When Intuit chief technology officer Alex Balazs was getting his undergraduate mechanical engineering degree at Kettering University more than three decades ago, he recalls the Michigan school’s professors being split on whether they’d let students use calculators in class.
“And now, when you think about it, of course you use a calculator,” says Balazs.
Similarly, he believes today’s AI coding assistants that help developers write software will gain broad acceptance in schools and the workplace. In response, he said Intuit is reevaluating how it tests potential engineering hires during the interviews.
One expected change is that the coding exercises will be more complicated, requiring that candidates solve bigger problems, with the expectation that those candidates will use AI tools to complete some of those tasks. “Because when they arrive inside Intuit, that’s how we expect them to work,” says Balazs.
AI coding tools like GitHub Copilot, Cursor, and Windsurf have rapidly grown in popularity, especially among more junior software developers and engineers. Veteran workers, in contrast, are more pessimistic about the tools and the impact of AI on their jobs, according to surveys.
CTOs and chief information officers frequently laud the big productivity gains the coding assistants provide and the help they give employees in getting off to a faster start at their new jobs as they learn company-specific programming languages. Usage rates, which many CIOs and CTOs have been closely monitoring, have increased steadily over time.
With new tools comes a rethinking of the skills required for an AI-enabled developer workforce, says Deborah Golden, chief innovation officer at accounting and consulting giant Deloitte. It will be less important for engineers to memorize application programming interfaces (APIs), the rules that let software applications communicate with each other, and more critical for them to show good judgement on the job, including determining if there are any risks or bias in AI-written code.
“AI doesn’t just level the playing field, it tilts towards those that can adapt quickly,” says Golden. For both new college graduates and more established working professionals, embracing AI means “anybody can be left behind the same way that anybody can leap forward,” she adds.
Several CEOs of major corporations have said that 20% to 30% of code written within their companies is being done by AI tools. But those claims should be taken with a grain of salt, according to Andrew Rabinovich, the head of AI and machine learning at online freelancer marketplace Upwork. “The numbers can be highly inflated because it’s verbose,” says Rabinovich, referring to AI coding assistants regularly churning out unnecessary lines of code.
He also says coding assistants aren’t good at personalization, or gearing what they write to the tastes of more senior software engineers. Some of those managers may reject AI-written code if not presented the way they like it.
“The older or the more experienced of a software engineer you are, the more habits and rules you impose on the LLM in order to be satisfactory,” says Rabinovich. “But if you’re a junior software engineer, it’s kind of an open playing field, and you’re like, ‘I’m okay with everything, as long as it gets the job done.’”
Brendan Humphreys, the CTO of Australian software maker Canva, says some in the industry have expressed concern about “cheating” during the interview process, with candidates using AI tools to mask how well they can write code. “We think that’s the wrong framing,” says Humphreys. “Software engineering as a job has fundamentally changed. And you need to now demonstrate that you can have competency in using these tools to accelerate your output.”
With that in mind, Humphreys has changed Canva’s assessment criteria to make it tougher, yet more ambiguous—meaning job prospects cannot just feed inputs into LLMs to get a response that would satisfy Canva’s expectations. “You’re going to have to work with an AI intelligently and we want to see that competency,” adds Humphreys.
Autodesk CTO Raji Arasu points to an AI jobs report published last week by the design software company that found mentions of AI skills in U.S. job listings increased 56% in the first four months of 2025 versus last year’s level for the design and make industries, which includes construction, architecture, and engineering. With AI being adopted across more kinds of work, Arasu says she’s seen “the initial fear has been replaced with enthusiasm to try and dabble and experiment in new ways.”
That’s led Autodesk to embrace more adaptability, actively encouraging software developers to be less siloed on specific projects. “We’re creating an environment within our company where it’s okay for you to disrupt another team’s work,” says Arasu.
Nikhil Krishnan, senior vice president and CTO of data science for the enterprise AI software company C3 AI, says his business almost always conducts in-person interviews, so there’s little risk that candidates are cheating with AI tools unless C3 wants to test them on how to solve a problem with an AI coding assistant.
He prioritizes problem solving and reasoning skills and is on the hunt for candidates who have curiosity, a passion to learn, can show their ability to absorb new information, and work well on a team. With those skills in mind, Krishnan says C3 AI has a bias toward more senior candidates.
“I do see a world where it becomes harder and harder, as a junior entry-level software engineer, to land that first opportunity,” says Krishnan. “We certainly find that we are much more careful about who we’re hiring.”
John Kell
Send thoughts or suggestions to CIO Intelligence here.
