A few years ago, I asked CIOs about data science and it turned into a yawner of a discussion. However, in the last few years as chief data officers have made their mark at more and more enterprises, CIOs have needed to build their data chops. Given this, it was time to assess where CIOs are today. To do this, I ran a #CIOChat on AI and Data Science. From this discussion, it was clear CIOs are spending more time considering the "I" part of their titles.

Register for this live video webcast - Friday, March 27 at 10 AM PT Ask the expert - get your AI/RPA questions answered by an industry expert. One of the keys to digital transformation – that most fashionable term – is creating a management structure in which everything is accountable to data analytics. In a related trend, robotic process automation (RPA) helps automate a company's work flow and business processes. At its most optimum, RPA is driven by an AI-based analytics platform. These key emerging technologies are the focus on this webinar.

Folks that don't do much of it are often astounded about how quickly costs escalate and how much the process can cost. While the trial itself can cost upwards of $50K, just getting to trial with all the back and forth between the attorneys can cost several times that. A general rule of thumb is that unless the judgment is reasonably likely to be over $100K and include attorney's fees, you'll probably end up in the hole even if you win. Litigation was one of the initial target industries for IBM's advanced artificial intelligence (AI) platform Watson because litigation was so well defined and well documented. The promise was a significant reduction in costs for those bringing or defending against lawsuits and a far better way of determining if it was economically viable to bring or defend against the action to begin with.