How Agentic AI is Transforming Business at CGI
Advanced AI agents are transforming industries.
Canadian multinational information technology consulting and software development company CGI takes an ethical, human-centred AI approach.
It focuses in on practical applications in public services, workforce empowerment and the strategic vision shaping AI-driven innovation and digital transformation across businesses and communities.
Russell Goodenough has more than 30 yearsâ experience supporting public and private organisations deliver sophisticated tech solutions across a range of industries.
He now leverages this experience as CGIâs Head of AI for the UK and Australia.
Under Russellâs leadership, CGI has already found value in the use of AI tools across its clients and within internal departments.
This first-hand insight into how AI tools are used today, as well as where future value can be found – notably AI agents — allows Russell to help empower businesses with their digitisation journeys.
“The technology industry is fascinating, it’s constantly evolving and changing – generative and agentic AI are clear examples of that,” he says.
“Applying these technologies to help people and society is a passion of mine and I’m keen to share it.”
With this in mind, Russell shares his AI insights with Technology Magazine.
In your own words, what is CGI and what role does it play in the technology industry?
CGI is among the largest independent and IT business consulting services firms in the world.
Our mission is to make complex solutions work seamlessly.
We deliver strategic IT and business consulting and we get hands-on and see things through.
From systems integration to managed IT and business processes services, our expertise is wide and we position ourselves to provide the best value possible for our clients.
We’re not just advisors, we partner with clients. We’re collaborators, guiding tech integration and managing every step of IT system delivery from start to finish.
Furthermore, we work with clients on their own terms. We embed local consultants for direct expertise and link IT teams with relevant partners, helping them get the most value from their digitisation projects.
As an example, we’ve worked with Starlink to build remote connectivity solutions in Norfolk County Council and Buckinghamshire Council and help their progress towards Project Gigabit. CGI helps clients accelerate digital initiatives and achieve transformation goals.
How do you see agentic AI transforming traditional automation? What new opportunities or challenges does this create for both businesses and the workforce?
Agentic AI represents a significant step beyond traditional automation by empowering systems to act with greater autonomy. It means the computer can make informed decisions and manage tasks on its own, rather than simply executing pre-determined code.
By combining contextual awareness, machine learning and dynamic decision making, AI agents can adapt actions in real time, as opposed to following pre-determined autonomous workflows.
From a business strategy standpoint, this can dramatically increase scalability, improve effectiveness and efficiency and deliver seamless integration of systems, with minimal need to overhaul legacy infrastructure.
For the workforce itself, it means repetitive or menial tasks can be offloaded to AI, allowing workers to focus on meaningful and empowering tasks.
A key challenge, however, partially due to the infancy of AI implementation is strategic direction for integrating AI in this way across a business. This closer coupling of AI with the human-in-the-loop means training workers on the responsible use of AI and better understanding how to use AI effectively.
It also means that businesses need to understand the governance and integration complexity of new innovative tools.
How is AI being used at CGI to address societal challenges, such as in public services? Are there any use cases that excite you most?
At CGI, we aim to use AI for good which begins with identifying challenges and opportunities for both clients and communities and then defining the technology and information needed to address those challenges and opportunities.
AI in many cases helps solve the problems that have been identified and accelerate positive outcomes across the community.
One example of this is our work with the City of Edinburgh. By incorporating sensors, IoT technology and AI to enhance smart city services, the council has been able to introduce services like real time bin monitoring for smart reactive bin collections and tapping into road cameras and sensors to identify, predict, and fix potholes quickly and seamlessly.
Another example is our work in Canada alongside Mustimuhw Information Systems. Together, we have worked to assess fire risks in First Nations communities using AI, data analytics and digital twins.
By creating 3D digital models of structures and using AI and computer vision techniques, the project has improved risk mitigation, insurance and safety.
Similar AI-driven approaches have been used in the UK to assess government housing humidity and temperature levels to identify potential insulation or window replacement issues.
Over the next several years, I am particularly looking forward to seeing the long-term impact these technologies have on local communities across the globe.
What strategies has CGI implemented to ensure that AI adoption empowers new staff and how has this affected onboarding, upskilling and work-life balance?
CGI’s approach to integrating AI has been to actively experiment to identify powerful use cases and then scaling those use cases with responsibility.
There’s clear value that AI brings in approaching work, especially in allowing individuals to find their own fit and focus on tasks that bring themselves and their business meaning.
It’s important for people to learn from experience and CGI has done this by placing AI into the hands of as many people as possible.
With training in tandem, this allows people to fine-tune how to effectively bring AI into their working lives.
From an empowerment standpoint, CGI has seen strong adoption within its neurodivergent community. Situationally daunting tasks like presenting in front of an audience can be sources of anxiety. AI has supported these individuals’ approach these in a confident and constructive way.
What lessons have you learned about driving Gen AI adoption at scale? What advice would you give to organisations just starting their AI journey?
The effective use of AI must always be grounded in responsibility.
Whether for our own use, or for our work with clients, we emphasise three aspects: the ethical use of AI, trustworthiness in the solutions we adopt and rigorous approach to engineering AI solutions.
This includes appropriate processes and procedures that avoid employees uploading sensitive information into AI tools and proper transparency when they use it.
We also believe that human oversight is critical. AI tools have garnered notoriety for being biased or hallucinating inaccurate outputs.
To mitigate these effects, we expect the role of humans to supervise and guide AI tools in providing reliable information to extend well into the future.
