The CIO Took The Keys To The AI Car – Are You Still Pitching To The Passenger?

The CIO Took The Keys To The AI Car – Are You Still Pitching To The Passenger?

Technological evolution necessitates a complementary habitat, and nowhere is this more evident than with AI. Already, AI is proving to be disruptive to traditional enterprise SaaS pricing models, with vendors trying to manage variable AI inference costs and encourage feature adoption. However, just as AI is shaking up software vendor pricing models, it is also reshaping the sales process. For SaaS vendors, this means recognizing shifting purchasing power towards a melange of IT personas, alongside relevant functional heads and procurement teams.

According to the 2024 Verdantix AI global corporate survey, CIOs and CTOs now lead AI strategy at 93% of firms. This is because AI introduces unique and potent liabilities such as model hallucinations, data security vulnerabilities and immense computational costs; these factors position the IT voice as a critical gatekeeper to any AI system. With 42% of tech leaders citing the complexity of AI technologies as the biggest barrier to adoption, the CIO’s mandate is to focus on firmwide AI readiness and provide a clear path through uncertainty. They are tasked with preventing a chaotic and costly sprawl of unvetted, incompatible tools that pose operational, efficiency and security risks. For software procurements with widespread AI and GenAI integration, Verdantix sees the influence of IT executives increasing.

To win deals in this new era, vendors must upskill their sales teams. Sales professionals don’t need to become data scientists, but they must be equipped to confidently handle the first wave of technical and risk-related questions. This means clearly communicating not only the core technology – such as retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), custom LLMs and safety guardrails – but also the broader strategic and operational implications. They need to articulate the organization’s AI roadmap, detail how the platform integrates with a client's existing tech stack, and address critical concerns around data provenance, privacy and responsible AI principles. Furthermore, sales teams must demonstrate a foundational knowledge of relevant regulations, especially when selling into highly regulated verticals like finance or healthcare. Clearly articulating what the AI tools can and cannot do is crucial for building the required trust. The ability to make these complex topics compelling to different audiences is what will set vendor sales teams apart.

For incumbent SaaS vendors, preparing their sales teams to address the technical and ethical concerns of the new IT gatekeeper is no longer optional – it is integral. For more information on how vendors can keep pace with AI innovation, visit the Verdantix AI Applied research page.