CIO interview: Cynthia Stoddard, Adobe | Computer Weekly
Summary
And it’s really fun to see the impact we’re having.” Computer Weekly spoke with Stoddard at the recent Adobe Summit in London, just a few days after the US executive had flown in from a trip to Romania. I’m pleased they’ve embraced the cultural aspects of what we’re trying to do as an organisation.” Computer Weekly last caught up with Stoddard in 2021, when she outlined changes to enterprise technology at Adobe in the post-pandemic era. Because many times, you’ll go through a proof of concept for a technology, deploy it, and then it doesn’t work.” She says Lab82 gives people across the business the opportunity to test new tools, such as those that support collaboration and video conferencing. We’ve also worked to create an environment where we can serve a lot of different personas, whether that’s basic users who want to start more advanced analytics or onto data scientists who are undertaking detailed work.” Stoddard says the aim is to give people across the business a technological co-pilot that can help them complete their day-to-day activities more effectively: “Our first use cases were based, for example, on processing invoices or purchase orders and how we could use technology to help with that type of workflow.” Now, the emphasis has changed – and the objective is to think about how AI and automation can be applied successfully to any element of work. We’ve set up citizen developer-type guidelines and put them in place, and it’s working out nicely.” The continued focus on emerging technologies brings new pressures for CIOs, especially when it comes to the management of the data that powers these innovations.