In the age of interconnected AI, how can we reconcile innovation with risk management?
Generative AI is a disruption comparable to the arrival of the Internet, yet it is being introduced into information systems that are often heterogeneous, poorly documented, and built for a different era. Using AI without organizing your architectures is like driving a Formula 1 car on a country road: at best you crawl forward, at worst you don't make it past the first bend. Trust cannot be decreed — it is built through the rigor of infrastructure: data quality, access governance, traceability of algorithmic decisions, and environment segmentation. At Skema, we move fast on AI precisely because we invest in the foundations. Responsible innovation is not the enemy of speed — it is its prerequisite.
You champion the idea of AI that supports rather than replaces. What distinguishes useful AI from counterproductive AI in organizations?
Useful AI saves time on low-value tasks, freeing people to focus on what truly matters: relationships, judgment, creativity, and decision-making. Counterproductive AI, by contrast, is the kind that gets grafted onto existing processes without rethinking them. Deploying a conversational agent where copy-paste used to happen is automating an inefficiency — and often creating new ones. The real job of Skema's CDIO is not to roll out tools, it is to accompany the transformation of business functions. That means questioning every process: what deserves to be accelerated, what needs to be rethought, and what must remain deeply human? AI is a lever, not an end in itself.
Cybersecurity is still often perceived as a cost center. How do you turn it into a genuine driver of value creation and trust?
Cybersecurity is too often seen as insurance — and therefore as a cost. That is a mistake in perspective. For a grande école like Skema, our responsibility is twofold: preparing our students for the jobs of tomorrow, but also giving them the clarity to understand the risks — cyber included. A graduate who masters the challenges of security, data sovereignty, and AI governance is immediately more employable and more strategically valuable to the organization that hires them. Cyber investment then becomes productive: it produces rare profiles, it reassures our academic and corporate partners, and it protects the most precious asset of any school — the trust that students, families, and recruiters place in us. Security is not a barrier to value: it is what makes value last.
"Using AI without organizing your architectures is like driving a Formula 1 car on a country road" — Éric CAEN
About Éric CAEN
Éric Caen is a recognized figure in the technological transformation of large international organizations. He has served as Chief Digital Officer at McDonald's, CMA CGM, and Crédit Agricole, before being appointed in 2026 as Chief AI, IT & Digital Transformation Officer of the Skema Business School network.
