How to make IT operations more efficient

Productivity wins 

Leadership can be a lonely position, and the writers of CIO.com often share insights designed to lighten the load. A good example is a recent article on IT management practices that are certain to kill IT productivity. 

It is a popular piece, and it prompted our CIO readers to ask the obvious opposite question: how does a manager increase productivity? 

Smart Answers is here for such queries, distilling generations of human insights to give pithy advice. It proposes a blend of strategic approaches such as eliminating waste, simplifying workflows, and standardizing operating models, alongside automation and use of analytics to drive efficiency. And don’t sleep on upgrading equipment. Above all Smart Answers recommends continuous monitoring and regular adjustments of efficiency metrics are essential for sustained optimal performance. 

Find out: What are ways to improve IT operations efficiency? 

Trust: hard to win, easy to lose 

It is no easier in the CISO’s chair, of course. In fact, we learnt in the past week that 25% of CISOs are replaced after their organizations are victim to a ransomware attack. It’s not fair, but it is true.  

So how do you rebuild trust after a breach? Smart Answers knows.  

Transparency and clear communication are paramount. CISOs need to translate complex security details into understandable language for all employees and stakeholders, focusing on actionable business impacts. 

And then it is a case of building back better to restore trust. Stronger authentication controls, regenerated certificates, and a culture of continuous improvement. 

Find out: What are essential steps to rebuild trust after a cyberattack? 

Generative AI: believe the hype? 

It’s a law in publishing that whenever a headline is a question with a yes or no answer, the answer is no. Consider that when reading this recent article: Is the generative AI bubble about to burst? 

Readers of InfoWorld wanted deeper context and asked Smart Answers where generative AI is on the industry hype cycle. Despite its generative AI roots, Smart Answers recognizes that after the excitement of 2023, and last year’s experimentation, 2025 is something of a trough of disillusionment. So far so classic.  

The more positive view is that tangible business value is just around the corner. 

Find out: Where is generative AI’s position on the industry hype cycle? 

About Smart Answers 

Smart Answers is an AI-based chatbot tool designed to help you discover content, answer questions, and go deep on the topics that matter to you. Each week we send you the three most popular questions asked by our readers, and the answers Smart Answers provides. 

Developed in partnership with Miso.ai, Smart Answers draws only on editorial content from our network of trusted media brands—CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, and Network World—and was trained on questions that a savvy enterprise IT audience would ask. The result is a fast, efficient way for you to get more value from our content.