What Is Digital Intelligence?

D igital intelligence—the ability to understand and utilize the power of IT to our advantage, is becoming a critical skill for all managers in today’s economy,1 partly because of significant changes in the business environment in the last 50 years. The IT world has changed remarkably since the 1960s, when IT was largely a back-office function focused on automation and reducing costs, was not well integrated with business functions, and did not matter as much strategically.2 Much IT work was done in-house at that time by IT departments, and there were few external service providers.