Special Digital Issue: AI at Work
Fortune recently unveiled a new ongoing series, Fortune AIQ, dedicated to navigating AI’s real-world impact. Our second collection of stories make up a special digital issue of Fortune in which we explore how technology is already changing the way the biggest companies do business in finance, law, agriculture, manufacturing, and more.
These companies are rolling up their sleeves to implement AI. Read more
AI avatars are here in full force—and they’re serving some of the world’s biggest companies. Read more
Will AI hold up in court? Attorneys say it’s already changing the practice of law. Read more
Banking on AI: Firms such as BNY balance high risk with the potential for transformative tech. Read more
Recycling has been a flop, financially. AMP Robotics is using AI to make it pay off. Read more
AI on the farm: The startup helping farmers slash losses and improve cows’ health. Read more
CIOs, CTOs see big pay jumps amid AI boom.The Wall Street Journal reports that the top technologists at U.S. companies are enjoying far bigger paychecks, at a time when many of these leaders have taken on far more oversight steering AI investments and strategy. The base compensation for CIOs grew 15% to 30% in 2024 from the prior year, according to different estimates shared by executive recruiter firms Heller Search Associates and Korn Ferry. Meanwhile, separate data from C-Suite Comp, an executive compensation governance firm, determined that the median pay for 3,930 CTOs at public companies rose nearly 31% in 2024 from the previous year, to roughly $2.4 million. “The reason total compensation is rising is because fear, uncertainty, doubt and desperation has entered the board and executive suite,” Martha Heller, CEO of Heller Search Associates, tells WSJ. “They finally, with a push in AI, understand that this CIO role is important.”
Intuit, Google among tech giants to unveil new AI agentic tools.Salesforce, Google, and Cursor were among the technology companies to unveil new agentic AI-products, which can autonomously complete multi-step tasks with little to no human oversight. One of the more splashy launches came from TurboTax-owner Intuit, which hosted a big event in New York City focused on AI agents that are now embedded into business software platform QuickBooks and can assist with accounting, payments, managing customer relationships, and financial analysis. Intuit’s CTO Balazs tells CIO Intelligence these innovations represent a rethinking that’s less about upgrading software with new features and more centered on crafting AI systems that can mimic human tasks. “The future of this feels more like a service than it does using software,” says Balazs. “The better the AI gets, the better the agents get.”
Apple weighs using third-party AI models for a new version of Siri. Bloomberg reports that Apple is talking with AI hyperscalers Anthropic and OpenAI to use their LLMs for Siri, the digital assistant that’s featured in the company’s iPhone, Apple TV, and other hardware devices. If Apple were to rely on external expertise rather than internally developed AI, it would indicate that Apple is lagging behind other tech giants like Microsoft and Google. Bloomberg says that Apple’s exploration of third-party models is still at an early stage and that the company is still actively developing an internal project called LLM Siri. The news comes a little more than a week after reports that Apple held internal discussions about a potential acquisition of Perplexity AI, an AI search startup that Meta Platforms also explored for a takeover offer before investing $14.3 billion in Scale AI.
PwC cuts prices as clients point out that AI is saving staff time. Dan Priest, chief AI officer of Big Four accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, told Bloomberg that clients have asked to share in the benefits of AI in the form of lower prices. “Clients would hear us talking about using AI and say, ‘We want our fair share of those efficiencies,’” says Priest. Because consulting firms charge clients based on the time they spend on projects, new generative AI tools could upend that business model for PwC and rivals including Deloitte, KPMG, and Ernst & Young. Priest adds that the biggest benefits that PwC’s clients get from AI is more than price, “it’s the ability to move faster, operate smarter, and trust the results.”
ADOPTION CURVE
Frontline workers embrace of AI tools stalls. Boston Consulting Group’s annual “AI at Work” global survey of more than 10,600 employees found that across all respondents, 72% of workers report regular use of AI, meaning they use AI tools several times a week or daily. But a persistent gap remains between frontline workers, who saw regular use dip to 51% in 2025 from 52% the prior year, and their managers, who reported a 14 percentage point increase to 78% in 2025. Use by top leaders fell one percentage point, but ranked highest overall, at 85%.
David Martin, a BCG managing director and senior partner and co-author of the report, tells Fortune that some frontline roles aren’t well suited for generative AI and that the tools available may need improve to better meet workers’ needs. Still, Martin says BCG was surprised to see the stagnant usage for frontline workers. “What we’re really seeing drive that is you still have employees expressing they don’t feel skilled or trained enough to use it,” says Martin. “There are companies that still have opportunities to improve from a leadership perspective.”
