Why Limbach’s CIO didn’t allow the company’s 1,400 employees to use gen AI tools until this year
When the Generative Artificial Intelligence Chatbot of Openai was averso in late in 2022, chief information official Christos Ruci had a quick, GAT reaction. Absolutely not.
“We don't do it, it's not generative AI,” said Ruci, who oversees technology and cybersecurity for the development of limbach company service and construction. “I stopped everything I could.”
Keeping her on the AI sideways are concerns about data leakage, which Ruci fears can erase confidence in Limch's employees and clients, and even potentially harm her own professional reputation. Any external data exposure is more than the rewards of using Generative AI to potentially automatically work in the workplace or speed up software and product development.
“My personality is usually the opposite, which is, 'let's do it. Let's find out. Let's go first,'” Ruci said. “But when it comes to my company's security and risk, and my customers and my employees' data, there's no frustration.”
Its departments are Spending billion -Billion Taun -An to Enterprise's Generative AI tools and now, around Seven out of every ten companies Ai uses at least one business operating, consulting McKinsey & Co giant but many CIOs have never used Generative AI and up to recently, Ruci has been one of them.
This year, Ruci has finally allowed some limited use of Ai generative tools from Openai, Microsoft, and Google to 1,400 limbach employees. Ruci has a complete supervision of any future AI extensions or features built by workers who can be used by workers.
Ruci's rational approach means he regularly consult legal and compliance to develop clear corporate guidelines that explain what employees can do and cannot do in developing AI. In the Limch, he also manages cybersecurity and used his experience in teaching workers on how to prevent cyberattacks as a model to release AI training.
The stable training cadence includes webinars, staff meetings of all hands, and Ruci speaking at each separate business unit to explain the company's AI policies per employee. Newsletters are distributed to provide future updates. “It is to rinse and repeat now to continue to remind them of what they can and not to do,” Ruci said.
To this point, Ruci's generative AI focus has been narrowly focused, almost fully emphasizing the manufacture of employees more productive, such as transcription tools for assembly summaries. Some larger cases of use, which have not fully embraced the limch, including new AI tools that make data extraction and automation of the customer contract renewal process easier. Many are still not allowed to hold AI in the limbach: no personal or protected health information, non-public financial data, and customer data, including anything about developing projects, intellectual properties, or trading sercrets.
RUCI is further with the removal of traditional AI forms, including data collection from building facilities such as heating, ventilation, and air conditioning and then using AI-enabled views to make systems better for building owners and facility managers.
He also quickly moved to complete a full move of all limbach infrastructure throughout 20 locations in the cloud. The limch has smoked smaller, regional providers of system providers and Ruci says a 100% cloud environment can accelerate its integration.
When asked about Agentic AI – the new buzzword on each CIO's remains in 2025 – Ruci re -emphasizes caution. He said he was taking a page from Apple CEO Tim Cook, who had been slower than most Large giant tech to deploy AI features to users.
“I really want to see where the market and industry are going before we all-in to something,” Ruci said.
John Kell
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This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
