Excerpts from a conversation with Stan Lequin, President, Insight, in which he speaks about the massive adoption of digital transformation during the pandemic times, and the significant challenges faced by customers in their digital journey at present.

The global cloud computing market size was estimated at USD 545.8 billion in 2022 and is projected to grow USD 1240.9 Billion by 2027 at a CAGR of 17.9% during the forecast period. Why is there a growing need among organizations to meet cloud computing services after COVID-19?

It is not just the pandemic. We have seen a rapid macroeconomic shift over the past year that punctuates the need for greater organizational efficiencies and resiliency. Organizations also are struggling to manage growing amounts of data. Most clients are figuring out how to better leverage their current platforms and manage technical debt in a way that allows them to stay competitive. But the real question is how can they accelerate their business? We speak to this in terms of Cloud 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0, where 1.0 is migrating data centers to the cloud to establish a foundation for innovation. The next step is standing up automated platforms that allow you to roll out services quicker. The 3.0 world is where really magical things start to happen, and you start bringing your business applications and solutions into what you are doing from a cloud perspective. 

While we have seen massive adoption of digital transformation during the pandemic times, what are the significant challenges faced by customers in their digital journey at present in your opinion?

For better or worse, right now there is less focus on innovation and more emphasis on driving efficiency by optimizing existing resources. Every year, we work with IDG to understand the current challenges of digital transformation. This year, the vast majority of organizations (86%) indicated they are being held back by technical debt, which is impeding their ability to innovate and avoid downtime (we have seen some notable examples of the latter recently in the airlines industry). The struggle to modernize legacy IT infrastructure in order to achieve the agility and flexibility required to become a digital-enabled business exceeds more obvious factors like today’s economic uncertainty, the search for talent and even budget limitations.

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) has brought both opportunities and concerns for the job market. How do you think the newer technologies tools like ChatGPT, AI, MI, etc. can impact the future of work?

It is hard to not get excited about AI. There is so much happening right now around citizen development or fusion development, where the people who understand the business the best are gaining the tools to build applications that can gather new insights to better inform what they do. It's modeling data in a way that is digestible and usable, with potential uses across all industries. For example, we built a machine learning engine for a U.S. health system that provides targeted treatment for high blood pressure based on a patient’s unique symptoms, current medications and other factors. With better diagnoses, our client projects this will add an average of 100 days to their patients’ lives, not to mention save them healthcare costs. There is a lot of potential to scale AI solutions like this.

According to you, what are the challenges faced while suggesting business solution to tech-firms’ management leaders through digital transformation. What are the outcomes have you seen through strategic processes?

You really have to understand a client well — their business objectives, the IT investments they have made, their current technical direction — to make an informed decision about digital strategy, and Insight does this really well. We have deep relationships with thousands of clients, taking the time to understand how their organization works before driving a transformation initiative. It is about understanding their technical debt and what they are trying to achieve, then educating on what human-centric design means to help them create powerful user experiences through the platforms they build. We are really unique as a solutions integrator because we are engaged with our clients through every step of this process.