Overview

Lecture URL: https://skill.re/learn/manager/partnering-with-it-on-ai-infrastructure.php

AI FOR MANAGERS CERTIFICATION

Building AI-Ready Organizations (Level 5) | Chapter 5

LECTURE: Partnering with IT on AI Infrastructure

Lesson 5.5.4 | Estimated Duration: ~22 minutes

Welcome to lesson 5.5.4. In this session, we address a critical but often overlooked relationship: the partnership between business managers and IT leaders around AI infrastructure.

Many managers view IT as a constraint. IT says no. IT moves slowly. IT does not understand business needs. From IT's perspective, managers make demands without understanding technical realities. Managers want it fast. IT needs to do it right.

This tension is common. But it is damaging. Effective AI adoption requires alignment and partnership between business and IT.

This lesson teaches you how to build productive partnerships with IT around AI infrastructure. You will learn what IT cares about, how to communicate your needs clearly, and how to work collaboratively toward solutions that serve both business and IT.

By the end of this lesson, you will know how to partner effectively with IT to enable AI adoption while addressing legitimate IT concerns.

Understanding IT's Perspective

What Does IT Care About?

IT leaders have legitimate concerns that are often different from business manager concerns.

SECURITY

IT cares deeply about security. AI introduces new security risks: data exposure, model manipulation, adversarial attacks. IT needs to understand and mitigate these risks.

A business manager says: "We want to deploy this AI chatbot." IT responds: "What data will it have access to? How is that data secured? What happens if the model is compromised?" These are not obstacles. They are legitimate concerns.

RELIABILITY AND UPTIME

IT is responsible for keeping systems running. AI systems introduce new failure modes: models degrade, data quality issues, integration failures. IT needs to understand how to monitor and maintain these systems.

COMPLIANCE AND GOVERNANCE

Many industries have regulations about data, privacy, and decision-making. AI use may trigger compliance requirements. IT helps ensure you operate legally and ethically.

SCALABILITY

As business wants to scale AI, IT needs to ensure infrastructure scales with it. Not all AI infrastructure can scale from pilot to enterprise.

INTEGRATION COMPLEXITY

AI systems do not exist in isolation. They integrate with existing systems. Integration is complex and time-consuming.

TALENT AND SKILLS

IT teams need skills to support AI systems. They need to know how to manage models, data pipelines, integrations. These are new skills that take time to develop.

When a business manager says "deploy AI fast," IT is thinking about all these concerns. They are not being obstructionist. They are being responsible.

Why Partnerships Matter

Partnerships between business and IT enable better outcomes.

WITHOUT PARTNERSHIP

Without partnership, business and IT are at odds. Business pushes for speed. IT resists. Business goes around IT and adopts tools independently. IT loses visibility and control. Risk increases.

WITH PARTNERSHIP

With partnership, business and IT work together. Business clarifies what it needs and why. IT clarifies constraints and trade-offs. Together, they find solutions that serve both business agility and IT responsibility.

Outcomes with partnership:

• Faster time to value (IT enables speed where possible)
  - Appropriate risk management (business understands and accepts IT's concerns)
  - Better decisions about build vs. buy (business and IT jointly decide what to build internally and what to buy)
  - Sustainable solutions (solutions are designed to scale and be maintained)

Building Effective Partnerships

How do you build a productive partnership with IT?

LEARN THEIR PERSPECTIVE

Spend time understanding what IT cares about. Invite the IT leader responsible for your area to have a conversation. Ask:

• What are your biggest concerns about AI adoption?
  - What security risks concern you?
  - How would you prefer AI tools to be integrated?
  - What would make your job easier?

Listen without defending your position. Understand their constraints.

COMMUNICATE YOUR NEEDS CLEARLY

When you have an AI need, communicate it clearly to IT.

Do not say: "We want to use AI chatbots."

Do say: "We want to deploy an AI chatbot to handle customer service inquiries. Our goal is to handle 60% of routine inquiries automatically, improving response time from 2 hours to 15 minutes. The chatbot needs access to our customer database and knowledge base. We estimate 50,000 conversations per month. We need this deployed in 3 months."

Clear communication about business need, scope, scale, and timeline helps IT understand what they are working with.

UNDERSTAND CONSTRAINTS

Ask IT about technical constraints.

• What data can we safely use with AI?
  - How should we handle data security?
  - What integration approaches make most sense?
  - What is a realistic timeline given your capacity?
  - What skills or resources would you need?

Understanding constraints helps you make realistic plans.

BUILD COLLABORATIVE SOLUTIONS

Work together on solutions. Do not view IT as service providers. View them as partners.

This might look like:

• Joint planning: Business and IT jointly plan the implementation
  - Staged rollout: Instead of big bang, you roll out in phases, learning at each stage
  - Shared ownership: Both business and IT own the outcome, not just the handoff
  - Regular checkpoints: You meet regularly to assess progress and adjust

Joint planning and shared ownership create better outcomes.

ADDRESS CONCERNS PROACTIVELY

If IT has a concern, address it proactively. Do not ignore it or hope it goes away.

If IT is concerned about data security with an AI tool, work together on security:

• What data can be used safely?
  - What security measures are needed?
  - How will you test security before production?
  - Who is responsible for ongoing security monitoring?

Addressing concerns proactively builds trust.

INVEST IN IT'S CAPABILITY DEVELOPMENT

Recognize that IT needs to develop new skills to support AI. Help them.

• Allocate time for training and learning
  - Bring in external expertise when needed
  - Give IT space to experiment with new tools
  - Build partnerships with vendors who can support your IT team

When IT feels supported in developing capability, they become more willing to embrace AI.