The survey found that only one-third of employees say they’ve been properly trained on AI. BCG says that regular use leaps when employees receive at least five hours of training and have access to in-person training and coaching. Peer-to-peer skills sharing, which is when prolific AI users share tips with their team members that aren’t as adept at using these tools, is also helpful.
Courtesy of Boston Consulting Group
JOBS RADAR
Hiring:
– Grant Thornton is seeking a CTO, senior director, based in one of the firm’s office locations, including New York City and Los Angeles. Posted salary range: $206.3K-$395.4K/year.
– Understood.org is seeking a VP of engineering, based in New York City. Posted salary range: $300K-$330K/year.
– Digital Remedy is seeking a SVP of technology, based in New York City. Posted salary range: $275K-$320K/year.
– Best Buy (No. 108 on the Fortune 500) has appointed Neal Sample as the electronics retailer’s chief digital and technology officer, succeeding Brian Tilzer. Sample was most recently EVP and CIO of pharmacy retailer Walgreens Boots Alliance. He has also served as CIO of Northwestern Mutual and Express Scripts, and has held senior leadership roles at American Express and eBay.
– Danaher (No. 180 on the Fortune 500)promoted Martin Stumpe to chief technology and AI officer, effective October 1, reporting directly to EO Rainer Blair. Stumpe joined the manufacturing conglomerate in 2024 as chief data and AI officer from health technology company Tempus, where he spearheaded AI initiatives. Prior to that, Stumpe founded a cancer pathology project at Google.
– News Corp (No. 414 on the Fortune 500) promoted Julian Delany to EVP and CTO, succeeding David Kline, who is departing the media giant. Delany joined News Corp Australia in 2021 and was most recently CTO of that division. Before that, he worked in live broadcast operations at Australian television company Foxtel.
Every Friday morning, the weekly Fortune 500 Power Moves column tracks Fortune 500 companies C-suite shifts—see the most recent edition.
– Bloomin’ Brands announced Rafael Sanchez as SVP and CIO, effective June 30. He joins the Outback Steakhouse and Bonefish Grill restaurant operator from Davidson Hospitality Group, where Sanchez was senior technology advisor and interim CIO. He was also previously CIO at Six Flags and Feld Entertainment and held senior roles at Carnival and Burger King.
– A.O. Smith appointed Ming Cheng to VP and CTO, replacing Bob Heideman, who has been with the water heater manufacturer since 1994 and will stay with the company through September 1. Cheng will join A.O. Smith on July 7 after most recently serving as a SVP of research and development for manufacturing giant 3M.
– Frontdoor announced that Bala Ganesh has been appointed SVP and CTO, effective July 14. Ganesh was previously a member of Frontdoor’s board since July 2023 and will resign from that position at the end of June. He joins the home repair and warranties provider after previously serving as CTO at e-commerce delivery logistics provider OnTrac Logistics.
– Trucordia appointed Rajeev Khanna as CIO, joining in the Utah-based insurance brokerage after most recently serving as global CTO for British-American insurance company Aon. Prior to Aon, Khanna held key leadership roles at travel technology company Expedia Group and IT services provider Asurion.
– Orionappointed Valli Nachiappan to the role of CTO, where she will accelerate the delivery of emerging technologies like AI for the technology provider for financial advisory firms. Nachiappan was most recently VP of engineering at software-as-a-service provider Zendesk. She also previously held senior leadership positions at real estate tech provider Zaplabs and payment processing company Yapstone.
– MediaAlpha promoted Amy Yeh as CTO, succeeding co-founder Eugene Nonko, who was CTO since the insurance technology provider’s inception in 2011. Nonko will remain at MediaAlpha in the newly created role of chief architect and will continue serving on the company’s board. Yeh joined MediaAlpha in 2015 and was most recently SVP of technology.
– Alteryx appointed Arvind Krishnan as CTO, where he will lead the software company’s engineering organization. Prior to joining Alteryx, Krishnan was CTO at Bluecore, a tech provider that focuses on personalized marketing for e-commerce, and also held senior leadership roles at Salesforce.
– Soyrn named Jud Valeski as CTO, overseeing the online publisher technology company’s data science, engineering, and technology capabilities. Valeski was previously a general manager at Honey Science, an online coupon finder that PayPal acquired for $4 billion in 2020. He was also previously the CTO and co-founder of data startup Gnip, which was acquired in 2014 by Twitter, now known as X.
President Donald Trump and his administration insist that costs are coming down, but voters are skeptical, including those who put him back in the White House.
