Siemens Executive Says Business Architects Should Lead Corporate AI Rollouts

Andrew Allan of Siemens argues that business architects — professionals who combine deep domain knowledge with technical fluency — are best placed to design, manage and govern sprawling AI agent deployments within enterprises.

Andrew Allan, senior vice president of financial operations for the CIO’s office at Siemens, told attendees at the Salesforce AgentForce event in New York that business architects should lead corporate AI rollouts because they can steer complex, agent — driven operations toward measurable outcomes. He framed the role as central to coordinating crossfunctional teams and translating strategic goals into governed, scalable AI deployments — an organizational choice that will shape how companies organize talent and validate AI investments.

At Siemens, which employs more than 250,000 people globally, Allan said the company emphasizes human guidance of AI rather than hands — off automation. He described current IT implementations as involving substantial trial and error and urged organizations to ask practical questions such as, “What do you want it to do? How do you want to embrace it?” Allan added that he does not see AI replacing technology professionals at Siemens in the near term, underscoring a preference for augmenting human expertise rather than substituting it.

Allan explained that business architects must be able to translate complex operational problems into technical solutions. Siemens builds digital and automation products for heavy industries, and business architects there are expected to understand those operational complexities, produce user stories, and align technical work to measurable business outcomes. enterprise architects map applications and infrastructure, while business architects liaise directly with R&D, chief revenue, pricing and packaging teams to define capabilities and go-to-market strategies. That distinction matters as firms plan agent networks and need people who can match business direction with an architectural roadmap.

On hiring and experience, Allan and other industry experts said business architects typically need roughly a decade of planning and analysis experience, some systems background, and broad exposure across business sectors, with in-depth expertise in at least one domain — examples cited include engineering, manufacturing or planning. Beyond credentials, Allan recommended a tenacious personality to navigate iterative AI work and the organizational friction that often accompanies large — scale deployments.

For builders and hiring teams, Allan’s practical guidance is procedural: ground agent use cases in clear business problems or opportunities, document user stories, embed ethics and ROI into the business case, and set a north star before wide rollout. These steps are intended to keep agent complexity manageable, protect against scope creep, and ensure AI deployments deliver measurable value rather than technical proofs that fail to connect to business outcomes.