Fletcher Previn says advancements in generative artificial intelligence are leading him to rethink workflows not just for Cisco Systems’ 10,000 IT workers, a department that operates on a $1.54 billion annual budget, but also the broader employee base of around 90,400.

He favors a collaborative approach that takes into consideration input from both the C-suite and workers.

“There’s the bottom up inertia of people asking for access to tools, and then there’s the top-down inertia of saying, ‘Here’s how we see this role evolving,’” says Previn, who has served as chief information officer at the networking-equipment company since 2021. “You sort of have both trying to meet in the middle.”

What that means for his work as CIO is finding ways to improve worker productivity, including giving de

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