- Agile. “Too many meanings, and it’s seen as the hammer that can solve everything,” Dollar General CIO Carman Wenkoff told the Journal.
- Innovation. CIOs said the term was vague and overused.
- Sync up. Shadman Zafar, CIO and global head of consumer technology at Citigroup, said tech professionals should “use more human terms to describe human interactions.”
- Actionable insights. Mr. Zafar told the Journal that tech professionals should stop using “actionable” as an adjective because “any other kind would be useless.”
- Digital transformation. Cardinal Health CIO Brian Rice said the meaning of this term is unclear.
- The use of “digital” as a noun. “I’m constantly trying to ask people when they use the word ‘digital,’ follow it with a noun like digital strategy, digital capabilities, digital innovation,” Bristol Myers Squibb CIO Paul von Autenried told the Journal.
- Cloud first. AmerisourceBergen CIO Mark Spykerman said there are “so many more ways to solve problems than just simply cloud.”
- Artificial intelligence. CIOs said the term is often misunderstood and overused.
- Product manager. “Everything is a product. Everybody’s a product manager,” Walgreens Boots Alliance CIO Francesco Tinto told the Journal.
- Pro tip. Jones Lang LaSalle CIO Edward Wagoner said he tries not to use tech buzzwords he would have to explain to his mother.