This week, Google announced the launch of Gemini 3, the latest version of its proprietary AI model. The news came a few months after OpenAI’s release of competitive model ChatGPT 5, which was made available in August; the company has since published an update, version 5.1.
Immediate reaction to Gemini 3 was notably positive. Many reviewers praised it as the best AI model currently available, while others described Google as now leading the pack. Evidently, this new tool has caught the attention of potential users around the world, with a flood of people flocking to demo it.
But for CIOs, the question of whether — and when — to adopt new technology is more complicated. As individuals experiment with new products in small-scale scenarios, IT leaders have to consider the implications of large-scale implementation.
“There’s a risk of chasing the shiny object without doing the proper evaluation,” said Michael Krigsman, an industry analyst and host of the CXOTalk podcast.
Being the first to deploy a new tech capability is tempting, since it can offer a competitive edge in the market, attract new customers and inspire a reputation of being forward-thinking and modern. The value of being first is also amplified in the technology sector, since the field prizes innovation and novelty. People both inside and outside the industry look to technology to turn crazy ideas into functioning reality and major advances garner mass attention, from the wider public as well as from professionals.
Yet enterprise technology is less concerned with newness for newness’ sake and more interested in improving operational excellence. CIOs may be personally interested in a new product launch, but that shouldn’t necessarily translate to their work. Donald Farmer, a futurist at Tranquilla AI, research fellow at TWDI, and strategic advisor at MResult, argues that “being first” means something different when speaking about enterprise IT operations.
“It rarely means genuine, groundbreaking innovation in the sense of creating something unprecedented,” he explained. “More often, it is brilliant timing: early enough to claim [a] ‘competitive advantage,’ but late enough so that the technology has stabilized beyond the experimental phase.”
When running an organization, when is it time to embrace new technology?
Niel Nickolaisen, chairman of the CIO Council, Fc Centripetal
CIO conundrum: Be competitive or be cautious
Any IT leader will recognize the duality of needing to stay competitive and technologically savvy, while sensibly managing technical debt, long-term strategy, and digital transformation workloads. Effectively deploying a new solution at scale is night and day from testing that same tool on a personal device — and this complexity only compounds with the organization’s size.
Farmer describes this duality as “strategic dissonance,” where the need to beat out competitors must wrestle with the reality of how quickly the IT architecture can adapt. While other departments also tread this line, Farmer says it can feel more acute within the CIO’s territory as the technical debt isn’t metaphorical. When a team prioritizes launching quickly, the shortcuts usually create detours down the road.
“Unlike organizational debt or process debt, which exist as abstractions, technical debt in IT has a material presence,” he said. “It lives in running code and in database schemas that other systems depend upon. Each sprint toward being ‘first’ in some capability makes the next transformation harder.”
When the stakes are high, it’s natural instinct to be conservative. But that’s not always the right approach, says Niel Nickolaisen, director of strategic engagements at JourneyTeam and chairman of the CIO Council at Fc Centripetal. He said he believes that the risk-reward spectrum varies substantially: Technology companies may dramatically benefit from being early adopters, while more risk-averse companies may prefer to wait until both the uncertainty and realization of benefits is lower.
Farmer agreed: “Being first to AI capabilities might be decisive for a technology company; for a regional bank, it might be just vanity.”
This conundrum is exacerbated by the actions of the competition. Some industry observers believe that Google accelerated the launch of Gemini 3 in direct response to ChatGPT 5’s entrance in the market. While most product releases are not so high-profile, competitors’ new capabilities can have a meaningful impact on a more cautious organization.
Krigsman gave the example of a legacy bank that notices its smaller rivals are leading the way in mobile app experience, quicker check deposits and customer service. Without the technical debt of a larger institution, these competitors are able to take greater risks and impress their customers with the results. “In that case, being slow could definitely cause you to lose market share,” he concluded.
In an ideal world, a company would have all the time it needs to rigorously test every new deployment and still be ahead of the pack — but that’s not the world of today. Often CIOs must choose one or the other.
“This creates a bit of a dilemma for a risk-averse organization,” Nickolaisen said. “Where do I draw the line between reducing uncertainty risks and falling behind the competition and, more generally, customer expectations?”
CIO calculus: Evaluating the new
This positions CIOs on a very narrow tightrope of needing to stay nimble and forward-thinking, while also keeping a pulse on the practicality of new IT investment. Act too quickly and the revenue benefits of early deployment could be undermined by technical debt — if the technology even reaps those rewards as initially promised. But act too slowly and the competition’s enhanced offerings could encroach on market share, sabotaging existing long-term strategy.
The choice of which technology to invest in and which vendor to partner with is increasingly critical.
“[There is] this idea of hiring vendors who are fat, dumb and happy — their brands are strong, and therefore brand loyalty is strong, and they’re a safe bet. In the ’80s or the ’70s, nobody ever got fired for bringing on IBM,” Krigsman quipped. “But on the other hand, fat, dumb and happy also means lack of innovation.”
Instead of defaulting to the large providers, Krigsman recommends looking for new vendors and tools that are attracting high-quality investment, and following up with careful due diligence on their early customer success. This requires ceding the first-place position but can still support early-stage adoption, while providing greater confidence and peace of mind.
For Nickolaisen, he uses what he describes as an “innovation roadmap” to help him identify new technologies that are worth early adoption. In practice, this means relying on the insight and experience of several key partners: Venture capital firms that fund early-stage companies and know the market; value-added resellers that have an active and worthy process of new tech and new company selection; and broader trend predictors.
These insights, combined with his own research, can then be factored into CIO decision-making, alongside other roadmaps: modernization and technical debt removal, transformation, process improvement and culture improvement.
“It is a lot to define and manage, and takes some time to get good at it, but once it is running, it works really well,” Nickolaisen said.
[There is] this idea of hiring vendors who are fat, dumb and happy … But on the other hand, fat, dumb and happy also means lack of innovation.
— Michael Krigsman, podcaster, CXOTalk
The ultimate juggling act
Choosing and implementing new technology is not just about making sure something works. It’s also about making the right choice, at the right time, for the business’ specific needs, Krigsman said. If a new deployment won’t be adopted by employees in a meaningful way, then the gains will be minimal no matter how quickly or efficiently the tool was launched. He argues that coordinating with the C-suite and the CEO in particular is imperative for successful, competitive IT operations.
“You need to find a solution that works for you, as the steward of stable operational technology systems — and a solution that works for the CEO, as the key driver of business growth and innovation,” Krigsman said.
The juggling of multiple priorities rings true for Farmer as well. He emphasized the importance of factoring in several timelines simultaneously:
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The horizon of competitive pressure, where delay means a potentially lost advantage.
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The horizon of technical capacity, where new capabilities emerge but require foundations of technology and skills that may not exist.
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The horizon of organizational transformation, related to skills but also cultural change.
Only by developing a kind of sixth sense for urgency can CIOs learn to accurately pinpoint which new capabilities are worth pursuing at speed, and which can be delayed.
“The duality isn’t really a paradox to be resolved,” he said, “but rather a tension to be managed skillfully.”
