Why Limbach’s CIO didn’t allow the company’s 1,400 employees to use gen AI tools until this year May 7, 2025 |
When OpenAI’s generative artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT debuted late in 2022, Chief Information Officer Christos Ruci had a quick, gut reaction. Absolutely not.
“We are not doing it, not generative AI,” says Ruci, who oversees technology and cybersecurity for building and construction services provider Limbach Company. “I blocked everything I could.”
What kept him on the AI sidelines were concerns about data leakage, which Ruci feared could erode trust with Limbach’s employees and clients, and even potentially damage his own professional reputation. Any external data exposure would far outweigh the rewards of using generative AI to potentially automate workplace tasks or accelerate software and product development.
“My personality is typically the opposite, which is, ‘Let’s get it done. Let’s figure it out. Let’s fail first,’” says Ruci. “But when it comes to the security and risk of my company, and my customers and my employees’ data, there is no failing.”
IT departments are spending billions annually on enterprise generative AI tools and today, around seven out of every ten companies are using AI in at least one business function, according to consulting giant McKinsey & Co. But there are plenty of CIOs that aren’t yet using generative AI and until recently, Ruci was one of them.
This year, Ruci finally authorized some limited uses of generative AI tools from OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google to Limbach’s 1,400 employees. Ruci has complete oversight into any future AI extensions or features pitched by vendors that workers may want to use.
Ruci’s judicious approach meant he would consult regularly with legal and compliance to develop clear corporate guidelines explaining what employees could and could not do with generative AI. At Limbach, he also oversaw cybersecurity and used his experience educating the workforce on how to prevent cyberattacks as a model to roll out AI training.
That steady cadence of training has included webinars, all-hands staff meetings, and Ruci speaking to each separate business unit to explain the company’s AI policies to every employee. Newsletters are distributed to give future updates. “It’s on rinse and repeat now to continuously remind them on what they can and cannot do,” says Ruci.
Up to this point, Ruci’s generative AI focus has been narrowly focused, almost entirely putting an emphasis on making employees more productive, like transcription tools for meeting summaries. Some larger use cases, which Limbach hasn’t fully embraced yet, include new generative AI tools that make data retrieval easier and automating the customer contract renewal process. There’s still a lot that isn’t allowed to touch AI at Limbach: no personal or protected health information, non-public financial data, and customer data, including anything about building projects, intellectual property, or trade sercrets.
Ruci is further along deploying traditional forms of AI, including the collection of data from building facilities like heating, ventilation, and air conditioning and then using those AI-enabled insights to make those systems more efficient for building owners and facilities managers.
He also moved quickly to complete a full migration of all of Limbach’s infrastructure across 20 locations to the cloud. Limbach has been scooping up smaller, regional building systems providers and Ruci says a 100% cloud environment can speed up IT integration.
When asked about agentic AI—the new buzzword on every CIOs lips in 2025—Ruci again stresses caution. He says he is taking a page from Apple CEO Tim Cook, who has been slower than most Big Tech giants to deploy AI features externally to users.
“I really want to see where the market and industry goes before we go all-in on something,” says Ruci.
John Kell
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The IT workforce continues to adjust to an AI world. The number of unemployed information technology workers dropped in April from the prior month, though an estimated 5% to 6% of unemployed IT professionals left the sector, the Wall Street Journal reports, with many exiting because they didn’t have in-demand AI experience. Across all sectors, employment in technology fields dropped by an estimated 214,000 jobs. Conversely, AI-related job postings leapt by 184% in April versus the same month a year prior. CIO Dive, meanwhile, says that the tech industry’s labor woes can also be attributed to tariffs and muted consumer demand. “Businesses will first look to cut spending on devices and on-premise infrastructure, seeking rapid cost benefits to protect the bottom line,” wrote global research firm IDC. “Any job cuts will have a direct impact on some types of IT spending.”
Tariffs are going to cost Big Tech billions. Tariffs and worries about softer consumer spending have led technology companies including Amazon, Block, and Airbnb to issue muted guidance for the current quarter and in some cases, beyond, while Meta and Google parent Alphabet are also signaling they may be hurt by a decrease in ad spending. Apple CEO Tim Cook gave some of the clearest details about how tariffs would impact the iPhone maker: The new tax on imported supplies would cost the company an extra $900 million in the June quarter, assuming no further changes in tariffs. One contrasting view came from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who posited that the company’s software sales could increase as clients look to bolster resources to fight pressures related to top line growth and inflation.
