From Modernizing Systems to Modernizing Decisions

By Siva Pullabhotla, CEO -- Altios.ai

When Sam Corcos, CIO of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, spoke candidly on the Modern Wisdom podcast, he wasn't talking about AI hype, chatbots, or moonshot innovation.

He was talking about something far more uncomfortable --- and far more important:

You can't modernize what you can't see.
And you can't fix what the organization isn't structurally capable of acting on.

That insight should land hard with every CIO.

1. The Real Problem Isn't Legacy Tech --- It's Invisible Spend and Broken Feedback Loops

One of Corcos's most striking anecdotes involved a multi-million-dollar software contract that had been auto-renewing for years --- with almost no real usage.

Not because anyone was corrupt.
Not because people were incompetent.

But because:

• Contracts lived in one system
• Invoices in another
• Usage data somewhere else
• And no one had an end-to-end view

This is the silent tax on CIO organizations:

Spend exists, but insight doesn't.

AI cannot fix this unless the data fabric and operating model change first.

2. AI Doesn't Create Value. Organizations Do.

A recurring theme in the podcast was that tools don't drive outcomes --- structure does.

Corcos described how government IT struggles not because of a lack of smart people, but because:

• Incentives reward compliance, not ownership
• Processes optimize approvals, not outcomes
• Talent is trapped in manual work instead of judgment

This directly explains why GenAI productivity gains often fail to show up in the P&L.

AI saves time.
But if time isn't deliberately redeployed, value evaporates.

3. The CIO's Job Is Shifting --- From Running IT to Designing Intelligence

What emerges clearly from Corcos's experience is a new CIO mandate:

The CIO is no longer just responsible for systems.
They are responsible for how decisions get made.

That requires:

• Visibility across spend, vendors, and services
• Continuous feedback between execution and planning
• And AI systems that explain and recommend, not just report

This is where most ITFM tools stop short --- and where AI-first platforms must begin.

4. Why Data Fragmentation Is the Biggest AI Risk

Corcos repeatedly emphasized fragmentation:

• Multiple procurement systems
• Redundant vendors
• No reliable contract-to-usage mapping

In an AI era, fragmented data isn't just inefficient --- it's dangerous.

Because:

AI will confidently reason over whatever data you give it.

If the foundation is fragmented, AI amplifies the wrong signals.

For CIOs, this reframes governance:

• Not "Should we allow AI?"
• But "Is our data coherent enough to trust AI outputs?"

5. What an AI-First CIO Organization Actually Looks Like

The lesson from the podcast is not "buy more AI tools."

It's redesign the CIO organization around intelligence:

• AI handles low-risk, high-volume tasks autonomously
• Humans focus on judgment, trade-offs, and accountability
• Data flows across finance, IT, procurement, and operations
• AI generates narratives, not just dashboards

This is how CIOs move from:
cost tracking → decision intelligence

6. Implications for IT Financial Management Platforms

The Corcos perspective makes one thing clear:

ITFM cannot remain a reporting layer.

To support the next-gen CIO, platforms must evolve into:

• Unified data fabrics (contracts, spend, vendors, workforce)
• AI reasoning layers (variance explanation, renewal risk, scenarios)
• Decision enablement systems (what to stop, shift, renegotiate)

This is the shift from financial visibility to organizational intelligence.

Closing Thought

Sam Corcos's experience inside one of the largest, most complex institutions in the world reinforces a simple truth:

AI does not modernize organizations.
Clear visibility + structural accountability + intelligent systems do.

The CIOs who internalize this will not just adopt AI faster ---
they will turn it into measurable enterprise value.