immediate challenge is making that data meaningful and usable across teams.“Today, organisations today have access to masses of data,” King says. “AI is becoming a transformational unlock to help brands interpret, mobilise and utilise that data.” He points to three areas: unifying data that sits across silos, deriving insights without requiring specialist data science capability, and translating data into actionable, personalised experiences.The last step is often the most complex. Personalisation at scale requires not only insight but also the ability to create and adapt content rapidly. King says generative AI can help resolve that friction. “If we try to handcraft personalised experiences for every customer across all interactions - websites, email, social, and the like – the content demand grows exponentially,” he says. “AI helps us meet that demand.”The risks of delayWhile some organisations are cautiously experimenting, the market is moving quickly. Adobe’s analysis of anonymised web traffic suggests new patterns in how consumers find brands. “We are seeing a 5000 per cent increase month on month in traffic being sent from ChatGPT,” King says. “If your organisation is not ready to optimise for these platforms, you risk losing to brands that are.”He says the competitive gap is not only about acquisition. “We are seeing things like a 300 per cent increase in productivity through using AI in our technology,” he says. “If you are not leveraging those capabilities, you risk becoming a laggard.”Governance rises in priorityThe rapid adoption of AI has placed new pressure on governance frameworks. From data provenance to intellectual property and model bias, CIOs must weigh experimentation against risk management.King says CIOs should favour platforms where governance is embedded. “We have an enterprise level component of ethics ingrained in everything we do as it pertains to AI,” he says. Adobe uses what it refers to as principles of “accountability, responsibility and transparency”, which include training models on commercially safe content and providing visibility into how digital assets were created or modified.One example is Adobe’s work with publishers on Content Credentials, which allow users to check the history of an image asset. “It will show if it was created with AI or was shot with a camera, whether it was modified and how,” King says. “That is transparency in action.”Rethinking leadership rolesThe shift to AI is also reframing the relationship between technology and business leadership. Dr Joseph Sweeney, advisor at IBRS and veteran researcher at the coalface of digital adoption, says the rise of generative AI requires executives to shift from presenting answers to asking better questions.“It requires executives of all levels to move away from talking about what they know to asking really good questions,” Sweeney says. “If you can interrogate this vast wealth of information and re-ask questions, you get better thinking. AI is best used as a way of challenging existing thinking.”Dr Joseph Sweeney, advisor at IBRS.He says most AI that organisations use will ultimately be embedded in systems they already have. “Inserting AI deeply into those, almost invisibly to the user, is where it will be most effective,” Sweeney says. “You may not need to build your own big AI platform. You might just be able to put it inside the platforms you have.”Workforce expectations shape adoptionSweeney says workforce sentiment is a critical, and often overlooked, factor. IBRS surveyed workers on how they viewed AI. While many believed that AI would affect roles, the strongest predictor of whether employees saw AI positively was whether they had received training.“The number one factor was, has the company trained them?” Sweeney says. “Organisations are implementing AI as an experiment and wondering why they cannot see the benefit. “If they’re using it as a search tool, you got a problem,” Sweeney says. “If they’re using it as a synthesis tool and a challenging tool, bringing information all across the business, looking at it and asking really tough questions, then you start to see very different and very effective use cases.”“It is not the AI that is going to give you the productivity,” he says. “It is the people discovering new insights by the AI challenging them that results in the big productivity gains.”He says organisations should treat AI literacy as part of broader digital preparedness. “It is more than just AI training, it is the whole digital literacy training,” he says.Advisory support and strategic clarityIndependent advisors can play a role in helping organisations calibrate expectations. Sweeney says this often involves identifying where existing systems already contain AI capability. “A lot of organisations have this stuff, they just do not know where it is,” he says. “Having that external view helps identify opportunities and the areas that perhaps should not be prioritised.”Future market dynamics may increase the need for clear priorities. Sweeney says the cost of running AI systems is likely to rise. “AI will get more expensive,” he says. “We will start having to pay what it is actually worth from the computation side. That means we need to be very specific about where we put it.”Beyond commercial useBoth experts believe AI will become a central layer of enterprise operations, affecting how decisions are made, how work is organised and how value is delivered. The scale of the change means organisations will need clarity, governance and a sustained commitment to workforce capability.King says the potential extends beyond commercial use. He points to recent medical breakthroughs in human genome sequencing lead by the University of California as an example of what AI can now make possible. “We are on an exciting trajectory,” he says. “AI heralds a promising future, but one that we need to approach with ethics and governance at its core.”For CIOs, the task is no longer simply selecting the right tools. It is shaping the conditions in which AI can be used safely, intelligently and at scale. The decisions being made now will define how organisations compete, collaborate and create value in the years ahead.To find out more, please visitAdobe.SponsoredbyAdobeThis content has been funded by an advertiser and written by the Nine commercial editorial team.SaveLog inorSubscribeto save articleShareCopy linkCopiedEmailLinkedInTwitterFacebookCopy linkCopiedShare via...Gift this articleSubscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber?LoginLicense articleFollow the topics, people and companies that matter to you.Find out moreRead MoreAdobeFetching latest articlesNo Rolex? 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