Shutterstock CTO's Playbook For Scaling AI Without Vendor Sprawl
InformationWeek, Tuesday, April 7th, 2026
Courtney Totten, CTO and CISO at Shutterstock, explains why her team slowed down to evaluate AI tools and set guardrails before scaling them.
It can be tempting for CIOs and CTOs to turn on every AI capability available across their tech stacks, but that approach can create vendor sprawl and governance challenges.
In this installment of the IT Leaders Fast-5 -- InformationWeek's column for IT professionals to gain peer insights -- Courtney Totten, CTO and CISO at Shutterstock, explains why her team took several months to evaluate AI tools, establish governance models and create guardrails before deploying those technologies. Her team has also been deliberate about "training the trainer" to extend AI knowledge throughout the organization.