CELEBRATE SUCCESSES TOGETHER

When an AI implementation succeeds, celebrate it with IT.

This is not just about politeness. It is about recognition. IT made significant contributions to making it work. Acknowledge it.

When IT sees that their work leads to business value, they become more invested in future AI initiatives.

Common Conflicts and How to Navigate Them

SPEED VS. SECURITY

Business wants to move fast. IT wants to ensure security.

Navigation: Ask what the minimum viable secure solution looks like. Can you deploy with limited data first? Can you add security layers iteratively? Can you pilot before full scale?

Speed and security are not mutually exclusive with creative solutions.

BUILD VS. BUY

Business prefers buying off-the-shelf tools because they are faster. IT prefers building custom solutions because they provide more control.

Navigation: Evaluate each decision on merits. For standard problems, buying is usually faster and better. For novel problems, building might make sense. Be willing to buy most things and build only what is genuinely different.

VENDOR RISK

IT is concerned about vendor lock-in, vendor viability, data ownership with third-party vendors. Business wants to move fast with available tools.

Navigation: Understand IT's concerns. Negotiate vendor contracts that address concerns (data ownership, exit clauses, etc.). For critical systems, diversify vendors.

RESOURCE CONSTRAINTS

Business wants IT to prioritize AI projects. IT has other priorities: keeping systems running, security patches, other initiatives.

Navigation: Help IT prioritize. What is the business impact? What resources would you need? Can you bring resources from business to support? Be realistic about timelines given IT's capacity.

Establishing Governance That Enables

Many business-IT conflicts stem from governance that is either too loose or too tight.

TOO LOOSE GOVERNANCE

If business can adopt tools without IT involvement, you get:

• Shadow IT (tools business uses that IT does not know about)
  - Security risks (data accessed by tools IT does not monitor)
  - Integration problems (tools that do not talk to each other)
  - Compliance issues (use of tools that violate policy)

TOO TIGHT GOVERNANCE

If every tool adoption requires extensive approval, you get:

• Slow innovation (good ideas take months to approve)
  - Frustration (business goes around governance)
  - Brittleness (if process is too rigid, it breaks with edge cases)

GOOD GOVERNANCE

Good governance is light and collaborative.

• Clear principles (shared understanding of what matters: security, compliance, integration)
  - Fast review process (approval in days, not weeks)
  - Escalation paths (routine decisions are fast; novel decisions are escalated)
  - Continuous improvement (if governance is causing problems, you adjust it)

Good governance enables innovation while addressing legitimate concerns.

1. The "Business Goes Around IT" Pattern

Business gets frustrated with IT's pace. Business adopts tools independently. IT is not involved. Security risks mount. Integration problems emerge. When IT discovers the shadow IT, conflict erupts. Instead, build partnership. If IT is too slow, fix that together. If you go around IT, you are creating bigger problems.

1. The "IT Blocks Everything" Pattern

IT says no to every new AI tool. IT is concerned about risk, but concerns are not proportionate to actual risk. Business becomes frustrated. Business loses trust in IT. Instead, find the root of IT's concerns. Are they legitimate? Can they be addressed? Can you pilot to prove safety?

1. The "No Real Partnership" Pattern

Business and IT work together but with a transactional mindset. Business wants something. Business asks IT to build it. IT builds it and hands it off. There is no genuine collaboration or partnership. When problems emerge, there is blame rather than joint problem-solving. Instead, create genuine partnership. Own outcomes together. Solve problems together.

[PRACTICE PROMPTS]

1. Identify the IT leader you need to partner with on AI initiatives. Schedule a conversation. Ask about their concerns about AI adoption. Listen. Understand their perspective.
2. Outline an AI initiative you are considering. Prepare to discuss it with IT. Include: business need, data required, scale, timeline, and questions about technical feasibility.
3. Identify a conflict between business and IT at your organization (about speed, security, resources, or something else). How would you address it? How would you build partnership to find a solution?
4. Design governance for AI tool adoption at your organization that enables innovation while addressing legitimate IT concerns.
5. IT cares about security, reliability, compliance, scalability, integration, and skills. These are legitimate concerns that enable better outcomes when addressed.
6. Partnerships between business and IT enable faster time to value and appropriate risk management.
7. Build partnerships by learning IT's perspective, communicating needs clearly, understanding constraints, building collaborative solutions, and addressing concerns proactively.
8. Navigate common conflicts by finding creative solutions that address both speed and security, both build and buy preferences, and realistic resource constraints.
9. Establish governance that is light and enables innovation while addressing legitimate concerns.

[GLOSSARY]

Shadow IT: Technology adoption that happens outside of formal IT governance, often created when business moves faster than formal processes allow.

Vendor lock-in: Dependency on a single vendor, making it costly or difficult to switch to alternative vendors.

Vendor viability: Confidence that a vendor will continue to exist and support their product over time.

[SYNTHESIS AND APPLICATION]

The best organizations are those where business and IT work as true partners. Business understands technology constraints and trade-offs. IT understands business urgency and opportunities. Together, they make better decisions.

[REFLECTION EXERCISE]

Reflect on these questions:

1. How would you characterize the relationship between business and IT at your organization? Partnership or tension? Why?
2. What is the biggest barrier to better partnership between business and IT in your organization? How would you address it?
3. If you could improve the business-IT relationship, what would change? What would be the impact?

[CLOSING REMARKS]

AI adoption at scale requires strong partnerships between business and IT. Business provides vision and urgency. IT provides wisdom about risk, security, and sustainability.

Invest in this partnership. Understand IT's perspective. Communicate clearly. Solve problems together. The organizations where business and IT partner well are the ones that lead in AI adoption.