Abhinav Dhar on navigating enterprise IT with AI and solving business problems

Rarely do you come across leaders like Abhinav Dhar who balance a strong appetite for technical innovation with strategic vision.

In this episode of Atomic Conversations, Lenin Gali, Chief Business Officer at Atomicwork, sits down with Abhinav Dhar, former Global CIO and EVP of TransUnion, discussing his journey from the world of engineering to C-suite roles, and now investing in new-age startups.

With a career spanning three decades of technological transformation, from early telecom networks to the AI revolution, Abhinav shares invaluable insights into IT service management, automation, and the evolving role of AI in enterprise IT. 

You can listen to the entire conversation here.

Transitioning from engineering excellence to sharpening business acumen

Abhinav's formative years at Bell Labs exposed him to world-class engineering standards, where he worked on critical network provisioning systems that demanded exceptional reliability. However, his perspective transformed during his tenure at PwC as a management consultant.

It didn’t really matter how good you were technically, how good your engineering standard was because in a commercial society, what matters is how you’re creating commercial value.

This realization drove him to develop a deeper understanding of business fundamentals - from capital allocation to income statements and valuation - skills that would later prove invaluable in both his corporate leadership roles and his current engagement with startups both as an investor and operator. 

This experience has informed his views on enterprise IT transformation and the strategic application of AI in IT to solve real business problems.

The ground is shifting beneath CIOs’ feet

Abhinav highlights that the role of modern CIOs is evolving rapidly, pushing them to shift from reactive IT to proactive, AI-driven automation. This transformation is primarily driven by the need to accommodate an increasingly younger workforce.

He recalls when IT teams had to rely on complex portals and ticketing systems, leading to inefficiencies.

“Depending upon how consumer-centric they (companies) were, there was a massive cost associated with support, both internal as well as external…call centers and all of that. There was some automation. But, we were optimizing as opposed to sort of rethinking, and this notion of self-service became very big. If people can self-serve online, then they won’t call, and the cost will be lower,” he notes.

There was this shift that was primarily driven by the cost to serve and the overhead that came with it. And every unit you saved on the cost to serve fell straight to the bottom line.

This shift led to the rise of CRM systems and the concept of centralized IT support. However, it wasn’t a definitive solution—it was merely a temporary band-aid.

Companies implemented ITIL and ITSM frameworks, but many processes remained manual and involved multiple systems. A significant issue that emerged was the proliferation of portals. 

Abhinav points out that employees often had to “log into this portal to open your IT ticket, log on to that portal to upload your employment information to get your paycheck.” This created a frustrating experience, exacerbated by multiple passwords and two-factor authentication. The entire process became too tedious for employees to navigate and get on with their work.

With the rise of SaaS, cloud computing, and AI, IT service management has drastically improved. However, many CIOs struggle with outdated paradigms that create friction for both employees and IT teams.

I think we have to acknowledge how difficult a CIO’s job is. It’s probably one of the hardest jobs you can do in the executive suite. There is a plethora of pressures—cost pressures for margin, justification for innovation, and this unreasonable expectation of how much innovation you can actually create. And now there is this question of what are you doing with AI?

Finally, there is the challenge of catering to today’s tech-savvy generation. “They are used to summoning a car on the phone and (doing other) things magically. And then they go to work, and it’s a penal colony.”

How AI and agentic automation will shape the future

Abhinav sees AI, particularly agentic automation, as the defining force in the next decade of enterprise IT. He suggests that agentic AI, where multiple AI agents work in the background to complete tasks for users, will become more prevalent. This could include streamlining processes like onboarding new hires or updating employee benefits, ultimately improving efficiency and user experience while fundamentally changing how people interact with IT.

The promise of AI is that it can “solve this dissatisfaction on behalf of users.”

AI agents can handle tasks in the background without requiring users to log into multiple systems. This also includes leveraging AI models for predictive analytics and data-driven decision-making beyond just generative applications.

Abhinav also emphasizes the importance of focusing on user experience. “People choose who they do business with, and they do choose who they get employed with.”

According to him, AI will fuel unprecedented innovation in startups. “Startups love dissatisfaction, right? Because that's where you get the opportunity.” AI provides that opportunity to “create new operating paradigms.”

He believes that the next generation of disruption will resolve friction not only for users but also for those in support roles. “AI will replace people who are doing drudgery,” he states.

A word of advice for CIOs in the AI era

When asked about his advice for CIOs navigating the AI era, Abhinav says, “Don't think about AI as a starting point, think about the pressure points.” He recommends identifying the biggest problems, disruptions, and pain points and then considering, “How can I apply AI to them?”

He further emphasizes that AI is actually expensive and advises CIOs to start from the balance sheet to determine where AI can create the most tangible value.

His key recommendation is to focus on “how you can make your people the most productive, the most engaged because they are actually going to do the stuff (work).”

There’s a lot more to be uncovered in the podcast. Tune in here.