Despite Republicans getting hammered on affordability in off-year elections last month, Trump continues to downplay the issue, contrasting with his message while campaigning last year.
“The word affordability is a con job by the Democrats,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. “The word affordability is a Democrat scam.”
But a new Politico poll found that 37% of Americans who voted for him in 2024 believe the cost of living is the worst they can ever remember, and 34% say it’s bad but can think of other times when it was worse.
The White House has said Trump inherited an inflationary economy from President Joe Biden and point to certain essentials that have come down since Trump began his second term, such as gasoline prices.
The poll shows that 57% of Trump voters say Biden still bears full or almost full responsibility for today’s economy. But 25% blame Trump completely or almost completely.
That’s as the annual rate of consumer inflation has steadily picked up since Trump launched his global trade war in April, and grocery prices have gained 1.4% between January and September.
Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance pleaded for “patience” on the economy last month as Americans want to see prices decline, not just grow at a slower pace.
Even a marginal erosion in Trump’s electoral coalition could tip the scales in next year’s midterm elections, when the president will not be on the ballot to draw supporters.
A soft spot could be Republicans who don’t identify as “MAGA.” Among those particular voters, 29% said Trump has had a chance to change things in the economy but hasn’t taken it versus 11% of MAGA voters who said that.
Across all voters, 45% named groceries as the most challenging things to afford, followed by housing (38%) and health care (34%), according to the Politico poll.
“If the crisis threshold—the floor below which families cannot function—is honestly updated to current spending patterns, it lands at $140,000,” he wrote. “What does that tell you about the $31,200 line we still use? It tells you we are measuring starvation.”
Apple is currently undergoing the most extensive executive overhaul in recent history, with a wave of senior leadership departures that marks the company’s most significant management realignment since its visionary co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs died in 2011. The leadership exodus spans critical divisions from artificial intelligence to design, legal affairs, environmental policy, and operations, which will have major repercussions for Apple’s direction for the foreseeable future.
On Thursday, Apple announced Lisa Jackson, its VP of environment, policy, and social initiatives, as well as Kate Adams, the company’s general counsel, will both retire in 2026. Adams has been Apple’s chief legal officer since 2017, and Jackson joined Apple in 2013. Adams will step down late next year, while Jackson will leave next month.
The scope of the turnover is unprecedented in the Tim Cook era. In July, Jeff Williams, Apple’s COO who was long thought to succeed Cook as CEO, decided to retire after 27 years with the company. One month later, Apple’s CFO Luca Maestri also decided to step back from his role. And the design division, which just lost Dye, also lost Billy Sorrentino, a senior design director, who left for Meta with Dye. Things have been particularly turbulent for Apple’s AI team, though: Ruoming Pang, who headed its AI Foundation Models Team, left for Meta in July and took about 100 engineers with him. Ke Yang, who led AI-driven web search for Siri, and Jian Zhang, Apple’s AI robotics lead, also both left for Meta.
Succession talks heat up
While all of these departures are a big deal for Apple, the timing may not be a coincidence. Both Bloomberg and the Financial Times have reported on Apple ramping up its succession plan efforts in preparation for Cook, who has led the company since 2011, to retire in 2026. Cook turned 65 in November and has grown Apple’s market cap from about $350 billion to a whopping $4 trillion under his tenure. Bloomberg reports John Ternus has emerged as the leading internal candidate to replace him.
Apple choosing Ternus would be a pretty major departure from what’s worked for Apple during the past decade, which has been letting someone with an operational background and a strong grasp of the global supply chain lead the company. Ternus, meanwhile, is focused on hardware development, specifically for the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch. But it’s that technical expertise that’s made him an attractive candidate, especially as much of the recent criticism about Apple has revolved around the company entering new product categories (Vision Pro, but also the ill-fated Apple Car), as well as its struggling AI efforts.
Now, of course, with so many executives leaving Apple, succession plans extend beyond the CEO role. Apple this week announced it’s bringing in Jennifer Newstead, who currently works as Meta’s chief legal officer, to replace Adams as the company’s general counsel starting March 1, 2026. Newstead is expected to handle both legal and government affairs, which is essentially a consolidation of responsibilities among Apple’s leadership team, merging Adams’ and Jacksons’ roles into one.
Alan Dye, meanwhile, will be replaced by Stephen Lemay, a move that’s reportedly being celebrated within Apple and its design team in particular. John Gruber, who’s reported on Apple for decades and has deep ties within the company, wrote a pretty scathing critique about Dye, but in that same breath said employees are borderline “giddy” about Lemay—who has worked on every major Apple interface design since 1999, including the very first iPhone—taking over.
