On digital transformations

Data-Driven

On Digital Transformations

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On Digital Transformations

Chief Digital Officer and digital transformation expert, Anna Liza Alano, shares her insights on how people, process and tech matter for transformations, including the current AI one!

Apr 16, 2025

Transcript

Podcast Guest: Anna Liza Alano

Anna Liza is a California-based business strategist, entrepreneur, and Chief Data Officer who partners with Fortune 50 companies and startups on growth strategies driven by marketing, data, and tech.

She founded her own consulting firm over a decade ago, helping businesses unlock innovation and market opportunities. Outside work, you'll find her cooking, traveling, watching Marvel and K-dramas, or crushing cardio barre workouts with friends.

We covered topics including -

Defining Digital Transformation
The Importance of People in Transformation
Navigating Resistance to Change
Choosing the Right Technology
Differences Between Startups and Corporations
Common Pitfalls in Transformation
AI: The Next Frontier
Navigating Organizational Maturity with AI
Educating the Public on AI's Role
The Future of Transformation and Generational Shifts

Highlights from the Episode

What is digital transformation?

Digital transformation is more than technology upgrades. It encompasses how we reshape business and how it operates
To succeed at digital transformation, you must have a goal, you must understand the problem you are solving and who your audiences are

Factors to consider before undertaking transformation

Assess where you are in terms of digital maturity, data maturity and your staffing
Understand the current state of your business and technology and what you would like the future state to be
Listen to points of view from all your stakeholders
Determine what’s feasible and put a timeframe around that

The digital transformation framework of people-process-technology

1. Get people on board
2. Define the process
3. Assess which technologies you want to onboard

Navigating resistance to change

Involve people in the conversation so that they have a voice; carefully listen to their concerns
Involve them in the actual process too such as building the roadmap or testing tools
Communicate the value of the tools and their role in driving the business and their career - make it personal; make it relatable

Finding the right technology solution

Assess your technology needs
Define who the best players or vendors are in the market
Put out RFPs (Request for Proposal)
Find a vendor who fits your organization culture in terms of people and technology

Differences in transformations in large companies vs startups

Large companies might have more funds but are often slower to implement change. Startup timelines are shorter because moving slowly is a threat to their survival. Startups are also more malleable and don’t have set structures or discipline like many larger companies
That said, things move faster, regardless of the size of the company, when the vision is clear and you have alignment from a leadership perspective

We are still solving for the same things - customer experience, audience experience, personalization (which has become hyper personalization in the AI era)
LLMs might be more developed now but AI has been around for some time
AI is an enhancement not a replacement
But, we are going to see job displacements and new jobs will also emerge

Advice on how to adapt to the AI transformation

Transformation is a must. Nothing is static and we are always changing
Learn about how AI impacts your life

“You've got to read up on it. You've got to watch the videos. You've got to go to take classes. Because if you don't, you might be affected, you don't know how adversely, but you want to know how to actually handle it moving forward. So it's super, super important because it's going faster than we can actually even understand”