Digital Wisdom in the Age of AI: Aligning People, Strategy, and Technology with Barbara Wittmann

Barbara Wittmann, an award-winning digital leadership expert, interim CIO, and founder of the Digital Wisdom Collective, discusses why failed digital transformations are usually human and organizational problems rather than technology ones.

She describes how consultancies often leave after go-live, while real adoption issues—workarounds, shadow IT, and misalignment—emerge later. With AI, the risk and speed are higher: many firms roll out generic tools without strategy, lack data foundations, and face uncontrolled employee use of free accounts, creating IP and security concerns.

Wittmann argues AI requires cross-functional ownership (IT, legal, HR) and governance that users can understand, grounded in values and eth ...