From AI to hardware costs: Enterprise tech leaders prepare for Trump 2.0

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. With President-elect Donald Trump preparing to take office, business technology leaders say they are bracing for immediate and long-term impacts from policies he will likely institute. That is in areas including tariffs, regulating artificial intelligence and mergers and acquisitions.

For chief information officers, AI continues to be top of mind. While the urgency to deploy the technology inside their organizations continues unabated, CIOs are keeping a keen eye on how the federal government might play a role in reining in the technology, or encouraging it to thrive. “The way AI affects a CIO’s job is primarily around strategic planning," said Suvajit Basu, the former CIO of Goya Foods.

That includes things like whether AI will be “intelligent enough" to improve the efficiency of logistics planning, and how it will shape the workforce, he said. One of the first areas Trump can make an impact is in tariffs, where the president-elect can act without seeking congressional approval. He has proposed tariffs of at least 60% on China, and 10% to 20% on other countries—lifting U.S.

tariff rates to their highest since the 1930s. Many American companies rely on foreign-made hardware—including laptops and smartphones—for their employees. If prices for those goods go up, some CIOs say their technology budgets could be affected.

Thomas Phelps, senior vice president of corporate strategy and CIO of Long Beach, Calif.-based Laserfiche, said he is concerned because the software company relies on some imported hardware, and its technology budget is already fairly set for next year. Others say they are ready for anything. John Roese, global chief technology officer and chief AI officer of Dell, said