Meanwhile, on the AI team, John Giannandrea will be replaced by Amar Subramanya, who led AI strategy and development efforts at Google for about 16 years before a brief stint at Microsoft.
Hitting the reset button
All of the above departures cover critical functions for Apple: AI competitiveness, design innovation, regulatory navigation, and operational efficiency. Each replacement brings specialized expertise that aligns with the challenges Cook’s successor will inherit.
The real test will be execution across multiple fronts simultaneously. Can Subramanya accelerate Apple’s AI development to match competitive threats? Will Lemay’s design leadership maintain Apple’s interface advantages as AI reshapes user interaction? Can Newstead navigate regulatory challenges while preserving Apple’s privacy-first approach?
What’s certain is the company will look fundamentally different in 2026—and the executive team that grew Apple into a $4 trillion behemoth is departing. The transformation could be as profound as any since Jobs handed the reins to his COO at the time, Tim Cook, 14 years ago.
Elon Musk has given the thumbs up to some Tesla drivers texting behind the wheel.
The EV maker recently introduced a 30-day free trial of its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) (FSD) features on its North American cars, which has traffic-aware cruise control, autosteer, and autopark. To the Tesla CEO, the automated features in place are enough to condone texting while driving. According to safety experts, Musk’s suggestion is actually plain illegal.
In response to an X user’s question on Thursday about being able to text and drive while a Tesla is operating FSD v14.2.1, its latest full self-driving capabilities, Musk responded: “Depending on context of surrounding traffic, yes.”
Musk’s response mirrors his comments at Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting last month, where he said the company would soon feel comfortable with a multitasking driver.
“We’re actually getting to the point where we almost feel comfortable allowing people to text and drive, which is kind of the killer [application] because that’s really what people want to do,” Musk said. “Actually right now, the car is a little strict about keeping eyes on the road, but I’m confident that in the next month or two—we’re going to look closely at the safety statistics—but we will allow you to text and drive essentially.”
With a $1 trillion pay package on the line, Musk has worked to jumpstart Tesla after continued lagging sales. His lofty automation goals tied to the compensation plan include delivering 20 million vehicles and having 10 million active FSD subscriptions, as well as 1 million robotaxis on the commercially operational.
FSD roadbumps
Tesla’s FSD rollout, much like its other automated technologies, has hit snags. In October, the U.S. Department of Transportation-run National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened an investigation into the EV maker, alleging its FSD software violated traffic laws and led to six crashes, four of which resulted in injuries. It cited data from 18 complaints from Tesla users claiming the FSD-equipped cars ran red lights or swerved into other lanes, including into oncoming traffic.
There is another complication for Musk’s vision of a Tesla owner typing away behind the wheel: Texting and driving is illegal in nearly the entire country, barring Montana, according to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics. According to the NHTSA, distracted driving resulted in 3,275 deaths in 2023.
Even Tesla has warned owners against texting while driving, even with some automated features in place: Tesla’s Model Y Owner’s Manual asks drivers not to use their phones while driving with Autopilot software enabled. (Autopilot refers to Tesla’s basic driver assistance features requiring hands on the steering wheel, while FSD is a paid subscription package with enhanced automated features and does not require a driver to have hands on the steering wheel.)
“Do not use handheld devices while using Autopilot features,” the manual said. “If the cabin camera detects a handheld device while Autopilot is engaged, the touchscreen displays a message reminding you to pay attention.”
Tesla did not respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
What experts are saying
Alexandra Mueller, senior research scientist for Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, told Fortune condoning texting while behind the wheel completely undermines the purpose of Tesla’s current automated features Tesla, which are a level 2 on the five-point automation scale, meaning the models require the driver to still be fully in control of the vehicle.
“Having partial automation support doesn’t mean that you suddenly can kick back and text and not worry about driving,” Mueller said, “because that’s just not how these systems are designed to be used—and that’s also not the responsibility that the driver has when using these systems, and that’s by design.”
She said automated systems like Tesla’s are not designed to replace the driver and work because they are “human-in-the-loop” and were designed to support the driver’s discretion behind the wheel. Beeps and notifications from the vehicle if a driver changes lanes without signalling can help shape good behaviors, Mueller noted. Encouraging multitasking behind the wheel turns these features into convenience factors, rather than the safety precautions they were intended to be.
“Suddenly all your safety assessments on the technology don’t apply anymore, because you’ve changed the very nature of how the technology is supporting human-in-the-loop behavior,” Mueller concluded.
Politics8 years ago