The emergence of generative AI (genAI) caught too many chief information officers (CIOs) off guard. Within six months, boards found themselves rushing to expedite three- or five-year plans, leading to disruption and missed opportunities.

Now, we are very much in the genAI era, and CIOs are head down, looking at the best ways to work with and capitalise on this new technology. But they also need to have one eye trained on the next wave of disruption that’s currently brewing: artificial general intelligence (AGI).

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, defines artificial general intelligence as “AI systems that are generally smarter than humans.” This might make AGI sound theoretical, even science fiction, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t imminent—it’s a question of ‘when,’ not ‘if’.

‘A tsunami of disruption’

CIOs must prepare for it, or they will expose their firms to a tsunami of disruption down the line. Worst still, they’ll miss out on the huge advances their competitors will be gaining. Comprehensive AGI 2030 strategies should form the core of any firm’s preemptive action.

Far too many firms were wrongfooted by the appearance of GenAI. Some 73% of business leaders felt that their firm was ill-equipped in terms of time, resources and expertise for GenAI, and failed AI transformation projects are estimated to cost up to $2trn (£1.56trn) globally by 2026. To avoid a similar fate, the foundational assumption of any AGI 2030 strategy should be that tinkering and tweaking with systems is wholly ineffective.

CIOs must prepare to completely upend their existing processes and rebuild systems from the ground up. Nothing short of root and branch change will suffice. They must partner with their C-suite peers and prepare to reimagine the entire journey.

Within this, there are a range of practical measures that CIOs can take now to insulate their firms. Just because AGI is in its infancy, doesn’t mean that there aren’t tangible and concrete ways to pave the road for its arrival—and ensure that it’s smoothly integrated into your corporate systems.

Firstly, R&D should no longer be a fringe concern for any large corporation. Even if you aren’t in one of the sectors traditionally associated with R&D like pharmaceuticals or deep tech, CIOs should be building AI studios and be out at campuses, building relationships with leading institutions. They’ll then be abreast of any informational developments and can start building a talent pipeline from the top universities into their teams.

Be prepared

With advanced R&D capabilities, CIOs can advance their—and their boards’—understanding of machine learning, deep neural networks, natural language processing, and computer vision. Management can then run internal company simulations at their AI studios, modelling how these technologies will integrate and interact, forming more advanced cognitive functions.

The next step for CIOs will be to establish clear ethical guidelines and robust safety protocols in order to guide their boards’ decision-making. This will be a serious undertaking. Emerging technologies such as AI and AGI come with a host of unintended and unforeseen ethical and safety concerns that CIOs must assess and address.

The best way for them to do this is to start building ethics and safety committees now to develop robust guardrails for AI’s use in the company. CIOs should engage stakeholders and consult with leading academics and ethicists to theorise and develop best practices for the use of AGI in the future.

Ethics and safety aren’t window-dressing. There are very real benefits to investing now in building these committees. Clear and tangible usage guardrails will give investors certainty and provide a sense of security for the employees. Both will be able to plan and act for the future – and this will translate into improved company performance when AGI arrives.

Finally, CIOs must invest in recruiting and training the top AI talent of tomorrow. The best CIOs will build relationships with universities and design internal employee development programmes. AGI will not be confined to one specific field or a corporate function, so these teams must be multidisciplinary—it’s not enough to just hire data scientists and engineers.

The best teams will have neuroscientists, cognitive behaviourists, ethicists, and business analysts, in addition to the traditional cloud, data, and developer roles. A plurality of perspectives and backgrounds will ensure a firm remains agile and can pivot in the face of unforeseen effects of AGI’s disruption and implementation.

With these foundations in place, boards will have best positioned their firm to drive growth and capitalise on the enormous opportunities that AGI will bring. There are plenty of practical tools that CIOs should reach for to build out their AGI 2030 strategies. With comprehensive R&D, robust ethics and safety guidelines, and multidisciplinary teams at the helm, boards will find themselves in the best possible place to navigate their firm through the stormy waters that AGI will undoubtedly whip up.

Viral Tripathi is global chief information officer at Ascendion, an AI-first digital engineering and IT service company