Apple, Anthropic join forces on vibe-coding platform. Apple is internally rolling out a new version of the tech giant’s programming software that will integrate Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet model to write, edit, and test code on behalf of programmers, Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the matter. For Apple, which has faced criticism it has fallen behind other tech giants on AI, linking up with Anthropic shows a greater appetite to work with external partners to bolster internal employee workflows. CIOs frequently cite Claude as a favorite large language model for programming, so it makes sense Apple would pick them for this use case. The new Apple tool includes a chat interface that allows programmers to enter requests for code or alterations. Anthropic, meanwhile, benefits from linking up with a big name like Apple and could see an even greater boon if the tool is eventually launched externally.
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IT leaders express regrets by not preparing employees for generative AI. A new survey of 3,100 workers in the U.S. and U.K. reveals strong adoption of AI for workplace tasks, with 72% reporting usage at least weekly and four in ten reporting using it daily. But the broad employee base is far less likely than IT leaders to say their companies have established clear roles for AI usage, conducted AI training, or outlined an AI strategy that details long-term goals.
54% of IT leaders say they now regret not training employees before rolling out AI tools, a survey backed by work management software provider Asana shows, and 36% say their companies have missed out on some real business value opportunities due to this lack of training. This greater need for education and training may become even more important as new advancements like agentic AI—tools that can perform more complex tasks with little to no human intervention—proliferate. Four out of ten employees say they are excited about using AI agents at work, but only 27% are confident in their ability to use them.
 Courtesy of Asana
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Hiring:
- Burke, Williams & Sorensen is seeking a director of IT, based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Posted salary range: $175K-$235K/year.
- Orange County’s Credit Union is seeking a CIO, based in Santa Ana, California. Posted salary range: $257K-$400K/year.
- Marsh McLennan is seeking a director of identity access management, based in New York City. Posted salary range: $144K-$288K/year.
- Improveit Home Remodeling is seeking a CTO, based in the Columbus, Ohio metropolitan area. Posted salary range: $150K-$200K/year.
Hired:
- FAT Brands announced the hiring of Drew Martin as CIO, joining the restaurant operator after previously serving as SVP and CIO for fast food chain Jack in the Box and as CIO for manufacturer Sony Electronics. Martin’s past roles also include serving as CIO for software startup Lytx and as a director of IT at PepsiCo.
- WSFS Bank announced the appointment of Allan Matyger as EVP and CIO, where he will oversee IT strategy and investments for the Delaware-based financial services company. Matyger previously served in the role on an interim basis and prior to that, served as SVP and CTO for ATM cash management provider Cash Connect, a division of WSFS. He initially joined Cash Connect in 2001.
- Mimecast appointed Ranjan Singh to the role of chief product and technology officer, joining the IT security provider to combine the product and engineering teams in one organization. Prior to joining Mimecast, Singh served as chief product officer at IT management software company Kaseya. He also served as EVP of product and technology at automation technology manufacturer Crestron Electronics.
- CommerceOne Bank announced the appointment of Mailon Manasco as CIO, joining the Alabama-based bank after more than seven years in various leadership roles at Regions Bank. He started his career in 2015 at accounting firm PwC, serving as a risk assurance associate.
- Nth Cycle named Gabi Perlingeiro Knesel as CTO, joining the metal refining company to oversee engineering and technology development. Knesel joins Nth Cycle after previously serving as SVP at Locus Fermentation Solutions, where she led the mining and metals business unit, and also served in senior positions at water treatment services company Ecolab.
- Hyland appointed Tim McIntire as CTO, joining the software developer to oversee product advancements, global engineering initiatives, and innovations tied to AI and cloud. Prior to joining Hyland, McIntire was a cofounder of StackIQ, a cloud software provisioning technology company that was acquired by Teradata in 2017. McIntire most reserved served as SVP of engineering at Teradata.
- Leasecake announced the appointment of Jozef Jamrich as CTO, joining the real estate management software provider after most recently serving as chief product officer at healthcare software company Nuvem. Prior to that, Jamrich was CTO and chief information security officer at software-as-a-service provider ReposiTrak.
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