The CIO, or chief information officer, was once seen as falling behind the times. In the era of digital transformation, the central role seemed to be shifting to the CTO, chief technology officer, and CDO roles: chief digital officer and chief data officer. The late Steve Jobs once criticised Fortune 500 companies for having “500 orifices-like CIOs,” implying the job was little more than a title.

But the CIO’s standing has changed since the pandemic. A recent Wall Street Journal report said CIOs are drawing attention as being at the centre of major shifts, including the move to remote work and the adoption of AI.

The WSJ, citing Lockheed Martin CIO Maria Demaree (마리아 디마리), highlighted how the CIO role has changed in the AI era. Demaree has been at Lockheed Martin for 35 years and became CIO last year.

According to her, the gateway for AI entering an organisation is ultimately the CIO. As a result, CIOs are required not only to introduce technology but also to act as “vision-setters” who design how the whole organisation will use it. Demaree says the CIO role has completely shifted from providing tools to being a “business partner.” As AI reaches the stage of being deployed in real operations, CIOs are moving beyond being simple suppliers to working with each business unit to define the objectives themselves.

Demaree leads digital transformation around three pillars. The first is integrating back-office systems such as HR, engineering and finance. The second is shifting to a model-based enterprise using digital twins and simulation. The last is AI.

She said of AI, “It is a tool that accelerates the first two, and a technology that helps us find the methods we can do best.”

She cited parts management as a representative example. Lockheed Martin manufactures a range of products including fighter jets, missiles, helicopters and spacecraft. With varied production lines, even a single screw has been called by different names depending on the product and has been managed redundantly.

Lockheed Martin is reclassifying parts using AI based on attributes such as weight, voltage and material. That is effective not only for cutting costs but also for responding to supply-chain crises.

Lockheed Martin developed and deployed its own AI agents to help with internal meeting records, summaries and task tracking. With a security-focused design, ordinary employees are using the AI agents to make queries based on internal data. The team led by Demaree numbers about 5,000 people and works closely with Lockheed Martin’s AI centre.

Demaree drew a line against the idea that AI can do everything, saying, “What AI can replace is repeatable work, and important decision-making still has to be done by humans.”

Her next goal is to bring tacit knowledge held by senior employees into AI so it can be used across the organisation.

She also stressed balancing “ethics” and “speed.” To do so, Demaree holds regular meetings with the legal, HR and communications departments to review AI accountability and safety, while also speeding up the development of tools that each division can use directly.

Lockheed Martin is currently recording monthly AI usage of 35 billion tokens. Demaree said, “ROI will gradually increase,” adding, “Now we need to focus on organisational structure and culture rather than use cases.”